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

Charles Woolfson (1) , Jeff Sommers (2)

1 LU - University of Latvia
2 Stockholm School of Economics

The accession to the European Union of new member states from central and eastern Europe, with weak trade union movements, poorly developed social dialogue and inferior working conditions, has been viewed as a threat to regulated labour standards in the EU-15. This article examines a high-profile labour dispute arising from the conditions of Latvian construction contract labour in Sweden. The dispute exposes weaknesses in the protective floor of minimum standards offered by the posted workers Directive. It also goes to the core of the debate about the preservation of a ‘European social model' and the proposed Services Directive.

Mots clés: EU enlargement; European social model; posted workers Directive; labour standards; industrial disputes; construction industry

Charles Woolfson, Jeff Sommers. Labour Mobility in Construction: European Implications of the Laval un Partneri Dispute with Swedish Labour. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 2006, 12 (1), pp.49-68. ⟨10.1177/0959680106061371⟩. ⟨hal-00570949⟩