Needless to say, the trades unionists found much to worry about: employment displaced by freelancing, scarcity of work and downward pressure on remuneration. There is a good deal about which to be hopeful too \u2013 much of it set out in the excellent booklet produced by the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most disturbing revelations catalogued concerns about the work of national competition authorities (every EU national has one, in Britain it is known as the the Competition and Markets Authority<\/a>).\u00a0 Several have used EU competition regulations to rule that freelances are micro businesses whose unions\u2019 attempts to regulate rates are anti-competitive and illegal.<\/p>\n Tobias P Maas<\/a> works for \u201cDG Competition<\/a>\u201d in the European Commission.\u00a0 In that capacity, with others, he strives to ensure that articles 101 \u2013 109 of the Treaty On The Functioning Of The European Union are enforced.<\/p>\n He came to the conference to persuade a hundred or more disputatious trades union officials that their worries were groundless.\u00a0 He did not get an easy ride.\u00a0 \u201cCollective bargaining is outside competition law\u201d, he reassured.\u00a0 \u201cIf cases do arise, it is easiest to resolve them in court \u2013 a case-by-case approach serves everyone best\u201d, he suggested.<\/p>\n His opening speech was just long enough for the big artillery in the room to get him in range.\u00a0 Their fusilade was relentless.<\/p>\n \u201cCollective bargaining is a human right that precedes national law\u201d, stormed Esther Lynch from the European Trades\u00a0 Union Congress.\u00a0 Irish senator, Ivana Bacik suggested that Maas was proposing a needless job creation scheme for lawyers.\u00a0 And NUJ Assistant General Secretary Seamus Dooley told the conference that: \u201ccourt is open to all just as the Ritz hotel is \u2013\u00a0deep pockets are required\u201d.<\/p>\n Dooley had the hall cheering him on, but his quarry was unruffled.\u00a0 \u201cThere have been so few cases in this area, that this is hardly an issue\u201d, he said, oozing emoiliance.\u00a0 Was this a skill learned at one of the three universities from which he had obtained degrees or while practicing buy ambien<\/a> law?\u00a0 We did not learn.\u00a0 It was a bravura performance, nonetheless.<\/p>\n The unions pointed to cases where their members had been affected.\u00a0 In Denmark the Completion Authority ruled that freelance journalists were self-employed and that minimum rates advice suggested by their union was anti competitive.\u00a0 A legal tussle between their union, Dansk Journalistforbund<\/a> and Aller Media improved matters slightly, but subsequent judgements had not all gone the workers\u2019 way. The price paid for photographs by Aller Media has fallen from around \u20ac90 each to \u20ac25 each.<\/p>\n Maas ploughed on.\u00a0 \u201cCourt is an easy place to sort out the tiny number of issues that arise\u201d, he suggested.\u00a0 \u201cOr you could arrange a friendly chat with your competition authority\u201d.<\/p>\n The response was quick-fire: competition authorities behave as absolute monarchs rather than elements of a democratic polity.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SeamusEuroParl-1024x766.jpg\")
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