Bargaining in the shadow of ‘optional frameworks’? The rise of transnational collective agreements and EU law

an article by Antonio Lo Faro (University of Catania, Italy) published in European Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 18 Number 2 (June 2012)

Abstract

Roughly 10 million European employees are potentially affected by some 200 transnational texts concluded within multinational companies. Unlike other forms of social dialogue with legal effects determined by the Treaty, transnational collective agreements enjoy no legal certainty as to their enforcement.

This is often considered a virtue, since autonomous arrangements entered into by the parties could be seen as an expression of a voluntary system of European industrial relations.

This article discusses the plausibility of such a view, also taking into account Commission proposal to draft an ‘optional legal framework’ aimed at conferring a more definite binding character on transnational agreements.

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