European legislation
European Union Legislation
European Union Legislation has been instrumental in lifting
UK’s working conditions. The convergence of European Labor Laws and
UK national laws is driven by the EU Social Charter. This Charter
enshrines the fundamental rights of association,
information and consultation, and
collective bargaining. The EU charter also anchors the role of
the social partners in the EU’s policy making, Social Chapter
Article 138-139 EC refers to the European social model where
institutions such as the
ETUC (European Trade Union
Confederation), Employer Associations
UNICE(Confederation of
European Business) and CEEP (European Centre of
Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General
Economic Interest) contribute towards all policy aspects of EU
legal instruments.
Social Dialogue
Social dialogue is the process by which the Social partners
promote consensus building and democratic involvement which
provides for the advancement of employment and social progress.
This process is defined by all types of negotiation, consultation
or simply exchange of information between employers,
representatives of governments and workers on all issues relating
to social and employment matters. It can exist as a
tripartite process, including government, workers and the employer
or bipartite process which involves labour and management. This
process can be informal or institutionalised, and often it is a
combination of the two. It can take place at the national, sectoral
or at enterprise level.
EU Charter: Social Chapter
The Social Chapter Article 138-139 of the European Charter
refers to the concept of the ‘European social model’. This doctrine
seeks to represent democracy and individual rights, the social
market economy, equality of opportunity for all and solidarity. The
model is based on the conviction that economic progress and social
progress are inseparable. It is these European labour laws which
supersede national legislation that have underpinned the rights of
workers in the United Kingdom.
Types of European Union Legislation
The EU collectively creates legal instruments called
Directives, Regulations and Framework Agreements.
Directives
Directives which cover social and employment issues must go
through the Social Dialogue process which is laid down in Article
118b in the Maastricht treaty. This process requires the
participation of the peak union federation such as ETUC
(http://www.etuc.org),
Employment Association UNICE
(http://www.unice.org/Content/Default.asp)
and CEEP (
http://www.ceep.org/).
Once an agreement has been reached during this negotiation process,
the Social Partner’s may agree to either implement a Voluntary
Framework Agreement or a Directive. A Directive requires a
qualified majority vote to make it binding on all member
states.
Directives are legal instruments that are binding as to the
result, how each member state puts the directive into effect
depends on each countries legal structure. For example in the UK
most directives are brought in via
statutory
instruments called Regulations or Acts. For example some
directives create such major changes to the law that
Parliament passes a
separate
Act to incorporate the
changes.
If an EU member state fails to pass the
required national legislation, or if the national legislation does
not adequately comply with the requirements of the directive, the
European Commission can initiate legal action against the member
state in the European Court of Justice.
Regulations
These are binding in their entirety they apply to everyone in
the European community such as member’s states, companies and
individuals. They are directly applicable. Examples of Regulations
include one concerning the free movement of workers. Regulation
1612/68 (amended EEC 312/76 & EEC 2434/92) provides for the
right to take up an activity as an employed person and to pursue
such activity within the territory of another Member State.
Regulation 1251/70 provides for the right to remain in the
territory of a Member State after having been employed in that
state.
Framework Agreements
Other types of legal instruments include Framework agreements.
Framework Agreements are the result of the
European social dialogue process. The term ‘framework’ is
intended to highlight the particular nature of the agreement as
providing an outline of general principles to be implemented in the
Member States. This framework agreement can be negotiated at the
European level through the social partners or across the
sectors.
Once a Framework agreement is signed the social partners can
if they wish recommend that the European Commission formally
prepare it to become a Directive at the consent of member’s states
through the normal legislative procedure, a qualified majority
vote.
Examples of Directives
Working Time
The Working Time Regulations came into force in
October 1998. The European Working time Directive (Amended 2000)
gives UK workers the following rights:
· Average
working week no more than 48 hours including overtime
· Minimum
daily rest period of 11 hours in a day
· Minimum one
rest day per week
· Break after
6 consecutive hours of work
· No less than
4 weeks paid annual leave
· Night
workers must not exceed average of 8 hours work in a 24 hour
period
‘Opting-Out’
Employees are entitled to opt out and voluntarily work more
then 48 hours by signing an individual opt out agreement with their
employer. Whilst employers do not have the right to force or coerce
employees to do so, Amicus has concerns for the practicalities of
such an option. Most workers do not have the freedom of choice;
most workers will not exercise their right to say no. In our
experience most employers integrate the signing of the opt-out
agreement with the contract of employment. Hence when accepting the
terms of employment workers are usually asked to also accept to
work beyond the 48 maximum hours without genuine consent.
UK workers continue to work the longest hours amongst the EU
member states. UK full-time workers are working on average 44 hours
a week, compared with around 40 hours in the other EU-15countries.
