An Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice has said trade unions “motivated by objectives which are in the public interest” have the right to oblige firms supplying workers from other EU countries to apply domestic pay rates. The advisory “opinion” will now be considered by the full court before a final verdict later this year in a landmark case affecting employees across Europe.

The test case is the first covering equal pay and conditions for workers from low-wage eastern European countries - now EU members - when working away from their home country.

It involves a dispute over Latvian company Laval, which supplied construction workers to refurbish a Swedish school - drastically undercutting Sweden’s own agreed basic pay rates. Swedish workers launched industrial action, and blockaded the site when Laval refused to sign a collective agreement on terms of working in Sweden.

European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) general secretary John Monks described the Laval case as of great political importance: “If Europe’s unions lose, there is a real risk of working people turning against free movement, the single market, and the EU itself.”

EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, in charge of the single market, angered trade unions and the Swedish government when he went to Stockholm during the dispute and supported the case for Laval workers to be paid at lower rates.

The full report is available from The Times.

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