The Great British Brexit Robbery....

Enterprise_1701C

I voted remain, partly in the hope that they would have a go at reforming and simply the threat that countries may want to leave would wake them up to reality.

I now realise they do not know what reality is.

I recall being grateful for the leave vote when I heard that one of the eu officials had said that democracy should not be allowed after hearing of the referendum result.

And the eu still do not want to let us go. In providing for the rights of eu citizens in the uk they are demanding that the eu immigrants be treated as they would in the eu, if we said that people should have the choice to work a 40 hour week and the eu felt that there should be a 30 our week then they would impose that 30 hour week on any company employing eu citizens and this would be imposed through the ecj, and that is just one example. Basically the eu still want to control our laws as any of our laws could affect an eu citizen.

If they think we are so irrelevant why are they so worried that we might actually be competitive on our own, if they were not they would not be trying to stamp on us.

ruperts

bugslet wrote: »

Yep, I'm definitely a lady.

All the reasons....let's stick with one for now. Regular readers can skip this, it's re-hashing old territory.

I work in International haulage and have done all of my working life since '82 one way or another. I used to drive out to Europe in the mid 80s to early 90s and around 8 out of every 10 trucks were UK registered. The stats for the third quarter of 2016 were 12.6 % were British registered.

Whilst many industries suffer from off-shoring to some degree or another, this is different ( I think unique, but there may be another industry so I'm open to suggestions), and nor is it to do with other EU workers coming here and undercutting pay rates. * In essence we have now primarily Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian and Bulgarian companies where the cost base is significantly lower than in the country where they trade. The primary cost being wages, which in a UK truck forms approx 25% of costs; those nations above are paying around a third of what I would pay a UK driver.

The EU relaxed cabotage rules a couple of years ago (previously a foreign truck could deliver from abroad and then collect to take to another foreign country, but no moves from say Glasgow to Birmingham), to allow three moves in say the UK, before having to collect cargo for abroad. The stated intention is that cabotage be abolished completely. Currently domestic moves by foreign hauliers only account for 1% of UK transport, but the latest DfT figures showed an increase of 50% in one year. Personally I see that increasing.

I'm in a very unusual sector and no Polish company can take my work, but it bothers me that so many Companies have gone and so much tax revenue has been lost. I used to backload via a clearing house/freight exchange, but it is now cheaper for me to bring back a truck from the bottom end of Italy empty than to load it as I cannot work for the rates that the East EU can do. My outbound rate cover the cost of the return, so it isn't an issue, unlike general hauliers.

The EU has actually recognised this as a problem. The UK has been slow in this regard, but over the last two years, several countries - notably France and Germany - have introduced Minimum Wage legislation to say that any haulier from another member state has to pay at least the minimum wage in their country and recently they have enforced the regulation that says that you cannot take a weekend break (45 hours) in the cab. Both those laws are aimed at curtailing East EU hauliers. The EU Transport Commissioner is this month looking at the problem, and I think they will do something dressed up as social care - some of those foreign lads are working for a pittance and are literally away from home for months at a time. It's a carp existence for them.

* ONS estimated that impact on wages was 2%, but discounted sessional workers. Whilst I could lose 2% of my wage and not notice, those on poor pay will. I've given you the above as a reason, this is another. It isn't xenophobia, it's economics. I've no issue with migrant labour and certainly when it comes to the Poles, I've nothing but praise for their work ethic, time-keeping and standards generally, but I do feel sorry for those affected.

Technically I voted against my interests as theoretically being a big bad nasty boss, I should welcome wage suppression and there is potential customs issues arising, but I'm sanguine about those for reasons I've mentioned in previous threads.

Not really sure I follow why this is a good reason to vote leave.

The wage suppression argument in general I understand, although i do think anybody who believes that not being in the EU will really prevent big business from exploiting cheap foreign labour is being exceptionally naive, I understand the argument in principle.

In your case though it appears that other EU countries have already found and implemented a solution. Meanwhile the UK has chosen of its own free will not to implement the solution. I'm confused as to why you'd effectively side with the UK on this matter as it seems not to care about your problem, while the EU appears to be providing you with the solution.

LHW99

which is on average almost nobody has lost out through EU migration

Does remind me of the argument that an average figure is 36-26-38. Unfortunately almost no-one is average!