Labour Mobility in Construction: European Implications of the Laval un Partneri Dispute with Swedish Labour

Stepping up to strike: a union mobilization case study of Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands

“…Four influential ECJ judgments, also referred to as the 'Laval quartet' 9 , have fuelled the debate and changed the level playing field with regards to posting. These forced countries to change regulations and trade union practices, as the rulings constrained trade union bargaining rights and rights to collective action (Dølvik and Visser 2009;Woolfson and Sommers 2006;Bengtsson 2014). While the impact of the Laval quartet decisions was limited on the regulatory context and on trade union practices in the Netherlands 10 , posted workers have become an increasing migrant group over the years, especially in the Dutch construction sector.…”

“…Violations of migrants' labour rights and cases of social dumping have been reported across Europe and firms' regulatory non-compliance (in various degrees) become systematic due to the blurring boundaries of EU regulatory frameworks (Cremers 2011;Houwerzijl 2014;Lillie et al 2014;Van Hoek and Houwerzijl 2011;Lillie 2010;Lillie 2012). All the while national industrial relations systems seem to have become ill adapted to effectively deal with the social consequences and downward labour market pressures of recent intra-EU mobility (Wagner 2014;Lillie 2012;Woolfson and Sommers 2006;Dølvik and Visser 2009). 2 While employers have been experimenting with EU mobility frameworks, pushing and transgressing its boundaries, trade unions and enforcement authorities have struggled to keep up with the sheer number of migrants temporarily working in their constituency and with the variety of employment arrangements used by employers to reduce labour costs.…”

The Global Union Federations and temporary labour migration in Malaysia

“…6 Although no definitive figures are available, survey evidence suggests that in original member states, migrants from the countries added to the EU in both the 2004 and 2007 expansions are strongly over-represented in sectors that rely on unskilled and semiskilled manual labour, in particular, agriculture, hospitality and construction (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EFILWC), 2009: 6-7). 7 For accounts of trade union responses in individual countries, see Krings (2009) and Woolfson and Somers (2006). Note also that although it clearly reflects sectoral exposure, the ITF's programme for seafarers is an important exception to the generalisation that GUF trends have necessarily been driven by events in Europe.…”

Mutual recognition ‘on trial’: the long road to services liberalization

“…But as the German case illustrates, the truth is more ambiguous as only minimum wages -but not collective wage agreements -can be made mandatory. Like Germany, Scandinavian countries had come under pressure, as the ECJ does not treat minimum wages and collective agreements in the same way although they are institutional equivalents (Woolfson and Sommers 2006).…”