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Social Europe: What Working People Want As Article 50 Is Triggered by Frances O'Grady

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"Today the UK Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 and start the negotiations for Britain’s exit from the European Union. The rest of the EU will respond by the end of April after debates in the European Parliament and among the other 27 EU governments.

"European trade unions, including the TUC, have already briefed Europe’s leaders about what working people want to happen. The European Trade Union Confederation – to which the TUC belongs and which represents 45 million working people across and beyond the EU – has submitted a nine-point plan to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

"Above all, we want a Brexit that protects rights at work, decent jobs and living standards, and that’s as true for the rest of the EU as it is for Britain.

"We want a level playing field of workplace rights – like health and safety, equal pay, paid holidays and protections for part-time and temporary workers – across the whole of Europe, including Britain. Theresa May has already promised that under her government working people will have at least the same rights they have now, and more, but we want that written into the final deal so that our rights are protected.

"And we also want a guarantee that we won’t gradually become second-class citizens off the coast of Europe, falling further and further behind as new rights are won in the rest of the EU. Rights like guaranteed hours rather than zero hours contracts; rights to be treated as an employee unless genuinely self-employed; and new rights to better maternity pay, an area where Britain has already fallen into the European relegation zone...."

To see the rest of the general secretary's Social Europe blog, visit https://www.socialeurope.eu/2017/03/working-people-want-article-50-triggered/

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