The European Convention on Human Rights and the Employment Relation

The accession by the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has opened up new possibilities in terms of the constitutional recognition of fundamental rights in the EU. In the field of employment law it heralds a new procedure for workers and trade unions to challenge EU law against the background of the ECHR. In theoretical terms this means that EU law now goes beyond recognition of fundamental rights as mere general principles of EU law, making the ECHR the 'gold standard' for fundamental (social) rights.

This publication of the Transnational Trade Union Rights Working Group focuses on the EU and the interplay between the Strasbourg case law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), analysing the relevance of the ECHR for the protection of workers' rights and for the effective enjoyment of civil and political rights in the employment relation. Each chapter is written by a prominent European human rights expert and analyses the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and also looks at the equivalent international labour standards within the Council of Europe (in particular the (Revised) European Social Charter), the International Labour Organization (ILO) (in particular the fundamental rights conventions) and the UN Covenants (in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and the interpretation of these instruments by competent organs.

The authors also analyse the ways in which the CJEU has acknowledged the respective ECHR articles as 'general principles' of EU law and asks whether the Lisbon Treaty will also warrant a reassessment of the way it has treated conflicts between these 'general principles' and the so-called 'fundamental freedoms'.

Autorentext

Filip Dorssemont is Professor of Labour Law at the 'Centre interdisciplinaire droit, entreprise et société' of the Unversité catholique de Louvain. He teaches as a guest lecturer at the Université Saint-Louis de Bruxelles. He is a member of the Remarklab Group.
Klaus Lörcher is former Legal Adviser to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and former Legal Secretary of the Civil Service Tribunal of the European Union.
Isabelle Schömann is senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).

Inhalt

General Part

1. The New Social Dimension in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): The Demir
   and Baykara Judgment, its Methodology and Follow-up
   Klaus Lörcher
2. A Twenty-First-Century Procession of Echternach: The Accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights
   Rick Lawson
3. Procedure in the European Court of Human Rights (with a Particular Focus on Cases Concerning Trade
   Union Rights)
   John Hendy QC
4. The Future of the European Court of Human Rights in the Light of the Brighton Declaration
   Klaus Lörcher
5. Human Rights in Employment Relationships: Contracts as Power
   Olivier De Schutter
   Analysis of the ECHR
6. The Prohibition of Slavery, Servitude and Forced and Compulsory Labour under Article 4 ECHR
   Virginia Mantouvalou
7. Labour Law Litigation and Fair Trial under Article 6 ECHR
   Sébastien Van Drooghenbroek
8. Article 8 ECHR: Judicial Patterns of Employment Privacy Protection
   Frank Hendrickx and Aline Van Bever
9. Freedom of Religion and Belief, Article 9 ECHR and the EU Equality Directive
   Lucy Vickers
10. The Right to Freedom of Expression in the Workplace under Article 10 ECHR
    Dirk Voorhoof and Patrick Humblet
11. The Right to Form and Join Trade Unions Protected by Article 11 ECHR
    Isabelle Van Hiel
12. Article 11 ECHR: The Right to Bargain Collectively under Article 11 ECHR
    Antoine Jacobs
13. The Right to Take Collective Action under Article 11 ECHR
    Filip Dorssemont
14. Prohibition of Discrimination under Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights
    Niklas Bruun
15. Every Natural or Legal Person is Entitled to the Peaceful Enjoyment of His or Her Possessions: Article 1, Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights
    Petra Herzfeld Olsson
    Conclusions
16. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Employment Relation
    Filip Dorssemont and Klaus Lörcher