80
Volume 04 Issue 01-2022
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
VOLUME
04
I
SSUE
01
Pages:
80-85
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2020:
5.
453
)
(2021:
5.
952
)
OCLC
–
1176274523
METADATA
IF
–
7.659
Publisher:
The USA Journals
ABSTRACT
The article examines the interaction of the national labor legislation of the member states of the European Union with
European labor law, the influence of the Labor law of the European Union on the national legislation of the member
states, the features of the labor legislation of the European Union, which differ from the legislation of other countries,
a comparative analysis of the labor legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
KEYWORDS
Labor standards, national labor law, labor legislation, supranational labor law, working conditions.
INTRODUCTION
Today, in the European Union, with an area of 4 381 376
square kilometers, live more than 500 million people,
representing more than 100 nationalities, speaking 46
languages. Geographically, 15 of the member states are
from Western Europe and 11 from Central and Eastern
Europe. Two (Malta, Cyprus) are located in the
Mediterranean basin.
Member States of the European Union vary according
to their form of government, regional government
structure, an administrative form of government and
level of economic development.The legal nature of the
European Union and its integration processes is
complex. The multifaceted «parallel lines» between the
national legal systems and international law, national
Research Article
FEATURES OF THE LABOR LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Submission Date:
January 09, 2022,
Accepted Date:
January 20, 2022,
Published Date:
January 30, 2022
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume04Issue01-13
Makhamatov Mahmud Makhamataminovich
Acting Assistant Professor of the Department of International Law and Human Rights, Tashkent State Law
University, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Law, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theamericanjou
rnals.com/index.php/ta
jpslc
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
81
Volume 04 Issue 01-2022
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
VOLUME
04
I
SSUE
01
Pages:
80-85
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2020:
5.
453
)
(2021:
5.
952
)
OCLC
–
1176274523
METADATA
IF
–
7.659
Publisher:
The USA Journals
law and European Union Law, European Union Law
and international law are a completely new reality in
the modern system of international legal relations.
Methods of implementing European Union law into
national legal systems are the most delicate aspect of
the integration process [13, – P. 7.].
More than 240 million people are employed in the
European Union, therefore, the impact of European
labor legislation is huge. Therefore, a small number of
works have been done in our country on this issue, and
the intensification of cooperation between the
Republic of Uzbekistan and European Union member
states, the employment of citizens of our country in
European
countries
creates
a
need
for
a
comprehensive study of labor legislation.
European labor law as the labor law of the Republic of
Uzbekistan complies with all the basic principles and
rules of international labor law. As of December 1, 2021,
the Republic of Uzbekistan has ratified 18 conventions
of the International Labor Organization (hereinafter -
ILO). There is a difference in the status of ratification of
ILO conventions by European Union member states:
Spain (133), France (128), Italy (114), Denmark, the
Czech Republic, Greece, and Hungary (73 each), other
countries have ratified relatively little, for example,
Estonia [5]. The Republic of Uzbekistan and each of the
European Union member states have ratified all 8
conventions of the ILO which is recognized as
fundamental [6].
The national legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan
and the member states of the European Union is based
on international labor standards. In addition, the legal
systems of Uzbekistan and the member states of the
European Union are basically the same - they belong to
the Roman-German legal family, and we can see their
similarities in several ways. In particular:
the first: by sources of law (the main source of law is a
normative legal document);
the second: by codification (European Union member
states have labor codes in a number of countries, also
it should be noted that most of the similarities here are
due to Eastern European countries, whereas, in many
Western European countries, labor relations are
governed by civil codes).
One of the peculiarities of the labor legislation of the
Republic of Uzbekistan is that it is valid in the territory
of our state, in other words, it has a national character.
European labor law is superior to national law and is
binding on all member states. The jurisdiction of the
European Union is limited to the jurisdiction of the
member states and applies the principles of
proportionality and subsidiarity. The European Union
can only act within the territory agreed by its member
states. Labor rights are formed independently at the
national level within the state, and the European Union
complements national legislation.
According to researcher I.A Filipova, European labor
law was originally developed as one of the tools to
create a common market that will help to gradually
integrate into economic integration and political
context. Later, the European social model began to
develop through the harmonization of national
legislation [11, - P. 203]. According to the approach of
M. Schmid approach, “the harmonization process is
carried out at the European Union level through the
use of flexible methods aimed at strengthening basic
social rights, as well as the convergence of national
laws [7, - P. 12].
