Response to sharing of job creation plans mixed

Date: 13/03/1997

PLANS for member states to 'compare notes' on their strategies for tackling unemployment are unlikely to be universally welcomed when they are discussed by social affairs ministers meeting in Rotterdam this weekend.

The idea - known as 'bench-marking' - will be one of two key items on the agenda for the informal meeting.

“We have the feeling that there is a great deal of apprehension in France and the UK about bench-marking,” said one official this week.

It is understood that London feels any such moves could be used as a pretext to criticise the UK's employment policy in general. John Major's government constantly emphasises the need for a 'flexible' labour force, is opposed to a minimum wage and is not a signatory to the so-called social chapter of the Maastricht Treaty.

Supporters of this approach say it enables employers to react quickly to changes in market trends and is one reason why the UK is not suffering the wave of strikes and protests currently rocking much of the continent.

Opponents argue British workers are often underpaid, have little job security and lack many of the basic employment rights afforded to their counterparts in other member states. London will not have forgotten last year's thinly veiled attack by Commission President Jacques Santer, who warned against a return to a Europe of 'Dickensian sweat shops'.

For its part, France fears that close examination of its efforts to tackle unemployment will show that the current approach is not producing particularly impressive results.

Unemployment in France is currently running at around 12.5&percent; and the country is struggling to meet the stringent convergence criteria for the single currency on time.

Other countries, however, seem positively to relish the idea of bench-marking. “The Spanish, Portuguese and Italians love this sort of thing. They always come out very badly, then they can ask for more money,” said one cynic.

Ministers will also discuss the possibility of using 'indicators' to assess how strategies for tackling unemployment, set out at the December 1994 summit of EU leaders in Essen, are working.

On that occasion, member states agreed to monitor national unemployment trends effectively and to implement multi-annual programmes designed to tackle the problem.

During their informal gathering, which begins tomorrow (14 March), ministers will also look at ways to ensure that non-wage labour costs, such as taxes and social security contributions, do not hinder job creation.