{"id":8395,"date":"2016-04-15T11:13:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T10:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8395"},"modified":"2016-04-15T11:51:37","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T10:51:37","slug":"leave-to-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8395","title":{"rendered":"Leave to remain?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many UK workers could lose some or all of their paid holidays if Britain leaves the EU warned the TUC, after it published new research that showed that a quarter of British employees got extra holiday pay through European laws.<\/p>\n

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The analysis revealed that since Europe guaranteed minimum paid holiday rights in 1998, 7.4m workers have gained on average 13 days more paid annual leave each year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c amounting to an extra 1.5bn days in total over 18 years.<\/p>\n

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Following a vote to leave the EU, the TUC said, the government would be able to decide whether or not to keep protections derived from EU laws. The danger is further exacerbated by the fact that top Tory donors are supporting Brexit and could bring their pressure to bear on the government.<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday (April 13) it was reported that members of the Midlands Industrial Council, which is made up of a business leaders that have funded the Conservatives for 20 years, are planning to donate between \u00c2\u01414m and \u00c2\u01415m to the leave campaign.<\/p>\n

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TUC general secretary Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady argued that voting to leave the EU risks the paid holidays of millions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe know that some of the biggest cheerleaders for Brexit see protections for ordinary British workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like paid holiday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as just red tape to be binned,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd we know that bad bosses are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of being able to cut workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hard-won entitlements.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Women have benefited<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

The TUC research showed that women have benefited the most from EU holidays laws, with 4.7m getting more paid holidays, compared to 2.7m men. More than 4m part-time workers have seen their paid holiday entitlement increase.<\/p>\n

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Prior to the EU rules, trade unions had negotiated contractual paid holidays for many workers. But it was only when four weeks paid annual leave became a legal right that millions of other workers started to benefit.<\/p>\n

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In the event of Brexit there is no guarantee that Britain workers would keep paid holiday entitlements at their current level \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not least as the trend in the workplace is towards low-paid, insecure and zero-hour type contract work, with many employers continuing to push against the cost of basic employee protections.<\/p>\n

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The TUC said it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhighly likely\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that some workers would find their holiday rights squeezed if the EU minimum standard was removed. It pointed out that if any loopholes were opened, unscrupulous employers would start opting out of paid holiday entitlements with the trend spreading across the labour market.<\/p>\n

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Family holidays could be at particular risk, given the number of women who have benefited from the legal right to paid leave.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMillions of working people enjoyed paid holidays in their job for the first time thanks to the rights we won from Europe,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd millions more got extra time off to spend with their children and their friends, go away with the family or simply have a well-earned break.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDecent amounts of holiday pay for all is a relatively recent win, fought for by generations of trade unionists, and guaranteed by the EU,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take it for granted. The risk to paid holidays just shows that voting to leave the EU is a step into the unknown for everyone who works for a living.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s analysis came on the same day as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that Brexit risked causing severe economic and political damage both in the UK and across the global economy.<\/p>\n

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The IMF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief economist, Mauric Obstfeld, said that in the United Kingdom, the June referendum on EU membership had already created \u00e2\u20ac\u015buncertainty for investors\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA Brexit could do severe regional and global damage by disrupting established trading relationships,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted.<\/p>\n

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Unite is campaigning for the UK to remain within EU, lobbying for urgent reform to protect solidarity between nations, while at the same time recognising that continued EU membership is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe best hope for the jobs and rights\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of British workers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur communities clearly benefit from the investment and trade links that come with being part of the EU,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd our working people are in increasing need of the employment rights that flow from membership.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRest assured that outside of the EU, left at the mercy of a Conservative government, these protections will be swept away. That probability is reason alone to campaign to remain in the EU.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many UK workers could lose some or all of their paid holidays if Britain leaves the EU warned the TUC, after it published new research that showed that a quarter of British employees got extra holiday pay through European laws.   The analysis revealed that since Europe guaranteed minimum paid holiday rights in 1998, 7.4m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[486],"wps_subtitle":"Brexit: Paid holidays at risk ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8396,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395\/revisions\/8396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}