The Issue of Social ‘Dumping’
Regional integration such as the development of the European Union (EU) has brought significant implications for industrial relations.65 In the Treaty of Rome (1957), some consideration was given to social policy issues related to the creation of the European Community. In the EU, the terms ‘social policy’ or ‘social dimension’ are used to cover a number of issues including in particular labor law and working conditions, aspects of employment and vocational training, social security and pensions. There have been a number of significant developments in EU social policy over the past four decades. The Social Charter of the Council of Europe came into effect in 1965. In 1987, the major objective of the implementation of the Single European Act was to establish the Single European Market (SEM) on 31 December 1992, in order to enhance the free movement of goods, money and people within the SEM. The social dimension aims to achieve a large labor market by eliminating the barriers that restrict the freedom of movement and the right of domicile within the SEM. The European Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (often referred to simply as the Social Charter) was introduced in 1989, and has guided the development of social policy in the 1990s.66 Naturally, the social dimension has been the subject of much debate: proponents defend the social dimension as a means of achieving social justice and equal treatment for EU citizens, while critics see it as a kind of ‘social engineering’.67
The current treaty for the EU is the Treaty of Lisbon which came into force in December 2009.68 The Treaty of Lisbon guarantees the enforcement of a Charter of Fundamental Rights that covers civil, political, economic and social rights, which are legally binding not only on the EU and its institutions, but also on the member states as regards the implementation of EU law. It also reaffirms important steps to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of gender, race and color and mentions social rights applied within companies, e.g. workers' rights to be informed, to negotiate and take collective action – in other words, the right to strike. The European Commission