Social Rights Of Workers Research Articles

The European Union's Policy on the Equality of Women

As the European Union (EU) moves toward greater market integration, its progress toward women's equality has been a disappointment to many European women and feminists, although in forty years, actions of the European Community (EC) had led to some favorable developments in the member states with regard to women's rights as workers and women's political representation. The 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, which has yet to be ratified by governments of the member states, does not contain the great institutional reforms for which EU citizens, both female and male, were waiting. It has not helped forward the construction of European citizenship, nor indeed has it produced any real solution to the enduring democratic deficit and the limited power of the European Parliament. It continues a policy of extreme gradualness in building European citizenship and democracy. The Amsterdam Treaty still fails to include a basic common standard of fundamental social rights guaranteed to EU citizens. In fact, the social rights recognized in the European Social Charter of 1961 and the 1989 Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers only figure in the Amsterdam treaty as general principles that are not legally binding. However, the most important innovation is the integration of the Social Policy Agreement into the treaty that broadens the EC's competence and the powers of the European Parliament in the area of social policy. This may foreshadow a positive new phase in social policy. Most pertinent for women, the Amsterdam Treaty also contains a new article, number thirteen, that empowers the Council of Ministers, acting unanimously, to take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. This

A Manifesto for Social Europe

The European Union is still far from having social legitimacy. The issue is indicative of a huge uncertainty about Social Europe. What is it? What are the principles of social justice behind it? In our view, a new social constitution of the European Union is needed. Political democratisation must be accompanied by the foundation of a social Europe. We argue that were the IGC to combine the Charter of The Fundamental Social Rights of Workers with the Maastricht Protocol on Social Policy, inserting both into the TEU, it would lay the legal foundations for a dynamic European social constitution; a Social Europe dedicated to the combating of social exclusion and the maintenance of solidarity.

Second Report from the Commission on the application of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

Second Report from the Commission on the application of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

Second Report on the Application of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

Second Report on the Application of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

Maastricht: a fundamental change in European labour law

The Maastricht Treaty's Protocol on Social Policy provides a new framework for participation of labour and management in the formulation and application of labour law at national and Community levels. Following the Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, it marks a fundamental change of direction in European labour law

The European Community's Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

On December 8-9, 1989, the Member States of the European Community gathered together in the European Council at Strasbourg, solemnly declared, with the sole dissent of the United Kingdom, a Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers.' The development of the 1992 programme carried with it increasing concern about the social consequences of the creation of the single internal market. The social policy of the Community, as developed over its first 30 years, did not seem adequate to the task.2 An attempt to overcome the stalemate preventing the Council approving many Commission proposals on social policy was made by the launching in 1985 of the Val Duchesse 'social dialogue' between the European level trade union and employers' organisations (ETUC and UNICE),3 reinforced by the provision in Article 118B of the Treaty inserted by the Single European Act. But this effort did not satisfy the perceived need for the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive social dimension for the 1992 programme. Building upon the Belgian Presidency (the Labour and Social Affairs Council of May 1987) and an Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (the Beretta report of November 1987),4 a working party of the Commission in 1988 proposed a body of minimum social provisions.5 Thereafter, the development was very rapid: following an Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee in February 19896 and a Resolution on Fundamental Rights of the European Parliament in March 1989,7 a first draft of a Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights was published by the Commission in May 1989, a second draft was produced in October 1989 and the December summit approved the final Charter.8 Shortly before that summit, the Commission had produced a communication concerning its Action Programme relating to the implementation of the Community Charter.9

The Implementation of the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights

The Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers' provides a framework of principle for the future development of a European 'social dimension,' a 'social space,'2 possibly even a 'social State.'3 The achievement of any of these grand designs depends not only upon political will, but also upon the methods now chosen to implement the twelve categories of 'fundamental social rights' set out in the Charter, both at Community level and at national level. The implementation of the Charter presents a unique opportunity to 're-regulate' European labour markets in ways which are significantly different both from the current model of 'deregulation' in certain countries (notably the UK), and also from the pre-existing welfare-state and labour law systems.4 If the process of 'implementation' is effective, one may expect the 'fundamental social rights' themselves to have a dynamic character, moving from their present anaemic state towards a full-blooded system of individual rights within a framework of freedom of association, collective bargaining and industrial democracy. From this viewpoint, the most crucial part of the Charter is Part II, which envisages implementation at both national and Community levels. Article 27 casts responsibility on the Member States to guarantee the fundamental social rights in the Charter and to implement the social measures 'indispensable to the smooth operation of the internal market as part of a strategy of economic and social cohesion.' The main methods prescribed by Article 27 are 'legislative measures or collective agreements,' 'in accordance with national practices.' The preamble refers, as well, to 'existing practices at the various appropriate levels' requiring 'in many spheres the active involvement of the two sides of industry.' Article 28 invites the Commission to submit initiatives 'which fall within its powers' with a view to the adoption of legal instruments for effective implementation, as and when the internal market is completed, 'of those rights which come within the Community's area of competence.' The Commission responded promptly to this invitation by publishing