Labour Law

Labour law defines your rights and obligations as workers and employers.
EU labour law covers 2 main areas:
  • working conditions - working hours, part-time & fixed-term work, posting of workers,
  • informing & consulting workers about collective redundancies, transfers of companies, etc.

​With over 240 million workers in the European Union, EU labour law rights benefit large numbers of citizens directly and have a positive impact on one of the most important and tangible areas of their daily lives.

EU labour law also benefits employers and society as a whole by:
​
  • providing a clear framework of rights and obligations in the workplace,
  • protecting the health of the workforce,
  • promoting sustainable economic growth.

Moreover, EU labour law goes hand in hand with the single market. The free flow of goods, services, capital and workers needs to be accompanied by labour law rules, to make sure that countries and businesses compete fairly on the strength of their products - not by lowering labour law standards.

​

The EU & labour law
​
EU policies in recent decades have sought to
  • achieve high employment & strong social protection,
  • improve living & working conditions,
  • protect social cohesion.
The EU aims to promote social progress and improve the living and working conditions of the peoples of Europe - see the preamble of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
As regards labour law, the EU complements policy initiatives taken by individual EU countries by setting minimum standards. In accordance with the Treaty - particularly Article 153 - it adopts laws (directives) that set minimum requirements for
  • working & employment conditions,
  • informing & consulting workers.
Individual EU countries are free to provide higher levels of protection if they so wish. While the European Working Time Directive entitles workers to 4 weeks' annual paid leave, for example, many countries have opted for a more generous right to the benefit of workers.
National authorities & labour lawThe EU adopts directives which its member countries incorporate in national law and implement. This means that it is national authorities - labour inspectorates and courts, for example - that enforce the rules.
European Centre of Expertise

The European Union has created a European centre of expertise in the field of labour law, employment and labour market policies in 2016. The centre of expertise covers legal, regulatory, economic and policy aspects of employment and labour markets, including reforms, in the 27 Member States, the United Kingdom, European Economic Area (EEA) countries, candidate countries and potential candidates eligible for participation in the Progress axis of the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.
From the labour law perspective, the goals of the European centre of expertise, besides others, are to:
  • assist the Commission in its role of ensuring a correct application of EU-law across all Member States and monitor reforms in labour legislation as part of the European Semester process within the context of the EU 2020 strategy;
  • reinforce the Commission's capacity to anticipate any issues that could arise from the application of EU directives, and analyse potential legal issues and the impact of European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings;
  • improve awareness and encourage public debate on topical issues of interest for EU labour law and legislation.
You can consult the monthly reports concerning the developments in the area of labour law in the EU countries and EEA countries.
 
The European Court of Justice & labour law
Whenever a dispute before a national court raises a question of  how to interpret an EU directive, the court can refer the issue to the Court of Justice of the EU. The European Court then gives the national court the answers it needs to resolve the dispute.
The European Commission & labour law
​The Commission checks that EU directives are incorporated into national law and ensures through systematic monitoring that the rules are correctly implemented.
When the Commission considers that an EU country has not incorporated a directive into national law correctly, it may decide to start infringement proceedings.
In this way, it ensures that all the rights set out in the directives are available in national law. However, the Commission cannot procure redress to individual citizens (i.e. compensate damages or set a situation right) – that is up to the competent national authorities.

Practical implementation of EU OSH legislation

Every five years, the Commission is required to evaluate the practical implementation of the OSH legal framework.
The first ex-post evaluation (part of the ongoing EU REFIT programme) covered the period 2007 to 2012 and addressed the implementation of the Framework Directive and 23 related directives.
The main results of this first ex-post evaluation have been described in a Commission Staff Working Document. They confirmed that the EU legislation in the field of health and safety at work was generally effective and fit-for-purpose, but that there were challenges to be addressed to improve its performance.
As regards the period 2013-2017, the main assessment results of the practical implementation of the EU OSH Framework Directive and 23 related directives are described in a Commission Staff Working Document. The assessment is based, among others, on the Member States’s national implementation reports.
It showed that overall, the EU OSH framework works well, but a few specific directives need to be adapted to align them with technological and scientific developments. These are, for example, the Display Screen Equipment Directive and the Workplaces Directive.

Agencies
The European Commission works closely together with the following agencies to disseminate information, offer guidance and promote safe and healthy working environments:
Committees
Committees consisting of experts, national representatives and/or social partners representatives, contribute to developing, implementing and monitoring EU legislation on health and safety at work:
Data and statistics
​The following sources provide useful information on data and key statistics concerning health and safety at work: