Abstract
The first Social Action Programme1 of the European Community did not envisage any action in the field of the law on industrial disputes. Since this first stage of a fully-fledged Community social policy was largely completed by the end of 1976 and the Commission is under an outstanding obligation to propose a series of measures for the next stage, it might be useful to question whether a second social action programme should not provide for action on strike law. That is the theme of this article.
This article is the winning entry for the Sijthoff Award 1978 for a European Law Essay.
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References
Bulletin of the E.C., Supplement 2/74.
Syndicats et sociétés multinationales, La documentation française (1975), p. 85.
See Pankert, “Some legal problems of workers’ international solidarity”, (1977–1978) International Labour Review, 70.
See K. W. Wedderburn, “Multi-national Enterprise and National Law”, (1972) Industrial Law Journal, 16.
Hoge Raad 15 January 1960, NJ 1960, nr. 84.
See Demokratie und Recht (1973), p. 416 et seq.
See Camellia Tanker Ltd. S.A. v. International Transport Workers Federation [1976] LCR. 274 (CA.).
See R. Birk, “Zur Haftung einer internationalen Gewerkschaftsvereinigung für Arbeitskampfmassnahmen nationaler Mitgliedgewerkschaften”, (1975) Arbeit und Recht, 193–201.
See Hanseatic Ship Management Ltd. v. International Transport Workers Federation [1974] LCR. 112 (N.I.R.C.).
AP Nr. 20 zu Art. 9 GG (Arbeitskampf).
M. Stewart, “Some Major Issues for European Unions”, in: Trade Unions in Europe (Epping 1974) p. 38.
G. Lyon-Caen, Droit Social international et européen (Paris, 1976) p. 120.
See Pankert, op. cit. note 3, 67.
La documentation française, op. cit. note 2 at 96.
See E. Piehl, Multinationale Konzerne und Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung (Frankfurt 1974) pp. 153–156.
See notes 36 and 37 of this article.
See note 36 below.
See Dutch newspaper Trouw of October 20, 1977.
See the speech of the ETUC Secretary-General Staedelin at the symposium on the European Social Charter and European Social Policy in Strasbourg, Dec. 7, 1977. 15 million workers took part in industrial action on April 6, 1978.
See E. Piehl, Multinationale Konzerne und Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung (Frankfurt 1974) note 13, p. 178–186/191–201.
See R. Miotto, Les syndicats multinationaux, (Istituto per 1’Economia Europea, Rome 1976).
See W. Gitter, “Probleme des Arbeitskampfes in supranationaler, internationaler und international-privatrechtlicher Sicht”, in: Zeitschrift für Arbeitsrecht, 1971, 130.
See A. Lyon-Caen, “La grève en droit international privé”, (1977) Revue critique de droit international privé, 292.
Two company law directives have been adopted. See Dir. 68/151, J.O. 1968, L 65/8 (disclosure company documents); Dir. 77/91, O.J. 1977, L 26/1 (formation of public companies etc.). Five more have been proposed. See: proposal for a 3rd dir. (national mergers) J.O. 1970, C 89/20; proposal for a 4th dir. (financial documents) Bull. of the EC Suppl. 7/71, J.O. 1972, C 7; proposal for a 5th dir. (structure of ltd. companies) Bull. of the EC Suppl. 10/72, and see also Bull. of the EC Suppl. 8/75 (Green Book); proposal for a 6th dir. (control of accounts) Bull. of the EC Suppl. 8/72; proposal for a 7th dir. (publicity and information) Bull. of the EC Suppl. 9/76. For the proposal for a Statute for European Companies, see Bull. of the EC Suppl. 4/75. See also the proposal for a regulation concerning a European Cooperation Grouping, O.J. 1974, C 14. Further, a Treaty concerning the mutual recognition of companies and legal persons was signed on Feb. 29, 1968, and a further treaty on international mergers was sent to the institutions and the Member State governments in Dec. 1972.
C. Levinson, International Trade Unionism (London 1972), p. 111.
See Bulletin of the E.C. 10/1972, p. 20.
See G. Lyon-Caen, “Négociation et convention collective au niveau européen” (1973) R.T.D.E., 592.
