ABSTRACT
These measures have dual social and economic aims. They have a social aim in that they clearly aim to protect vulnerable workers (those who are most at risk of exploitation: the young; part-time workers). But they also have an economic aim in that they are designed to co-ordinate employment policy across the EU. This means that companies in countries run by socialist, Left-leaning governments which would tend to have better worker-protection legislation are not placed at too much of a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis companies in countries run by free-market, Right-leaning governments who would tend to try to maximise the operating freedom of companies. Without such co-ordination, employers might be drawn to setting up their
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businesses in countries run by Right-leaning governments because of reduced administrative burdens and operating costs (usually referred to pejoratively as ‘red tape’). You will note that all of the EU legislation in this area is in the form of Directives, not Regulations. This is not coincidental. Directives allow Member States scope for manoeuvre, to lay down national rules within EU-wide parameters. Regulations, on the other hand, lay down specific EU-wide rules that have to be followed by all Member States. The use of Directives allows for some (but not too much) divergence between different Member States and indeed allows for divergence over time within the same Member State. To take one example: the maximum average working week, which is set out in Directive 2003/88, the Working Time Directive (WTD), at 48 hours. It must be stressed that this figure is a maximum: Member States are entirely free to set a different figure as long as it does not exceed 48 hours. When this period was established in Directive 93/104, the original WTD, back in 1993, France had a socialist (Left-leaning) government. Consequently, the original implementing legislation opted for a figure far less than the maximum, at 35 hours. However, since then, the political climate in France has shifted to the Right. In 2005, it was reported that France’s Right-leaning government had tabled legislation to raise the 35-hour limit in order to help French businesses to become more competitive. Bearing these dual social and economic aims in mind, the rest of this chapter provides an overview of the main social policy legislation introduced by the EU over the last 25 years.
