The Electrical Contractors Case: Irish Supreme Court Illuminates Collective Bargaining and Delegated Legislation

Abstract

AbstractAs Europe begins to emerge from the Covid‐19 pandemic, two trends are clear: one, labour market reform is urgently needed, to cope with new economic and technological realities; and two, big government is back. The recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court in Náisiúnta Leichtreach Contraitheoir Éireann v Labour Court illuminates the relationship between collective bargaining and the regulatory state. In potentially one of the most important decisions in Irish labour law in decades, the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to legislation aimed at empowering social partners to regulate economic sectors through collective bargaining. This article situates that decision within recent scholarship on the ‘labour constitution’ model of labour law, under which the social partners should participate in economic governance. It also highlights the relevance of the decision for the ‘Social Europe’ agenda and the political economy of both national constitutional law and the EU internal market.