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The right to take collective action in EU law based on the European Pillar of Social Rights and the recent case law of the CJEU
9-24Views:237This paper is built around the workers’ fundamental right to take collective action and collective bargaining. Although, this right is firmly embedded in the majority of labour law systems in the social policy (meaning labour law, too) of the European Union, it is worth analysing it separately with an independent meaning. We can approach this right from the fundamental rights, the fundamental treaties or from certain directives, so we can find several questions that are difficult to answer properly. These problems are mostly catalysed by the necessary collision between the need for socially motivated legal protection and the fundamental economic freedoms. In my research, I analyse this right – along with some other connected ones – with the help of the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Pillar of Social Rights because the latter highlights the holistic approach in the current reforms of EU social policy.
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Specialities of Collective Labour Disputes
217-232Views:176We are currently living in a period when technological, economic and other changes fundamentally influence the nature of legal relationships. There is no difference in the labour law palette, as atypical employment is gaining ground in law enforcement circles. In our view, this development cannot be derived solely on substantive law, but should also be presented at the level of litigation and, where appropriate, ADR procedures. Perhaps it is somewhat ironic that it is precisely the collective labour dispute, which is not popular in Hungarian civil society litigation law, in which the emergence of innovative dispute resolution methods can be observed from time to time. Therefore, our work primarily examines the extrajudicial practice of collective dispute resolution, complemented by the solutions used in the legal systems of some countries less researched by the domestic labour law environment. Our aim is to highlight the potential of ADR methods in collective disputes and to explore new, unknown opportunities for domestic law enforcement.
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Collective Agreement’s Status in Law
Views:581The collective agreement is a Janus-faced legal phenomenon. From one side it has the nature of a contractual relationship where the parties have the right to determine the content of the contract, also including the choice itself, whether they establish it or not. On the other hand, the collective agreement acts as a legal norm as well. From this aspect its regulations are also obligatory for those persons who were not involved during the set-up process, or even for those who disagrees with some parts of the document. Therefore it is a crucial question in labour law as to how these contracts are handled by law. The Hungarian Labour Code came into force in 2012 contained an approach in which the legislator wanted to empower the legal status of collective agreement. To achieve this goal, in some parts the Act gives the parties the possibility to deviate from the law and to customize the norms in order to make it fit their current relationship. In this paper I examine the nature of the Collective Agreement and show its specialities in the Hungarian legal environment.
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Social Dumping in the Face of Cross-border Collective Agreements and Actions: A Dilemma of the European Legal Practice on the Edge of Law and Economy in the Light of the Framework of International Standards
180-202Views:171In this paper I outline the objectives of the ILO, the conventions relevant to collective bargaining and action, and furthermore the pronouncements of the ILO supervisory bodies. After describing social dumping I examine the jurisprudence of the European Union regarding the collision of fundamental freedoms and collective labour rights in the light of international labour standards. My observation is that the hierarchical relationship between fundamental freedoms and labour rights in favour of the former cannot be maintained even based on EU law.
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Collective Wage Bargaining and the Related Challenges of Labour Law and Labour Relations Regarding Public Services Operated by Publicly Owned Companies
148-161Views:258In the case of state- and municipality-owned companies providing public services, the 2021 salary increase was settled with a six-monthly delay, which was manifested in three-year, so-called “income policy” agreements. However, for the purposes of this paper, the process became relevant mainly due to the aspect of labor relations and it also became suitable for a legal science analysis. During the course of this, within the available space limits, I discuss the process of salary negotiations (with its labor law content and consequences), the theoretical bases of the different collective labor law regulations regarding public assets, and finally, the newly emerging practical issues related to the strike rights regulation of this sector.
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Legal interpretation issues regarding the status of the trade unions
79-95Views:681The unique purpose and role of trade unions is the protection of the employees’ social and economic interests. As compared to the previous concept, the applicable labour code introduced a conceptually new approach with respect to collective labour law, including the purpose of trade unions, reducing the trade unions’ rights to such a minimum level which shall be generally granted for a civil organization operating in the interest of a certain purpose. In my study, some legal interpretation questions –without the ambition to be exhaustive – that arise in practice come under analysis, which highlight in a crystal clear manner the question as to what sort of practical issues are raised and interpretation possibilities are opened by certain items of the Hungarian labour law regulation in connection with the legal status of the trade unions and the exercise of their rights.
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Legitimacy and Competency Issues regarding the Labor Unions and the Works Councils
65-80Views:179The study focuses on the separation of two classical institutions of collective labour law: the labour unions and the works councils. Traditionally, labour unions are associations intended to represent and protect the collective interests of workers; works councils are units that exercise the workers’ participation rights, and are mechanisms where the employees can influence the decisions of the employer at the workplace. The distribution of traditional union and works council authorities, however, is not that obvious, especially from a practical point of view. The study strives to highlight those areas where the unions and the works councils appear as opposing parties, especially focusing on works agreements with normative power, from a practical and an international comparative perspective, and to offer solutions de lege ferenda.