Strong implementation of the European Social Charter is key to strengthening workers’ and trade union rights across Europe.
The European Social Charter has rightly been described as “Europe’s social constitution”. This Council of Europe treaty brings together in a single document the most comprehensive catalogue of fundamental social rights in the world.
On paper, the Charter guarantees a wide range of human rights, including important labor rights such as fair remuneration, reasonable working hours, and protection from unfair dismissal. It also provides for workers’ rights to collective action, including freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right to strike. It also provides for important social rights, including access to employment, public housing, mental health, education, social security, welfare, protection of vulnerable groups, especially children, families, women, older people, and migrants, and prevention of discrimination.
The Charter, which has been ratified by 42 of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe (Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland have signed but not yet ratified), covers almost the entire European continent. Together with the relevant case law, the Charter provides an ideal basis for the protection of social, labor and trade union rights, especially in countries outside the European Union, including in the Member States of the European Union. in the middle It serves as a compass and source of inspiration for the EU and its Member States to implement the social rights and policies enshrined in the Treaties (in particular the social policy chapter of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, represented by Article 151), the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Pillar of Social Rights (explicitly mentioned in paragraph 16 of its preamble).
Not fully delivered
However, despite all this, the European Social Charter “system” has not yet reached its full potential, mainly due to a lack of political will among member states and procedural complexity, which is in part due to the coexistence of the 1961 and 1996 revised versions of the Charter (RESC), the ability of member states to “cherry-pick” certain provisions for ratification, and the insufficient number of ratifications (only 16 member states) of the 1995 Protocol providing for collective grievances.
The European Trade Union Confederation has welcomed the Council of Europe’s High-Level Conference on the European Social Charter, to be held in Vilnius in July, as an attempt to breathe new life into the treaty and its monitoring mechanism, but the ETUC urges member states to work harder towards ratification to deliver social justice in Europe.
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Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland, which signed the Convention more than 20 years ago, should finally complete their ratification of the revised Charter. Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Luxembourg, Poland and the UK should also urgently ratify the RESC to allow for a regular reporting system and streamlined grievance procedures. And ratification of the Collective Grievances Protocol by the remaining 30 Member States is crucial, because it will enable national and international trade unions to use their collective power to expose and redress the denial of social, worker and trade union rights.
Encouraging further efforts
The Vilnius conference follows the Reykjavik Declaration agreed at the Council of Europe’s fourth summit in 2023. The declaration states that “social justice is crucial to the stability and security of democracies”, and in Reykjavik member states reaffirmed their “full commitment to the protection and implementation of social rights as guaranteed by the European Social Charter system”.
The event in Lithuania was designed to recognise the importance of social rights in supporting democratic governance and preventing “backsliding”, and to encourage countries to do more under the Charter – the latest stage in the Council of Europe’s latest reform process to strengthen social rights and establish effective monitoring procedures.
This process was triggered by the work of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), to which the ETUC actively contributed as a permanent observer. In 2019, this work led to two reports on the protection of social rights within the framework of the Council of Europe, containing a number of recommendations to improve the implementation of social rights throughout the Charter and its monitoring mechanisms. These were complemented by dedicated proposals from the European Committee on Social Rights and the Committee of Governments (like the former is a Charter institution), as well as the High-Level Expert Group on Social Rights appointed by Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić (to which Burić himself contributed).
As a result, the Committee of Ministers representing the Member States of the Council of Europe has adopted a reform package for 2022 aimed at modernising the Charter system. The ultimate goal is to support governments in ensuring respect for social rights in line with their commitments. The emphasis is on the need to strengthen dialogue between Charter bodies, governments and stakeholders (trade unions, national human rights institutions, equality organisations and other civil society organisations).
Hold the government accountable
The ETUC has been actively cooperating with the Council of Europe for many years. In 2011, on the occasion of the Charter’s 50th anniversary, it looked back on its role as a cornerstone of fundamental social rights protection in Europe and noted its achievements. But it also listed changes that need to be made to improve its effectiveness, but have yet to be implemented. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary in 2021 (25th for the Council of Europe), the ETUC once again called on member states to ratify and implement all the Charter’s instruments and protocols and to raise awareness of its provisions. It also called on the EU to adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights and the revised Charter.
