Benefits and Rights for workers and disabled people

Disability benefits and the cost of social care have been in the news a lot recently with the consultation on the Social Care Green Paper etc and the threat to remove Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance for those over 65. However, it is worth bearing in mind that the concept of the European Union is supposedly to support the free movement of labour and of peoples. This seems not to be happening when it comes to disabled people. Many benefits and pensions are portable, i.e. they can be taken and used in other countries of the EU when the person goes there to live or work. This applies to DLA. However, it would seem that the DWP does not like this nor does it like the fact that the European Court of Justice ruled that DLA claimants whose benefits were removed by the DWP are trying to have them restored. So it has set up a tribunal which is taking ages to hear cases and is also trying to wriggle out of reasons for restoring the benefits. The excellent Green MEP, Caroline Lucas, has written to the Minister to complain about this miscarriage of justice and the letter below is on her website. Just another example of how Greens are fighting for workers rights and the rights of disabled people also.

http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/2009/11/27/correspondence-about-workers-rights/

Tomorrow I am attending a conference organised by the Institute of Employemnt Rights about how EU law is impacting on workers rights. This is a huge subject area and many of the recent European Court of Justice rulings are affecting this. The conference at the TUC, Congress House in London will be addressed by a number of leading employment law academics and trade unionists. It is vitally important that as trade unionists and as citizens we engage fully and are knowledgeable about what is happening in the EU, both in terms of rights being extended by the European courts and in terms of limitations being placed on those rights as workers and citizens. The recent court rulings in these cases could lead to "a drive to the bottom" and remove whole elements of bargaining rights and protection for UK workers. Greens are opposed to this and stand fully behind the European trade union movement and its call for stronge rights for workers and against social dumping.

European Court of Justice cases:


Developing a strategy for trade unionists


A full-day conference


SATURDAY 28th NOVEMBER


TUC Congress House, Great Russell Street,


London WC1B 3LS

Organised by The Institute of Employment Rights inassociation with SERTUC.

Confirmed speakers include: Prof Keith Ewing, John Hendy

QC, John Monks (ETUC). Chairs: Carolyn Jones, IER and

Megan Dobney, SERTUC

For the past two years trade unions throughout Europe have been coming to terms with the implications of fouR decisions from the European Court of Justice. The Viking, Laval, Rüffert and Luxembourg cases sent shock waves through the labour movement, threatening not only trade union collective action but also democratic decisions of governments. As we reach the 2nd anniversary of the first two cases, this FREE event aims to combine informed legal and academic opinion with practical experiences from different sectors of the labour market.