The Employment Contract Information Directive: a small but useful social complement to the internal market

Abstract

Aim and content of the Directive The Directiveon an employer's obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship will be referred to in this chapter as the ‘Employment Contract Information Directive’. Its general aim , according to the explanatory considerations preceding the main part of the legal text, is to ‘provide employees with improved protection against possible infringements of their rights and to create greater transparency on the labour market’ (Consideration no. 2). There is therefore a dual purpose to the Directive, one aspect being social (increasing the legal security of workers) and one economic (better flow of information on working conditions). Greater flexibility of labour markets affects not only the individual member state, but also the Common European Market: ‘in the case of expatriation of the employee, the latter must, in addition to the main terms of his contract or employment relationship, be supplied with relevant information connected with his secondment’ (Consideration no. 10; for details, see Article 4 of the Directive). Hence the compulsory minimum standards of the Employment Contract Information Directive comprise six specific rules: that the workers are to be informed on essential aspects of the work or employment relationship; that the information must be given in written form; that expatriate employees should receive additional information; that any change of contract is to be notified in writing; that all employees who consider themselves wronged through failure to comply with the Directive may pursue their claims effectively;