Nov 4th - 5th 2008 - Brussels Commentary Employment Committee

4 November 2008

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Brussels Commentary Employment Committee Nov 4th - 5th 2008 A very good week for UKIP Monday attended the NEC and the following Press release explains my heading,- UKIP rejects a BNP take over Yesterday, Monday Nov 3rd, the National Executive Committee of the UK Independence Party repulsed a blatant attempt at a BNP takeover. Although uninvited, one time member "Buster" Mottram, had infiltrated this private meeting and refused to leave. He had come direct from the BNP leadership with their takeover plan. He proposed a deal in which each party would stand aside from the other, BNP not to oppose UKIP in the south of the country and UKIP to give them the north. Undisclosed but substantial sums of money were mentioned as sweeteners. Your UKIP MEP for the East Midlands, and the Party's permanent MEP representative on the NEC, Derek Clark, addressed Mr Mottram directly, denouncing his plan. "I will never, under any circumstances, contemplate any offer made by this party", he said. "We are", he continued, "non-sectarian and non-racist and I will always reject any approach from this quarter". Immediately after Mr Mottram had been removed, with police assistance, the plan was formally rejected and a motion to expel Mr Mottram from the Party was tabled. Derek Clark voted in favour and he is pleased to place on record that the motion was carried unanimously, effective instantly. ENDS Tues, Second reading vote in Employment Committee, Nov 5th 2008. Following notes for next press release,- In passing this Directive the Employment Committee brought about further restrictions for employers. * The Common Position was endorsed. * On the vexed question of on call time any inactive On-Call time may not be included in the calculation of rest periods. So an employer must now pay for extra periods of inactivity. * People holding more than one job must add up the hours of work and rest in all employments so that they do not exceed the 48 hours regulation in total. * Employers must consult workers who are not under a collective agreement regarding working patterns and taking measures in the health and safety area but, even under collective agreements,- * Overtime and other work conditions are to be subject to trade union agreements and the worker can withdraw his agreement to work overtime at any time in the first six months of a maximum one year agreement, even after having signed an agreement to work overtime. This undermines collective agreements made by trade unions and threatens to de-stabilise a company's work force. It boils down to a weakening of our opt-out. How could it be otherwise when the rapporteur, Alejandro Cercas, in opening the debate yesterday, spoke of promoting a "social Europe", that the WTD was all about protecting workers, especially in Health and Safety and that," it was nothing to do with economics". Weds,- first the votes on the WTD, among others. Roger Helmer appeared to vote on this, it was due to be the first vote. He was lost because they had changed the voting order the previous day. I helped him out, so he resumed his newspaper, voted as per the Tory whip, and left the chamber before the rest of the votes. It was all he had come for. I stayed for all votes. Debate,- Rights in cross - border Health Care I did not contribute, I've already done that. Main points made by speakers were that, "popular countries would find themselves over burdened", and, "how could patients find the costs up front for repayment later". Where have they been? If you look up my speech of Sept 25th it will be more than these speakers have done! My week finishes Friday with EMRA meeting. Comment,- I sent in my written report three weeks ago but was contacted ten days ago for a re-write. They wanted me to include that which I had not;- comments on the financial situation and on the pesticide directive. I refused, not prepared to alter. In any case, as I said to them, the financial situation is a state of flux and what I wrote then would be out of date by the time of the meeting. But I promised to make verbal comments. On pesticides I shall ask them where they have been, the pesticide directive has been on the go for months and Paula is currently sending off the latest of my replies to letters from farmers and pesticide producers, more than 50 so far! Not quite the end. Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Nottingham campaign event this Saturday. Derek Clark MEP Brussels Nov 5th 2008