Wedderburn, op. cit. note 4, 19.
See F. Gamillscheg, Internationales Arbeitsrecht, (Berlin, Tübingen, 1959), p. 365.
See Section 30 (6) of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act, 1974.
In such cases it is the judge of the mother country who might be faced with the effect of the participation of an Auslandmonteur in a strike abroad. For these situations, Gitter believes that the law that governs the contract of employment should be decisive (W. Gitter, op. cit. note 20, p. 148). In proposing that solution Gitter might have borne in mind the ordinary situation in which the contract of employment of the Auslandmonteur is governed by the law of the country where the company has its seat and where the judge resides. The French Court of Appeal however in the case of Soc. Montalev v. Giacomel, 1969 (C.d.C. Soc, Oct. 8, 1969) was confronted with the exceptional situation that the contract of employment of the French Auslandmonteurs who participated in a strike in the United States was explicitly governed by the law of the country where they did their Auslandmontage. Nevertheless the French Court of Appeal applied French law as to the consequences of a strike for the individual employment relationship.
J.O. 1968, L 257/1.
Case 48/75, Judgment of Oct. 28, 1975, (1975) E.C.R. 1219.
See E.P. doc. 261/73; Suppl. Bull. of the EC, no. 8/73.
See Annex to the O.J. of 1974, Debates of the European Parliament, Thursday, 12 December 1974, p. 228–230.
See Document EP 424/76.
See O.J. 1977, No. C 214/18 of 7.9.1977.
Stewart, op. cit. note 9, p. 34.
See text published in (1976) Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, 431.
See John Ridell, “The ICFTU and the Multinationals” (1976) Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, 341.
See Pankert, op. cit. note 3, p. 74.
J. P. Dubois, “Multinational Enterprises and collective bargaining at international level”, 12 C.M.L. Rev. 1975, 147.
See E. Piehl, Multinationale Konzerne und Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung (Frankfurt 1974) note 13, p. 211–212.
H. L. Bakels, “Quo vadis, Societas Multinationalis”, (1977) Nederlands Juristenblad, 244.
A. Lyon-Caen, op. cit. note 23, at 292–294, 299.
See Pankert, op. cit. note 3, at 74.
Council of Europe, AS/Coll/Charter 3-E, p. 2 (Strasbourg, 1977).
See Case 29/69, Stauder v. City of Ulm, (1969) E.C.R. 419; Case 11/70, Internationale Handelsgesellschaft v. Einfuhr- und Vorratstelle für Getreide und Futtermittel, (1970) E.C.R. 1125; Case 4/73, Nold KG v. Commission, (1974) E.C.R. 49.
See Bull. of the E.C. no. 3/77, p. 5.
See Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme, série A 1976, Vol. 21.
The Dutch ratification is after long delays near at hand: see Ratification Bill, Tweede Kamerstukken nr. 8606, 1965.
Cf. O. Kahn-Freund, “The European Social Charter”, in: European Law and the individual, (Ed.) F. Jacobs, (N. Holland, 1976) p. 197–198.
See Preambule to the French Constitution of 1946, referred to in the French Constitution of 1959.
Article 40 of the Italian Constitution.
See Bull. of the E.C., Suppl. 5/76, p. 15.
See p. 137–139 above.
W. Däubler, Der Streik im öffentlichen Dienst (Tübingen, 1971) p. 188.
W. Däubler/H. Hegge, Koalitionsfreiheit (Baden-Baden, 1976) p. 113
W. Däubler, Das Arbeitsrecht, (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1976) p. 132–133.
J. P. Dubois, op. cit. note 42, at 152.
Gitter, op. cit. note 22, at 130–131.
Bulletin of the European Communities, Supplement 8/75 p. 24–25 Criticised also on this point by W. Däubler in: “The Employee Participation Directive— A realistic Utopia?”, 14 C.M.L. Rev. 1977, 480–482.
See also Gitter, op. cit. note 22, at 130.
Wedderburn, op. cit. note 4, at 19.
In Italy the Rubinacci Bill was shipwrecked in the ’fifties; in Belgium successive bills devised by Troclet and Major failed in the ’sixties; in the Netherlands, the Polak Bill met the same fate in the ‘seventies.
