Consequences and policy perspectives in the Nordic countries as a result of certain important decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU

Resistance Against the Court of Justice of the European Union

“…The judgments in Viking and Laval, for example, were shown to have had little impact outside Sweden, where Laval had originated, the peak employer organisation had supported the legal case against the unions and where a conservative-liberal government was broadly in favour of labour market reform, and the United Kingdom, where no statutory right to strike existed in the first place, unions were already faced with financial liabilities and now put even further on the defensive after the CJEU rulings (Bruun & Jonsson, 2010;Novitz & Syrpis, 2015).…”

“…The Danish industrial relations regime is very similar to the Swedish, and industrial action against foreign employers frequent. Yet, the CJEU's ruling in Laval had little impact (Bruun & Jonsson, 2010). Before the Laval judgment, the Danish judiciary had shielded national industrial relations from interference by EU law.…”

“…With the support of the social partners, the Danish legislator used the leeway offered by the CJEU's case-law to 'court-proof' its legislative solution. It prevented as far as possible the negative consequences to its national labour law regime and preserved its original regulatory goals (Bruun & Jonsson, 2010;Seikel, 2015).…”

Resistance against the Court of Justice of the European Union

“…The main result of these efforts is that the impact of these judgments is heavily conditioned by the preferences of political parties and important interest groups, in particular employer associations. The judgments in Viking and Laval, for example, were shown to have had little impact outside Sweden, where Laval had originated, the peak employer organisation had supported the legal case against the unions and where a conservative-liberal government was broadly in favour of labour market reform, and the UK, where no statutory right to strike existed in the first place, unions were already faced with financial liabilities and now put even further on the defensive after the CJEU rulings (Bruun and Jonsson, 2010;Novitz and Syrpis, 2015).…”

Perspectives on Social Citizenship in the EU: FromStatus PositivustoStatus Socialis Activusvia Two Forms of Transnational Solidarity

“…There is much less industrial relations research into the Viking case, which may be related to the fact that the case was settled in a secret agreement, 106 and never had any legislative consequences in Finland. 107…”