European labor law includes documents of the
European Union (mainly on socio-economic issues) and
documents of the Council of Europe (on human rights).
82
Volume 04 Issue 01-2022
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
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VOLUME
04
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01
Pages:
80-85
SJIF
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(2020:
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(2021:
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952
)
OCLC
–
1176274523
METADATA
IF
–
7.659
Publisher:
The USA Journals
The documents of the European Union may also
contain references to Council of Europe documents [1].
In addition to the European Social Charter (1996) and
regional international treaties, European Union
legislation and norms of judicial practice are also a
source of European labor law. European legislation
includes rules, regulations and directives adopted by
the Council of the European Union and the European
Parliament according to the proposal of the European
Commission. These documents are adopted based on
the memorandum of associations and are therefore
called “acquired rights” [13, - P. 402]. Decisions and
regulations are directly applicable, and directives are
enforced by national law. The directive obliges the
country to take measures to achieve the goals set out
in the social partnership documents for a certain
period of time (usually 3 years). The directive is a
document that has its characteristics in the system of
European Union legislation. It mainly can be targeted
at all member states, and only occasionally at one or
more member states. Furthermore, it is not enough to
provide the text of the directive in the law, all the
necessary legal measures must be taken to achieve the
goal set in the directive.
The documents of the European Union take
precedence over national law. If the state does not
bring its national legislation in line with the directive,
the case can be challenged in the court of the European
Union. In some cases, countries require national court
judges to directly ask the European Court of
Luxembourg to interpret European law.
The above-mentioned issues were related to some
features of the European Union norm-setting
documents. These documents are also specific to the
legal regulation of key issues in the field of labor,
including labor protection, employment contracts,
working hours, rest time, salaries, protection of
personal data of employees and social partnership, we
will consider these aspects below.
European labor law regulates primarily regulates issues
related to employee health and occupational safety.
The Council of the European Union adopts guidelines,
the basic norms of European labor law - the minimum
requirements. They must be followed by all member
states of the European Union. The purpose of these
standards is to ensure progress in improving working
conditions and occupational safety. As mentioned
above, European standards complement the national
legislation of member states of the European Union.
Most of the norms of European labor law are set out in
the directives. For example, the Council of the
European Union Framework Directive 89/391 / EES of 12
June 1989 [2] sets minimum standards, according to it,
if the level of protection of employees’ health in certain
member states of the European Union is high, it cannot
be reduced. The directive envisages a risk-based
approach in the field of occupational safety, which
requires employers to take preventive measures,
assess and eliminate risks, and prevent harm to the
lives and health of employees. The directive envisages
a risk-based approach in the field of occupational
safety, which requires employers to take preventive
measures, assess and eliminate risks, and prevent harm
to the lives and health of employees. Directives of the
Council of the European Union are often concerned
with specific occupational safety issues.
In European labor law, there is no such thing as a
“European employment contract”. However, there is
an employment contract itself, the contract is
concluded for an indefinite period, as a general rule,
also each member state must determine under what
circumstances a fixed-term contract becomes an
indefinite contract. This is stated in the Council of the
European Union's Directive 1999/70/ CE of 28 June
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Volume 04 Issue 01-2022
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VOLUME
04
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Pages:
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SJIF
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(2021:
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952
)
OCLC
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Publisher:
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1999, as well as in the Framework Agreement on Work
for an indefinite period of 18 March 1999. In such case,
the employer must notify the employee of the terms of
the employment contract within 2 months after the
start of work (Directive 91/533/EEC of 14 October 1991).
Directive 91/533/EEC contains the necessary terms of a
written employment contract, letter of guarantee or
other documents, which are as follows:
Identify the parties;
A place of work;
Name (position), qualification, category or job title;
Date of commencement of work activities;
Annual vacation period;
Notice period in case of termination of the
contract;
Components of wages and the frequency of its
payment, in which currency it is paid;
Daily and weekly working hours;
Recall
employee-related
social
partnership
documents;
Duration of business trips abroad (if any).
In several European countries, there is no general
requirement for a notice period in the termination of
an employment contract. In many cases, this is
determined by the network agreement and other
documents of the social partnership, and therefore it
should be specified in the employment contract.
Another feature is that, unlike the labor legislation of
the Republic of Uzbekistan (Labor Code of the
Republic of Uzbekistan, Article 74) [4], under European
law, there is no requirement that an employment
contract is in writing.
According to European Union Regulation 593/2008 on
the right to contractual obligations, if an employment
contract is concluded between representatives of
different states, it is governed by the legislation of the
country chosen by the employer-employee agreement.
