THE head of the European Trades Union Confederation visited the region yesterday to urge people to vote in the forthcoming European elections.

John Monks, formerly head of the British TUC, said that trade union members in particular had benefited greatly from Britain's membership of the European Union.

"A range of workplace rights have been established," he said, when visiting Carmel Technology College, in Darlington, to take part in pupils' industry day.

"The Information and Consultation 2001, which will soon be implemented in this country, means that before an employer makes a major decision, he has to inform and consult workplace representatives and give them a chance to influence that decision. It means workers will no longer hear over the radio that thousands of jobs are going to India.

"European works councils have been introduced in big firms, there are new rights on maternity and paternity leave, pro-rata rights for part-time workers and health and safety issues.

"A lot of these would have been strongly opposed even by Labour governments in this country because even Labour is under pressure from the business community, but Europe has made a lot of progress."

On a party political basis, Mr Monks was touring workplaces on Teesside with Stephen Hughes, who has been a North-East Labour MEP since 1984 and is now Socialist Group co-ordinator on the EU's Employment and Social Affairs Committee.

"Stephen has been right at the heart of getting much of this through," said Mr Monks. "I am here to thank him for all the work he has done for European trades unionists. He is the only MEP I am visiting during the election."