(26 January 2017) Parliamentarians from all European countries expressed their concerns with regard to the “lower significance and changing role of trade unions” which “could further increase social and economic inequalities” in a report adopted 25 January 2017. The parliamentarians insist on “the need for a strong social dialogue, based on a healthy balance of power, an open and trustful dialogue and full respect of international standards”. It asks the member states of the Council to “ratify and fully implement the European Social Charter and its Additional Protocol Providing for a System of Collective Complaints”.
While 43 European countries have signed and ratified the European Social Charter very few have accepted the additional text. National legislation should be brought in line with these Treaties. The text further asks Member States to “promote and support industrial relations and collective bargaining coverage, through appropriate legal frameworks and constructive political action, as a means of securing the stability of economic processes and of decreasing social and economic inequality”. Measures that weakened social dialogue and collective rights should be restored and be brought into conformity with the International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights, ILO Conventions, ECHR case law and the European Social Charter treaty system. The members reconfirmed an earlier resolution on the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The report was written by Ögmundur Jónasson, former leader of the Icelandic public sector trade union confederation, member of the EPSU Executive, ex-minister and member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. The Parliamentary Assembly adopted the report 25 January 2017, Strassbourg
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