The Council of Europe's European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR) came up with a position related to the 2004 Laval case in which construction workers' trade union Byggnads set up a blockade on a site with a construction team from Latvian company Laval. The European Court of Justice had judged in 2007 that the trade union actions restricted the freedom to provide services within the EU. The complainant trade unions alleged that following the ECJ judgment in the Laval case (C-341/05), subsequent amendments to Swedish legislation have restricted the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The ECSR supported the union's position, finding that foreign workers in Sweden should have the same rights as other workers. The ECSR rejected the restrictions of the right to organise and collective bargaining entailed by the Lex Laval. Trade unions' right to demand and pursue collective negotiations cannot be restricted by the legislator. LO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, said later on that it was high time to make sure the client has the responsibility for salaries and taxes – and that such a responsibility would extend down the line of subcontractors, no matter how long the list.
English: http://www.coe.int/T/DGHL/Monitoring/SocialCharter/NewsCOEPortal ...
http://www.lo.se/english/news/important_decision_strengthens_workers_rights_in_europe
http://www.thelocal.se/20131127/opposition-to-tear-up-migrant-worker-law
Focus on the ECJ-cases: http://www.etui.org/Topics/Social-dialogue-collective-bargaining ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.