Amicus has hit out at the business lobby which they say resorts to 1970s rhetoric that bears no relevance to modern workplace issues.

Amicus says the CBI's resistance to progressive European employment and social legislation is condemning British industry to the doldrums and depriving British workers rights already enjoyed by their continental counterparts.

The largest private sector union is now calling for an end to business voluntarism by asking the government to compel employers to invest in research and development, to provide a minimum amount of staff skills training and make compulsory minimum contributions to workers' pensions.

The union has also expressed concern over the Government's inclination to respond to CBI demands ahead of union concerns as misguided and says that the UK now ranks behind almost every other industrialised economy in terms of business performance, industry investment and benefits for workers as a result.

Amicus says the CBI's history of failed and outmoded logic hardly adds to the credibility of the employer's organisations credibility.

Derek Simpson, General Secretary of Amicus, said: "We have the one of the highest levels of employment in recent times yet people are suffering greater job insecurity than ever before.

"The CBI wants all the advantages a European free market can offer without signing up to any of the social or employment legislation that would give UK workers more job protection, greater pension rights and achieve a better work/life balance.

"It's a myth that a flexible workforce brings more jobs. It just enables bad employers to exploit and sack their employees more easily and makes UK workers more vulnerable to cuts by multinationals compared to workers on the continent."

Monday September 13, 2004