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The right to strike - country factsheets

The right to strike varies considerably across Europe, often with specific rules and restrictions imposed on public service workers. The European Trade Union Institute has produced 35 country factsheets that explain the latest legal situation.

Each factsheet sets out the main legal basis for the right to strike, indicating which international standards the country has signed up to. It then runs through the main rules covering:

who has the right to call a strike,
definition of a strike,
who may participate in a strike,
procedural requirements, and
legal consequences of participating in a strike.

The factsheet then looks at the case law of international and European bodies, including in particular the International Labour Organisation and Council of Europe.

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The latest issue of the Journal of International Trade Union Rights features a number of articles examining the extent to which public service workers find their rights restricted in relation to organising, collective bargaining or the right to take collective action. Nadja Salson of EPSU contributed an article highlighting two developments. First, is EPSU's legal action against the European Commission over its failure to put forward the information and consultation agreement in central government to the European Council for transposition into a directive and the second is the loophole in the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive that allows Member States to exclude public service workers from its provisions. The journal also includes an article based on the right to strike factsheets covering 34 countries and produced for EPSU by the European Trade Union Institute.