British Jobs for British Workers? UK Industrial Action and Free Movement of Services in EU Law

Abstract

The European Court of Justice’s new approach to posting of workers is explored in light of recent UK industrial action. Four doctrinal positions are identified and probed: the host-state standards posted workers can enjoy, the role of collective standards and action to set and enforce host-state standards for posted workers, the liability of unions and employers under Article 49 EC, and demarcation of the boundaries between free movement of services and other Treaty personal freedoms. While the inspiration informing the new approach, adapting to enlargement and encouraging cross-border trade, is appropriate, the UK disputes help powerfully to illustrate how the doctrinal positions thus inspired create, especially in certain combinations, outcomes which are doctrinally dubious, socially and politically undesirable, and potentially highly socially inflammable. In many respects, the new approach is the wrong approach.