The restriction in such a selection is that the imperative
requirements of the state in which the employee is
working (e.g. working time limit, minimum wage, etc.)
must not be violated.
The absence of strict restrictions on the content of the
employment contract allows the European Union
member states to independently determine additional
terms of the employment contract in accordance with
the legislation of the member states. For instance, the
law of France provides for the following:
Movement status (allowing the employer to
transfer the employee to another place of work, to
another place);
The condition of non-competition (absence of the
right to be employed by competing companies
after the dismissal of the employee);
The right to inviolability (which was introduced in
2017 to ensure the inviolability of the employee’s
vacation time) and others.
“Traditional employment is full-time employment
based on an employment contract with a particular
employer” [14. – P. 118]. Here working hours play a key
role. From the point of view of European labor law,
working time is the entire period during which an
employee is at the disposal of the employer in the
workplace, in the performance of his work or duties
(Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and
the Council of the European Union of November 4,
2003 "On Some Aspects of the Organization of
Working Hours"). According to I.A Filipova, such a
"broad" definition of working hours in European labor
law does not directly link working hours to wages, but
only affects the health of employees. [11, – P. 205].
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Volume 04 Issue 01-2022
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Indeed, if we focus on the practice of the European
Union court, non-compliance with the requirements of
Directive 2003/88 / ES in the legislation of Spain,
Germany, France, the Czech Republic and other
countries, in particular, working time is considered only
in cases where the time worked is calculated [3].
According to Directive 2003/88 / EC, each Member
State of the European Union is required to provide
workers with annual paid leave of at least 4 weeks.
According to Article 134 of the current Labor Code of
the Republic of Uzbekistan, the annual basic leave
should not be less than 15 working days [4]. We can see
that this period is slightly different from the
international and European standards. At the same
time, “It is clear from our current labor legislation that
a five-day working week on Saturdays is defined as the
addition of annual leave to employees, even though it
is a traditional holiday. In other words, Convention
№52 on Paid Annual Leave stipulates more preferential
rules for employees in calculating the duration of
annual leave than in labor laws or other regulations.
This means that in accordance with our labor law, the
provisions of the convention must be applied in such
relations. That is, Saturdays are not included in the
annual leave for employees working in a five-day
working week” [10, P. 104-105].
In addition to Directive 2003/88/EC, the European
Court of Justice of 20 January 2009 ruled that paid
leave cannot be replaced by paid compensation. The
period of incapacity for work is not included in this.
Termination of the employment contract will allow
replacing the paid leave, which is unpaid yet, with paid
compensation.
Lawyer M. Lovich notes that “European labor law is
aimed at developing social partnership. Increasing the
role of social partners will allow many issues to be
resolved without changing the legislation and
increasing the effectiveness of regulation, because the
social partners themselves agree on all the conditions
in advance” [8, - P. 103].
The European Confederation of Trade Unions and the
largest employers’ associations have reached a
number of inter-professional agreements, including on
long-distance work, anti-stress, anti-violence at work,
and others. It should also be noted that once the
agreement has been reached, the social partners will
direct their agreement to the agreement at the
national level without issuing a directive. It should also
be noted that once the agreement has been reached,
the social partners will direct their agreement to the
agreement at the national level without issuing a
directive. There are also European sectoral agreements
in the postal, agricultural and other fields, which must
comply with the requirements of previously adopted
directives. At the same time, the European Court of
Justice has the right to review its compliance with
European law.
According to researcher Ye.N.Egorova: “One of the
specific aspects of European labor law is that its
subject matter includes the regulation of the freedom
of movement of civilian workers within the European
Union for employment. The European Union labor law
regulates the formation and operation of a single
integrated labor market” [9. – P. 12].
One of the features of European labor law is that in
European labor law jurisprudence is recognized as a
source of law, as is the national legislation of the
Member States of the European Union. The decisions
of the European Court have been recognized as taking
precedence over national legislation and decisions of
national courts can significantly supplement existing
legislation. For example, in France, a court case has
created a new basis for the termination of an
employment contract not provided for in the French
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Labor Code: termination of an employment contract by
an employee through the fault of the employer and
termination of an employment contract by a court [12.
- P. 41].
As we can see, despite the existing differences in the
national labor legislation of the European Union
member states, there is a tendency to harmonize the
norms of national legislation through the general
norms of European labor law, which in turn allows for
more successful development in the common territory
of the European Union.
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Directive (EU) 2018/957 of the European
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