Doslovný zápis z rozpráv

Utorok, 18. októbra 2022 - Štrasburg

19.1. Usmernenia pre politiky zamestnanosti členských štátov (A9-0243/2022 - Alicia Homs Ginel)

Suulliset äänestysselitykset

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Madam President, the guidelines for employment policies of Member States are very important, which is why I voted for this report. But it is not just in Europe, but in every part of the globe where EU companies operate that these policies are needed.

I had the honour last week of meeting two indigenous leaders from Colombia, the victims of an Irish and EU company, Smurfit Kappa, who have operated in the area of Cauca for over 50 years. And this company stands accused of a complete failure of due diligence in terms of how it acquired the land, environmental damage from pine and eucalyptus monoculture on land, which was agreed as part of the peace process to be handed over to indigenous people. Human rights violations, complete violation of workers’ rights, less than the minimum wage, use of subcontractors, who have to buy their own tools, no insurance when they lose a limb or an arm in this very dangerous job.

It’s an absolute embarrassment to Ireland and the EU that this company continues to operate in this way with impunity in Colombia, and it makes a mockery of the standards that we’re imposing. If we want to level the playing field, we have to ensure that employment policies of Member States operate everywhere.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, precarious forms of employment dominate Europe’s labour markets, with the rise of the gig economy and zero—hour contracts. The construction sector is rampant with forms of precarious work and irregular contracts. In Ireland, there is widespread misuse of the questionable self-employment classification of workers. It helps the better—off to avoid tax, but very often leaves the less well-paid workers vulnerable and largely unprotected by the state.

The abuse of irregular contracts leaves workers with income insecurity unprotected by Social Security without proper pensions, and contributes to the exploitation of migrant workers. Within Member States, we’ve seen a race to the bottom in terms of the quality of working conditions, despite labour shortages and despite all the talk from the European Union. We need stronger rules and regulations to stop these exploitative practices that are driving many European workers into poverty. Only today, we were talking about mental health challenges. If you are going to make the people poor, you’re going to make them seriously mentally ill as well.