O’Cinneíde, Colm --- "The European Social Charter and EU labour law" [2016] ELECD 1418; in Bogg, Alan; Costello, Cathryn; Davies, C.L. A. (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Labour Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 191

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Labour Law

Editor(s): Bogg, Alan; Costello, Cathryn; Davies, C.L. A.

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783471119

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The European Social Charter and EU labour law

Author(s): O’Cinneíde, Colm

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

The European Social Charter (ESC) is a Council of Europe treaty instrument which sets out a range of binding legal obligations relating to the enjoyment of certain core social rights. Adopted in 1961 and subsequently revised in 1996, the ESC is sometimes described as a ‘sister’ instrument to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Just as the ECHR protects fundamental civil and political rights, the ESC is supposed to safeguard fundamental social rights such as the right to work, the right to organise and take part in collective action, the right to just conditions of work, and the right of families and vulnerable persons to enjoy social protection. In the half century since its adoption, the ESC has become established as an integral element of the Council of Europe’s human rights architecture. Forty-three member states of the Council of Europe (out of a total membership of 46) have ratified either the original or the revised ESC – including all 28 Member States of the EU. The interpretation given to the rights set out in the ESC by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), the expert body which supervises state compliance with their Charter obligations, has become a significant point of reference in legal and policy debates about the content of social rights across Europe.