EU integration and EU initiatives on employee participation and social dialogue

This article analyses the European Commission’s general approach in the area of social policy. It scrutinizes the rationale behind the introduction of various employee participation schemes and their evolution over time. Legislative acts on employee information and consultation, as well as on the empowerment of the European social partners as co-legislators in the field of social policy, have contributed to a genuine multi-level system of industrial relations emerging at European level. However, the EU-level approach towards social policy over recent decades, together with reform of European labour law and recent ECJ case-law, has reinforced an increasingly liberal trend towards initiatives that are less social in their orientation, as well as putting more pressure on collective workers’ rights and the social acquis communautaire. Against this background, European social dialogue and European labour law are facing difficulties in ensuring that existing minimum labour standards are maintained in legislation and collective agreements. The article argues that labour law and social dialogue would gain from a more proactive participation of trade unions in decision-making processes at national and European levels. This would help to secure a legal and collectively bargained protection of workers’ rights.