The ETUC continues to hold governments and companies to account for the continuing rise in violations of human, labour and trade union rights. According to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITU) World Rights Index scale, Europe’s average rating for respect for worker and trade union rights has deteriorated from 2.56 to 2.73 this year, continuing a long-term deterioration from 1.84 in 2014.
In its Action Plan adopted at its Congress in Berlin in May 2023, the ETUC reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to the protection and enforcement of human, labour and trade union rights. It has strengthened its efforts to hold governments (and corporations) to account through ETUCLEX (a new human rights, legal and strategic litigation support organisation) and its work, as well as its engagement with the Council of Europe (in particular the Charter monitoring bodies and procedures).
The ETUC has a long history of successful action in various forums, including the Council of Europe, on trade union rights, fair and equal pay, opposition to austerity, unfair dismissals, occupational safety and health, privacy and data protection. Together with its affiliates in Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, it has submitted four collective grievances on the right to strike (and the right to collective bargaining) in the Charter procedure and has submitted over 50 observations in the framework of pending or processed collective grievances brought by international non-governmental organisations and other trade union and employer organisations.
It also increases pressure on the EU to accede to and ratify the revised Charter and the Collective Complaints Protocol, and on European governments to make further commitments. The EU will continue to urge EU institutions to ensure that all relevant Council of Europe and other international human rights instruments are respected in the formulation and implementation of laws and policies, in particular under the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester.
Strengthening political will
The ETUC has been very active in the various expert groups and working groups set up since 2019 to improve the Charter system, such as the CDDH-SOC subgroup, the GT CHARTE initiative (under the auspices of the Committee of Ministers) and the dedicated Reform Working Group within the Committee of Governments (where the ETUC also has observer status under the Charter). It calls on Member States to show more political will and accept more commitments by ratifying more Charter instruments and protocols.
However, at a meeting of the government committee last month, only one country (Belgium) declared that it would add a paragraph to one of the Charter’s articles. The others remained silent, even announcing that they would not undertake further ratifications for the next few years. A planned “convention event” at the conference, in which member states will be “invited to deposit instruments of ratification or acceptance of further Charter articles or collective complaints procedures, or to send letters indicating their willingness to accept further commitments under the Charter or collective complaints procedures”, which one member state (the UK) described as “too ambitious”, risks being a hollow event, and no one can afford to end up with such an outcome.
Another intended outcome is a “Political Declaration”. Successive drafts have been gradually weakened due to a lack of political ambition from member states. There is little or no reference to issues such as trade union rights or EU accession to the Charter. The ETUC has put forward amendments that emphasise the important role of social partners in promoting social rights, but it is unclear to what extent these will be incorporated through the opaque political decision-making process.
A constant in the new reform process is the need for “enhanced dialogue” between “all relevant stakeholders”, including Charter bodies, governments and national and international trade unions. The European trade union movement has made progress in improving the Charter and its monitoring system. The Political Declaration should explicitly recognise and respect this contribution, and acknowledge and reaffirm the important, Convention-based role that trade unions play in the (reformed) Charter system.
The ETUC is committed to continuing its engagement with the Council of Europe, in particular the Charter’s monitoring bodies and procedures. However, the rising cost of living is limiting access to many of the rights enshrined in the Charter, such as freedom from poverty and social exclusion, housing, protection for migrant workers, social welfare and an adequate standard of living, so governments need to invest more in realizing these rights.
In a context where the rise of the far-right poses serious dangers to social and human rights in Europe, it is more important than ever to give new impetus to the European Social Charter. We need to do more than just repeat the valued opinions of the Vilnius Conference. The time to act is now for further advancement of trade union, worker and social rights in Europe.
This is the fourth article in a series on the European Social Charter in the run up to the conference in Vilnius.
Isabel Schoeman is Deputy Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation. She was elected at the ETUC’s 15th Congress in Berlin in May 2023. Previously, she served as ETUC’s Union Secretary from 2019 to 2023.
