Book Review: The Revised European Social Charter, An Article by Article Commentary by Karin Lukas
| Author | Effrosyni Bakirtzi |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627221137606 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Not by chance, a major obstacle to improving the economic conditions of independent contrac-
tors in general (not only economically-dependent workers) is competition law, which tends to look
at collectively agreed pay rates for self-employed workers as a –questionable, if not unlawful –
concerted restriction on the free-market mechanism which determines the prices of services.
If economically-dependent workers are deemed to be vulnerable subjects who cannot defend
themselves through the market and who need to be defended from the market, then Schubert
and Krause’s stance in favour of the labour shield (i.e. of the immunity) from competition/antitrust
law for such workers seems fully justified.
Still, the core question remains whether such a shield –and the same could be said for any other
labour law protection –should be provided to economically-dependent workers and/or also to those
who are not economically, but personally dependent on their clients, as other labour law scholars
argue.
Given that the final emphasis in the book, embedded in Schubert’s last chapter, is to promote the
holistic value of decent work, the choice of the scope of labour law coverage (and of the compe-
tition law shield) is just as important as the actual content of the guarantees.
Yet, there is no doubt that in fleshing out this policy choice, the –national and supranational –
authorities will take into account the accurate and thoughtful contributions of this book, which
surely achieves its proposed goal to serve as a solid and sound reference for any further debate
on the matter.
ORCID iD
Marco Biasi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1164-6790
Karin Lukas, The Revised European Social Charter, An Article by Article Commentary, 2021, Cheltenham –
Northampton, Edward Elgar Publishing, 398 pages, ISBN 978-1-78990-363-8.
Reviewed by: Effrosyni Bakirtzi ,Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany
DOI: 10.1177/13882627221137606
The human rights framework for economic, social, and cultural rights across the globe is composed
of several systems, both at the international and regional levels. Part of the European system is the
European Social Charter (ESC), a treaty and wide-ranging and comprehensive legal instrument
adopted in 1961 under the auspices of the Council of Europe (CoE). The significance of this instru-
ment is that it was one of the first international human rights treaties to include a comprehensive list
of social rights, although its state obligations and monitoring mechanisms were weaker than those
in the system of the European Convention on Human Rights, its counterpart treaty for civil and pol-
itical rights. Nevertheless, several developments over time made improvements in this area. In
1991, an Amending Protocol to the ESC enhanced the supervisory mechanism, while a system
of collective complaints was introduced in 1995. The Revised European Social Charter (RESC)
was adopted in 1996 with some additional rights. The European Committee on Social Rights
392 European Journal of Social Security 24(4)
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