Question reference: S4W-00099
- Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 18 May 2011
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 May 2011
Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35494 by John Swinney on 25 August 2010, what aspects of EU law prevent community benefit clauses being used to progress the case for a living wage.
Answer
Imposing a requirement on contractors to pay their employees a living wage which is more than the National Minimum Wage could amount to a restriction on the freedom to provide services guaranteed by article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. This issue was the subject of a judgment of the European Court of Justice in the case of Ruffert v Land Niedersachsen [C-346/06]. A copy of the judgment can be found on the Curia website http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/.