Strategic Litigation Guide for Trade Unions and Workers’ Rights

Employers and some governments who use vexatious legal threats to try and stop strikes and gag workers and trade unions could be fined in future under a new EU directive given final approval by the European Parliament today.

This letter is a joint plea of trade unions, cooperative enterprises, and non-governmental organisations to the European institutions for an effective Directive on improving working conditions in platform work.

Commenting on the European Commission consultation on draft guidelines on EU competition law and collective agreements of solo self-employed people, Isabelle Schömann, ETUC Confederal Secretary said  “Collective agreements should be fully excluded from antitrust control, regardless of whether they protect employees, self-employed or other non-standard workers, including workers on digital labour platforms.

Brussels, 1 December 2021 To the ETUC NETLEX members To the members of the Labour and Internal Market Legislation Committee To the members of the Fundamental Rights and Litigation Advisory Group For information to the Member Organisations Dear Colleagues We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at the 25th Netlex Conference whether in Paris or online. For those participants attending virtually, please find the joining details for the Conference below:

ETUC Position on the Right to Disconnect Adopted at the Executive Committee of 22-23 March 2021 ETUC key demands:

ETUC Resolution on the 60th Anniversary of the Council of Europe European Social Charter and the 25th Anniversary of the Revised European Social Charter Adopted at the Executive Committee of 22-23 March 2021

  ETUC Resolution on ETUC human rights, legal and strategic litigation network: ETUCLEX Adopted at the Executive Committee of 28-29 October 2020

Letter sent to Mr. Thomas Myrup Kristensen, Facebook Managing Director EU Affairs, Head of Office and Mrs. Marisa Jimenez Martin, Director of Facebook Public Policy and Head of Eu Affairs Dear Ms Martin

Joint* statement on whistleblowers and COVID-19

Dear Prime Minister, Dear Minister, The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has been informed by its Croatian affiliates, SSSH and NHS, that the Croatian Ministry of Labour and Pension System is drafting an Act on regulating labour relations in the circumstances of the COVID-19 epidemic and by which bring some important changes to fundamental social rights as they are currently enshrined in the Croatian Labour Code. The law would amongst others “temporarily”:

A European directive on Human Rights due diligence and responsible business conduct including their supply chains will make the difference in better protecting workers rights and environmental standards. The Commission needs to act! In the next days, the European Commission will publish a report of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) on due diligence requirements for supply chains. The report analyses the state of play and the need for initiatives at European level, paving the way to a possible commission initiative.

On Tuesday 11 February, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), the main monitoring body of the Council of Europe European Social Charter, decided - on a complaint submitted by Italian union CGIL against the Italian government (No. 158/2017) - that the right to protection in cases of termination of employment was violated by Italian law.

The European Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomed the ruling of the European Court of Justice on recording working hours which should end the widespread practice of unpaid overtime. Esther Lynch, ETUC Confederal Secretary, commented “Workers can’t afford to give their time to employers for free. Member States will need to work with employers and unions to review national laws and practices and ensure that all working time is paid and workers are properly compensated when they put in over time.”

The ETUC gives a cautious welcome to the agreement for EU legislation on whistleblowing and the introduction of an EU wide obligation on employers to both protect and listen to workers who raise concerns at work. The Directive requires employers with more than 50 employees to have written workplace whistleblowing procedures in place.

As the EU’s flagship whistleblowing Directive reaches the final stage of negotiations between national Governments and the European Parliament, trade unions warn that the EU risks ending up with a Directive that protects companies more than it protects whistleblowers!

Ground-breaking legislation to outlaw the “scourge” of zero-hour and low-hours contracts came into effect in Ireland on 1 March 2019, after a five-year campaign by the trade union movement. Patricia King, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, described the legislation as “one of the most significant pieces of employment law in 20 years”.

Brussels, 24 January 2019 To the Permanent Representatives to the European Union Dear Ambassadors, Tomorrow, Friday 25th January you will discuss the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive in Coreper. It is a decisive meeting steering the Council position in the trilogue negotiations.

Today the European Parliament Employment Committee voted to adopt a report on the proposal for a new EU Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions. Commenting on the vote Esther Lynch, ETUC Confederal Secretary, said “What's needed next is that the European Parliament confirms the decision next week in Plenary in Strasbourg.”

  ETUC position on the EU Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law – Whistleblowing Adopted at the executive committee meeting of 25-26 June Sofia Introduction

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has instituted an award to honour the outstanding and dynamic scientific work, of great value to the European trade union movement, of the late labour law Professor Brian Bercusson: the ETUC Brian Bercusson Award. Through this Award, the ETUC and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) support academic research that deepens understanding and promotes transnational workers’ rights in Europe.