Deal ‘could open door’ to safety problems

The TUC has urged trade unionists to contact their MEPs to tell them that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), shouldn’t be allowed to undermine workers’ rights and safety.

TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson explained that there are two main health and safety concerns. The first is that standards will be harmonised down to the lowest common denominator. “Given that the EU has, on average, one third of the workplace fatality rate of the USA this could be devastating,” he said.

The other is the so-called investor-state dispute settlement, which has provisions allowing companies to sue governments in secretive courts “where they feel they have not had ‘fair and equitable’ treatment, including on health and safety standards”.

The GMB general union has warned that the deal could “open the door to a range of chemicals linked to infertility and male reproductive dysfunctions, birth defects, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurobehavioural and learning disorders to be used across the EU”.

Meanwhile, the International Transport Workers’ Federation and UK maritime union Nautilus are warning that a secret global trade deal being negotiated by the US, Europe and 23 other countries — the Trade in Services Agreement — will undermine social and safety standards and result in a “race to the bottom” on terms and conditions of employment.

www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/health-risks-of-eu-parliament-vote

https://www.nautilusint.org/en/what-we-say/nautilus-news/secret-global-trade-pact-will-deregulate-global-maritime-sector