Unions challenge Commission over Latvian case

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has called on the European Commission to clarify the position of Commissioner Charlie McCreevy following reports that he said the Commission would side against Sweden in a dispute over the country's employment laws.

McCreevy has since expressed his regret over his comment that he would support a Latvian building firm's right to pay its workers in Sweden lower wages than those applying in Swedish collective agreements.

The Swedish building union Byggnads blockaded the company (Laval) in November 2004 in an attempt to get it to sign a collective agreement and bring the wages paid up to Swedish levels.

Laval took the union to the Swedish labour court, which found that the union's action was legal under Swedish law. However, the Latvian group is now asking the European Court to intervene, arguing that the Swedish judgement violates European rights to the free circulation of services.

* The ETUC is also concerned about a decision of the European Commission apparently to abandon plans for a directive to protect temporary agency workers.

The directive, which the UK government opposes, is one of 68 measures which the Commission announced last month it was scrapping or shelving in the interests of reducing regulations.