The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted a Resolution on the 60th Anniversary of the European Social Charter and the 25th Anniversary of the Revised European Social Charter the at the meeting of its Executive Committee of 22-23 March 2021.
Both, the 1961 Charter and the Revised Charter of 1996, “have been landmark human rights instruments for the protection and enforcement of fundamental trade union, workers’ and social rights and the improvement of working and living conditions of people in Europe”.
Both Charters also constitute, in particular in times of social, economic or other crisis, “one of the last safeguards to protect fundamental rights of trade unions, workers and citizens, in particular the most vulnerable such as elderly people, children, people with disabilities and migrants”.
Using the momentum of these anniversaries, ETUC calls in particular on the Council of Europe and its institutions as well as Member States to improve the effective implementation of the rights enshrined in the Revised Charter, in accordance with the 2014 Turin Process and recently adopted reports of the Steering Committee for Human Rights on ‘Improving the protection of social rights in Europe’.
Furthermore, it calls on the European Union (EU) and its institutions to underline the importance of the EU respecting all the social rights enshrined in the European Social Charter by adhering to both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Revised Charter (and the collective complaints procedure) and to ensure that in the design, interpretation and implementation of EU legislation, the European Social Charter is duly taken into account.
