Redundancy proposals alarm business

A paper by Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, which has yet to go out to consultation, contains options which have alarmed business leaders in several Member States. The paper suggests that companies have limitations placed on their rights to make workers redundant and job losses would have to be considered in merger rulings. The Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, Digby Jones, wrote to all 20 European Commissioners warning that the suggestions were 'highly damaging'.