Some 4 million people work more than 48 hours a week. There is no
doubt that the reason for this is due to the opt-out clause
supported by big business and the UK Government.
Amicus believes that long hours are bad for workers increasing
the risk of industrial accidents and putting more stress on workers
health. For example workers who work more than 48 hour a week
suffer a higher risk of heart disease, stress-related and mental
illness and diabetes. Log on to Amicus Working Time brief guide to
find out more:
http://www.amicustheunion.org/pdf/WorkingTimeBriefGuide.pdf
Amicus will continue to lobby the UK government and the social
partners through the European Trade Union Confederation to
reconsider the terms of the Working time Directive, in particular
the ‘opt-out’ option.
To find out more about your unions campaign log onto to Tony
Burke Assistant Secretary’s speech at Trade Union Congress,
September 2006
Directive on Equal Pay for men and
women
This principle entails, for the same work or for work to which
equal value is attributed, the elimination of all discrimination on
grounds of sex with regard to all aspects and conditions of
remuneration. Where a job classification system is used for
determining pay, it must be based on the same criteria for both men
and women.
Information and Consultation
Most important piece of legislation is the Transnational
Information and Consultation of Employees Regulation (1999) this UK
Regulation is based on the EU Council Directive which sets out a
general framework for informing and consulting employees. Where
workers are well represented through their union this Directive
seeks to assist members by obliging management to genuinely consult
with staff on all matters affecting staff.
The terms of reference by which the employer is required to
consult consists of the following;
- economic, financial and strategic developments;
- structure and foreseeable development of employment and related
measures;
- Decisions likely to lead to substantial changes in work
organisation or contractual relations.
A serious breach of the obligations consists of the following
as set out in the EU Council Directive:
- total absence of information and/or consultation of the
employees' representatives prior to a decision being taken or the
public announcement of such decision;
- Withholding of important information or provision of inaccurate
information rendering ineffective the exercise of the right to
information and consultation.
Any employer contemplating collective redundancies must also
hold consultations with worker representatives as per the Council
Directive on Collective Redundancies. This is set out in the Trade
Union and Labour Relations Act 1992.
These consultations must at least cover ways and means of
avoiding redundancies or reducing the number of workers affected
and reducing the consequences, in particular measures aimed at
redeployment and training. The employer is required to provide
workers’ representatives with all relevant information and, is to
provide the following information in writing;
- the reasons;
- the period during which redundancies are to be effected;
- the number and category of workers normally employed;
- the number to be made redundant;
- the criteria used to select those workers to be made
redundant;
- The method used to calculate compensation (where
applicable).
Council Directive on Parental
leave
The Parental Leave Directive set out in the Maternity and
Parental leave and the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations
2006 allows both male and female workers to have an individual
entitlement to unpaid parental leave on the grounds of the birth or
adoption of a child. This right allows both parents to take care of
the child for at least three months. The framework agreement also
sets out principles where the primary carer has the right to return
to work, to the same job at the end of the parental leave and right
to time off from work to care for a family emergency arising out of
sickness or accident. This Directive was originally negotiated by
the Social Partners, it was then recommended to the European
Commission to become a Directive, after a qualified majority vote
it become binding on all member states as a Directive.
Council Directive on
Part-Time working
The Part-Time Working Directive principles are
set out in the Prevention of Less Favorable Treatments Regulations
2000 which requires employers to give full considerations to
requests such as transfers from full-time to part-time work or vice
versa when they become available or vice versa. Workers refusal to
change employment category should not constitute a valid reason for
dismissal. The employer must be able to demonstrate that it has
facilitated access to part-time work at all levels of the
enterprise. In essencepart-time workers should not be treated less
favorably in respect of their employment rights than comparable
full-time workers, whilst pay and conditions is accrued and paid on
a pro-rata basis, employment rights must not be watered down as a
result.
Fixed Term Contracts Council
Directive
The Directive is protected under the Fixed Term Employees
(Prevention of Less Favorable Treatment) Regulations 2002. This
regulation aims to improve the quality of fixed-term work by
ensuring that the principle of non-discrimination is put into
practice, and to prevent abuse by employers from using successive
fixed-term employment contracts or relationships that seek to
undermine workers pay & conditions and job security.
To prevent abuse arising from the use of successive fixed-term
employment contracts the regulations set out objective reasons for
renewing such contracts or relationships;
- the maximum total duration of successive fixed-term employment
contracts or relationships;
- The number of renewals.
This Directive was originally negotiated by the Social
Partners, it was then recommended to the European Commission to
become a Directive, after a qualified majority vote it then become
binding on all member states as a Directive.
