EUROPEAN SOCIAL CHARTER
| GERMANY |
| EUROPÄISCHE SOZIALCHARTA EUROPEAN SOCIAL CHARTER |
The European Social Charter (ESC) was signed by the Federal Republic of Germany on October 18, 1961 and ratified by the Federal Parliament and has been in force since February 26, 1965. In terms of labour law, its significance in principle extends far beyond that of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 5 of the ESC grants freedom of association for the employers' side as well. Furthermore, Article 6 guarantees both for employers' associations and for trade unions the right to take industrial action . According to Article 31, these rights may be restricted only in exceptional circumstances. Contrary to the provisions of Federal German law, according to the ESC a strike by career public servants also is lawful. For the rest, the ESC contains a series of detailed regulations on social security and conditions of employment which were basically already the standard in German law.
According to the main body of legal opinion the ESC does not constitute national law, but purely an obligation on the Federal Republic in terms of international law. From this, the Federal Labour Court infers that direct application by Germany's courts is prohibited. However, since by the act of ratification the Federal Republic has undertaken to implement the ESC, its regulations are significant for the courts as regards the interpretation of statutes and still more as regards further development of the law
The Charter on fundamental social rights for employees that was adopted by the EC Member States in 1989 is also known as the European Social Charter. The purpose of this agreement is to fix certain minimum standards in order to prevent the advent of the single internal market from occasioning competition disadvantageous to employees.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.