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'.

• Preface p. v
• List of Contributors p. xi
• Table of Cases p. xiii
• Table of Legislation p. xxxi
• 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 p. 3 Klaus Lörcher
• 2 A Twenty-First-Century Procession of Echternach: The Accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights p. 47 Rick Lawson
• 3 Procedure in the European Court of Human Rights (with a Particular Focus on Cases Concerning Trade Union Rights) p. 61 John Hendy QC
• 4 The Future of the European Court of Human Rights in the Light of the Brighton Declaration p. 93 Klaus Lörcher
• 5 Human Rights in Employment Relationships: Contracts as Power p. 105 Olivier De Schutter
• Analysis of the ECHR
• 6 The Prohibition of Slavery, Servitude and Forced and Compulsory Labour under Article 4 ECHR p. 143 Virginia Mantouvalou
• 7 Labour Law Litigation and Fair Trial under Article 6 ECHR p. 159 Sébastien Van Drooghenbroek
• 8 Article 8 ECHR: Judicial Patterns of Employment Privacy Protection p. 183 Frank Hendrickx and Aline Van Bever
• 9 Freedom of Religion and Belief, Article 9 ECHR and the EU Equality Directive p. 209 Lucy Vickers
• 10 The Right to Freedom of Expression in the Workplace under Article 10 ECHR p. 237 Dirk Voorhoof and Patrick Humblet
• 11 The Right to Form and Join Trade Unions Protected by Article 11 ECHR p. 287 Isabelle Van Hiel
• 12 Article 11 ECHR: The Right to Bargain Collectively under Article 11 ECHR p. 309 Antoine Jacobs
• 13 The Right to Take Collective Action under Article 11 ECHR p. 333 Filip Dorssemont
• 14 Prohibition of Discrimination under Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights p. 367 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 p. 381 Petra Herzfeld Olsson
• Conclusions
• 16 The European Convention on Human Rights and the Employment Relation p. 417 Filip Dorssemont and Klaus Lörcher
• Index p. 431