See for a recent example the decision of the House of Lords in American Cynamid Co. v. Ethicon Ltd. [1975] A.C. 396 and the controversy about the principles laid down in this decision.
See Gitter, op. cit. note 22, at 130.
See Art. 25 of the European Social Charter.
See the Conclusions I, II, III and IV of the Committee of Experts.
According to the fundamental principles of the “ordre public social” this reception should be a minimum, not prejudicing national strike law that is more favourable to workers and unions; Cf. Art. 32 of the European Social Charter.
The German administration for instance differs with the Committee of Experts on the legality of wild-cat strikes, the right to strike for civil servants, etc.; see O. Kahn-Freund, op. cit. note 52, p. 193.
See Ass. Cons. Rapp. Voogd, Doc. 3276 rev. s. 13.
In Germany the Bundesarbeitsgericht did not take a definite stand on solidarity action in its leading judgement on this issue of Dec. 20, 1973, AP Nr. 34 zu Art. 9 GG (Arbeitskampf).
In the Netherlands the very restrictive Hoge Raad judgment of 1960 (NJ 1960, nr. 84) as to strikes in general and as to sympathy strikes in particular, is outdated and therefore the actual legal situation is still undecided.
In the United Kingdom under the pre-1970 trade union law there was a controversy between the views of Lord Denning M.R. and Lord Pearce as to the question whether the immunities of industrial disputes also applied to industrial action against third employers (see J. T. Stratford & Son Ltd. v. Lindley 1965 A.C. 269, H.L. (e). In the abovementioned Camellia case (see note 7) the Court of Appeal cautiously avoided an utterance on this point of law under the present Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 1974.
See the comparable rule in British strike law, that “there is a trade dispute for the purpose if this Act even though it relates to matters occuring outside Great Britain”, section 29 (3) of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 1974.
See Pankert, op. cit. note 3, at 71.
See A. Lyon-Caen, op. cit. note 23, at 294.
See Gitter, op. cit. note 22, at 148–149.
See B. Knapp and W. Zöllner, “La protection des travailleurs des sociétés membres du groupe”, in Le droit international privé des groupes de sociétés (Schweitzerische Beiträge zum Europarecht, Genève, 1973) p. 184, 238, 219.
See O. Kahn-Freund and W. Zöllner in the study mentioned in note 79, at p. 202–203, p. 219. Also J. M. van der Linden—Spelregels bij arbeidsconflicten (Scheveningen, 1976) p. 44–46.
BAG vom 20–12–1963, AP Nr. 34 zu Art. 9 GG (Arbeitskampf).
Corte di Cassazione, 1963, no. 2036; see Pankert, op. cit. note 3 at p. 70.
Tweede Kamerstukken 10.110/10.111, series nr. 7, p. 5.
Corte Costituzionale, 28–12–1962, Nr. 123, see P. A. Varesi, Diritti dei Lavoratori (Milano 1976) p. 250/257.
See Gitter, op. cit. note 22, at 150; see M. Coester—“Drittbezogene Arbeitskampfmassnahmen in den USA, Frankreich und der Bundesrepubliek”, (1976) Recht der Arbeit, 292.
The Amendment was made in 1974 to section 29 (3) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974, mentioned in note 75. It was inserted against the wishes of the Labour Government and was repealed by the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Amendment) Act, 1976.
See Art. 124–26, Code du Travail.
See Dutch Staatscourant, August 4, 1972, no. 150.
See G. Druesne, “La réserve d’ordre public de l’article 48 du Traité de Rome”, (1976) R.T.D.E., 232, 240–241.
See p. 144–147 above.
A. Lyon-Caen, op. cit. note 23, at 298.
See p. 139–141 above.
Text published in (1976) Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, 280–299.
See also A. Lyon-Caen, op. cit. note 23, at 279 and W. Zöllner, in the study mentioned in note 39, at p. 219.
See Piehl, op. cit. note 15, p. 61.
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Jacobs, A. (1978). Towards Community Action on Strike Law?. In: Kapteyn, P.J.G., Ehlermann, CD., Simmonds, K.R., Winter, J.A. (eds) Common Market Law Review. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3273-0_11
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