IRELAND: Ireland should not reimpose restrictions on the free movement of workers from new EU states or place restrictions on labour from Bulgaria or Romania when they join the union, EU employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla said yesterday.
Mr Spidla, the Czech Republic's representative on the EU Commission, also warned that reimposing restrictions on east European workers who wanted to travel to the Republic to work could have detrimental side effects on the Irish economy.
He said states that imposed restrictions on the 10 new EU states when they joined the EU in May 2004 had seen an increase in undeclared work, bogus self-employed work, dishonest sub-contracting and other such undesirable consequences according to preliminary conclusions of studies undertaken by the commission.
"These effects may have led to a perception of social dumping, which is detrimental both for the host country and for the workers themselves, which are deprived of their rights and means of integration," said Mr Spidla, in a written reply to a list of questions submitted by The Irish Times on the issues of migration and labour rights.
Furthermore, Ireland's decision to open its labour market also means that Irish workers are free to work without restrictions in all the new member states.
Mr Spidla, who will shortly publish a report detailing the restrictions imposed on workers from the 10 new EU states by existing members, said the commission understood that Ireland had so far been pleased with the effects of this decision, particularly with the contribution these workers were making to the Irish economy.
"Labour migration flows originating from the EU-10 member states have contributed to the rebalancing of the labour market in the host countries, especially in the sectors of the building industry and in service industries with skills bottlenecks."
Mr Spidla said he was not anticipating that any of the three countries that did not initially impose transitional restrictions - Ireland, Britain and Sweden - would request the imposition of new restrictions. If this did occur, the commission would treat every request on a case-by-case basis.
All 15 original EU members must notify the commission shortly if they want to maintain or reimpose restrictions on workers from the 10 new states on May 1st.
Of the 12 states that maintain restrictions on workers, only Finland has signalled that it is likely to remove restrictions on workers travelling to the state to work.
Many other states such as Germany, Austria and France fear a deluge of migrant workers in search of employment if restrictions are lifted.
Mr Spidla said migration flows since the enlargement have been modest, rarely reaching 1 per cent of the active working population of the host country.
The only exception to this was Ireland, where significant inflows have strongly contributed to its good economic performance.
He said it was up to member states to decide whether to impose restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria - they are set to join in 2007 or 2008. However, he said the commission maintained its view that fears of disruption to labour markets as a result of large influxes of migrants connected with enlargement were unfounded.
Mr Spidla said he rejected the allegation made by trade unions that low-cost labour from the 10 new EU states had caused the Irish Ferries dispute or that the proposed Services Directive would lead to the displacement of Irish workers in certain jobs.
"The Irish Ferries dispute has nothing to do with the free movement of workers within the EU. Workers who choose to work in another EU member states enjoy the same rights as those of the host country under the posted workers directive." This directive says that workers posted from one EU state to work in another must be treated under the same terms and conditions laid down by either the host country's law and/or collective agreements.
He said this EU directive does not apply to seagoing personnel, which explained why the Irish Ferries dispute was more complex to solve as it fell under international maritime law.
He said the proposed Services Directive would not undermine working conditions in Ireland as workers posted to the Republic from the 10 new states would enjoy the same rights as their Irish counterparts.