HC Deb 21 February 1996 vol 272 cc361-2
13. Ms Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she next expects to meet her EU counterpart to discuss working conditions. [14688]

Mr. Forth

I expect to meet European Union Employment Ministers at the next meeting of the Social Affairs Council on 29 March. On such occasions, I emphasise to them the importance of taking action to help member states tackle unemployment, rather than working up new and burdensome employment law directives which would damage competitiveness and destroy jobs.

Ms Quin

Will the Minister take time to explain to his European Union counterparts and to the House why so many of our more successful firms are ignoring Government advice and views on the social chapter and introducing European-style works councils into Britain?

Mr. Forth

The hon. Lady misses the point. We resisted the blanket imposition of one uniform solution in the private sector throughout the EU. I am relaxed if companies decide to follow a certain course, including the setting up of works councils. That is a matter for companies to decide, and I welcome that. We shall continue to resist the blind desire of some people to impose the same solution on every member state of the EU regardless of its needs. That is the road to ruin.

Sir Donald Thompson

When my hon. Friend visits my constituency again, he will find that working conditions and the amount of work are such that it has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe—5 per cent. Will he talk to employers, first, about the reluctance of ladies in my constituency to work full time—they prefer working part time—and, secondly, about more flexible training for people going into manufacturing industry?

Mr. Forth

It is refreshing to hear someone talk with pride about what is being achieved in his constituency. My hon. Friend reflects the sense of pride and achievement that Conservative Members have in their local communities and in what they are achieving. It is not the terrible, abysmal doom and gloom peddled constantly by Opposition Members, who obviously have no confidence in their local communities or in the country.

Mr. MacShane

Is the Minister aware that, in my constituency, in which I take pride and in which tremendous efforts are being made to regenerate the local economy, a job was recently advertised by the jobcentre at £1.44 an hour? Could the Minister live on that?

Mr. Forth

People are free in a flexible labour market to examine the possibilities. Employers are free to suggest their pay rates and individuals are free to make a judgment about what is an appropriate pay rate. I hope that the hon. Gentleman is not suggesting or implying that we should introduce a statutory minimum wage of the sort that has helped to create a 23 per cent. unemployment rate in Spain, for example.