The ‘normality’ of labour exploitation: The right to fair and just working conditions in the Union's social market economy

Abstract

This study argues that the Union maintains a double standard on working conditions in relation to the criteria established at international level, which allows to tolerate situations of labour exploitation as ‘unserious’, ‘proportionated’ or ‘normal’ phenomena. By analysing the gaps in the protection of the right to fair and just working conditions, the idea that an upward convergence of workers’ rights would be supported (and required) by the general duty to protect human dignity and to ensure fair competition in the Single Market is advanced. The relationship between these fundamental principles in the implementation of the right to fair and just working conditions is examined through the notion of ‘social market economy’. The aim is to illustrate what kind of measures could (or should) be taken to integrate the protection of human rights and market efficiency, and whether in practice there seems to be an articulation between these fundamental principles or, on the contrary, an insurmountable contradiction.