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Creating Social Europe XVI
The European creation of a single labour market
Introduction: first of three lectures on EU
ECSC becomes EEC: Treaty of Rome 1957– Creation of single market (no trade barriers)– Economic expansion will fund welfare– Member states responsible for social policy
Except:• Equal pay and paid holiday rights (gender)• European Social Fund • CAP • Migrant labour: benefit rights• Health & safety at work
.
EEC Institutions & Powers
• Issue of sovereignty paramount– European Commission (EC) formulates
proposals– Council of Ministers ratifies (on basis of
unanimity)– European Parliament discusses, offers
amendments (‘democratic deficit’)
• Regulations set minimal standards
Labour market regulation: competing traditions
• Romano-German tradition (dominant)– Citizens’ rights embedded in constitutional law– Employment rights legally ratified
• Voluntarist labour relations– Collective agreements retain voluntary status
• UK / Eire & Denmark in latter group• Means that ‘deregulation’ (1980s)
effectively translates into re-regulation for most states
UK application to EEC
Gender Equality: main objective of 1970s
• Equal pay principle extended beyond work in same establishment. Directives:– 1975: equal pay for work of equal value– 1979: extended to statutory schemes of social
security– 1986: extended to occupational welfare
• 1972 Paris: Internal Market Programme– 1974: early worker consultation on dismissals– 1975: mergers & bankruptcy - workers’ rights ratified
• Harmony of working conditions prevents distortion of competition
The role of the ‘social partners’
• Pre-1985: limited advisory role for joint consultative bodies (ETUC founded 1973)
• Post-1985: Delors and Social Dialogue
• 1986 Single European Act – 1987 birth EU– Social dialogue to impose joint min. standards– Social Charter of workers’ rights (Maastricht)– UNICE (EU employers organisation) formed
Towards Maastricht
• 1989: Strasbourg endorses Social Chapter– ‘democracy and individual right: free collective
bargaining: market economy: equal opportunity: social welfare and solidarity’
– 1989-90 Inter-state conference on EMU• 1990-91: Maastricht Treaty negotiated
– Delors passes social action programme to social partners
– Qualified majority voting introduced– EC to consult social partners on social policy issues– Social partners can initiate agreement as basis for EU
law
Extension of EU welfare competences
• Dual agreement the preferred route to new welfare initiatives– Equation of working conditions / health and
safety for a-typical workers (1997 & 1991)– Protection of pregnant workers (1991)– Creation of European Works Councils (1994)– Working time directive (1993)– Parental leave directive (1997)– Part-time work directive (1997)
Problems
• Slow progress: unemployment rising in 1990s and employers reluctant to sign
• UK opt-out of Social Chapter (Maastricht)– Weaker economies do not want expensive
reforms: UK cheap for inward investment– [1997 Blair adopts social chapter]
• 1996-7 Scandal in EC weakens its powers to innovate policy
From Rules to Rights
• Human rights agendas adopted by EU
• ‘democratic acquis’: anti-xenophobia– 2000: Race Discrimination Directive– Equal Treatment in Employment Directive
• ECJ: encouragement to interpret equality as elimination of disadvantage
• 2007 European Fundamental Rights Agency
Conclusions: a federal Europe?
• Tension between– Social partners as initiators of social policy– State sovereignty over welfare provision
• 1999 (Lisbon) and 2000 (Nice)– EU restructured as federation of member
states (not potential super-state)– This strengthened by enlargement
Conclusions: problems of efficiency
• Enforcement of directives left to national collective bargaining (or fighting case law via ECJ)
• Member-states can be fined for failing to implement directives
• Result: implementation notoriously variable (Italy as e.g. of neo-voluntarism)
• Open question whether EU should promote social policy reform.
• Post-2000: change of tack towards labour market activation as focus for EU policy
Conclusions: new common issues
• Global warming
• Global financial crises (recent bank crash)
• Tension: c.f. recent debate on constitution– more power to the centre (old EEC countries) – liberalisation (newer member states) and
reinforcement of national autonomy.
What future for a European Social Model?
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