Employment Law and the Social Chapter

Abstract

There has been a Social Chapter in the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community ever since it was signed in Rome by the Six in March 1957.¹ Although it is called a “social” chapter, it is principally concerned with employment and was inserted because Member States agreed “upon the need to promote improved working conditions and an improved standard of living for workers”.² The Social Chapter from which John Major obtained an “opt out” at Maastricht in December 1991 was a revised version of this chapter which the Dutch Presidency had hoped would replace the existing chapter. In the face of John Major’s refusal to agree the change, the existing chapter remained in the Treaty, but a Protocol containing an “Agreement on Social Policy concluded between the Member States of the European Community with the exception of the United Kingdom” was added to the Treaty. It was this Agreement from which the United Kingdom had an opt-out between 1 November 1993, when the Maastricht Treaty came into force and 1 May 1999 when the Amsterdam Treaty, agreed by Tony Blair in June 1997, came into force.