WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND THE SOCIAL CHAPTER

That this House condemns the Government's cynical decision to opt out of the Social Chapter at the Maastricht summit; considers it is a disaster for British women workers and for the United Kingdom's chances of achieving the return of a sustainable economic prosperity; that it is now clear that the Government's intention is to compete in Europe by creating a low-skill, low-tech, cheap labour economy, which enshrines the exploitation of women, who make up the majority of those now at risk; that far from adding to costs, as the Government claims, the Social Chapter would have guaranteed British women basic rights now enjoyed by other European workers; considers it reprehensible that this Government is now boasting about denying women workers, amongst other things, maximum hours with annual paid leave and adequate rest periods and full-time rights for part-time workers; that other European countries provide much higher standards of equality as part of their economic growth strategy, that British prosperity can never be built on the backs of underpaid women at work; that thanks to this Government Britain is already bottom of the European league for employment protection and rights at work; and that Labour will build prosperity within Europe.