IT IS NO surprise that John Major is pledged to fight the decision of the European Court on the working time directive. While his opposition is fuelled by the need to placate the Eurosceptic wing of the party, this is by no means ine only issue al stake.
In the last 17 years the Tories have done everything in their power to drive down workers' living standards and conditions. The success of that assault is partly snown by tne lact tnat in 1994 22 per cent of full time workers in Britain worked more than a 48 hour week - a higher proportion than in any other state within the European Union.
The fact that the Tories oppose the directive does not mean that trade unionists should be bowing in gratitude to the European Court. The directive would anyway have only a marginal Impact on working pracuces Decause It is full of exceptions. Less than a million of the four million working over 40 nours in britain today will be affected.
Discretion
Those exceptions include workers in those industries where "long hours are inherent' - such as those who work in transport, at sea and doctors in training - ana give governments me discretion to exclude other groups.
Those who work on a seasonal basis and those who are asked to work more than 48 hours onlv on an occasional basis are also excluded.
Crucially, those who work overtime on a "voluntarv" basis are also excluded. But workers are driven to work overtime for a number of reasons wor many meir hours of work are dictated by the very low hourly rate they receive. making it difficult if not impossible to make ends meet without the addition of extra hours at overtime pay.
For others who are not paid any to take industrial action that decent standards of living can be achieved and the tyranny of "new management techniques" rolled back This reality will not stop those in the trade unions and in Blair's Labour Party who want to cuddle un to brussels, trumpeting the directive as yet another reason why the labour movement should be enthusiastic in its support for European integration.
Such arguments not only ignore the meren wednesses un une orecuve itself, but they fail to ask why it is proposed in the first place.
Is it really bellevable that unlike in Britain the governments and bosses in the rest of the European union are on the side of the workers?
Class struggle
Such a notion would of course be user tor those who want to convince us all that the class struggle is outdated ana no longer necessary, but it aoesn t give any answers to all those who have suttered attack after attack under the ories.
The reality is that is that the purpose of the directive and other measures like it are to create a level playing field' across the European Union- not between bosses and workers. but between different bosses- so that they can compete on more equal terms than is currently the case, given the differences in law and working pracuces derween alterent countries.
Such differences are essentially the result of battles between the classesrepresenting ine concessions that workers' organisations have been able to wring from the employers.
Some employers do recognise that their own self-interests (i.e. their pronts) are not always best served by working the workforce into the ground.
Many surveys show that the longer AT FIRST sight, Labour's new prompeople work the less productive-and therefore protitable- each extra hour is. And with the recent court case won by a social worker against their employer on the basis of stress there are some, especially in the public and vo nary secior wao are worried nal they too could fall foul of such actions.
'These advocates of 'modern' capitalism who oppose Major's attempts to return us to the conditions of the last century, are not questioning, but reinforcing the need for profitable exploitation: they simply have a different view of what is in their interests.
Capitalists with even a modest degree of historical awareness may recall that despite the frenzied warnings of nineteenth century mill-owners and factory bosses, the introduction of legislation to limit the working day and end child labour did not bring the predicted collapse of industry.
On the surface, capitalism may appear to have changed, but the essentials remain the same. In the late 20th century, as in the early 19th, socialists and trade unionists should not be under any illusions. Rather than placing any reliance on the institutions of the European Union or in the employers whether here in Britain or across the EU as a whole we need to rely on our own strength and organisations.
We are in favour of equalisation as long as this means levellingup conditions between workers- across Europe as a springboard to fighting for this across the world.
Such campaigns should be on the basis of the best conditions already achieved. Fighting for the 35 hour week, for the abolition of schemes like the Job Seekers Allowance and building the Euro March need to be our first rallying calls in such a fight. work available among larger numbers of workers. Far from killing off jobs, a shorter working week offers a way to share out the the scale of the 95% yes vote in his