EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / COPENHAGEN - The Danish government has been advised to seek guarantees on its collective bargaining rights system before the EU's new treaty is ratified.

The call came from the opposition Social Democrats, who have been on alert since the EU's highest court in December ruled that a Swedish trade union picket against cheap Latvian labour was illegal.

"We believe the Lisbon Treaty does secure collective bargaining rights, but the court has delivered a very unclear verdict, which we advise the government to interpret in a satisfactory way before signing the Lisbon Treaty," the chairperson of the Danish parliament's Europe committee, Svend Auken, told EUobserver.

The European Court of Justice ruled in December: "the right to take collective action must be recognised as a fundamental right," but it also said that "the exercise of that right may be subject to certain restrictions."

The ruling said that Swedish unions had breached EU law when they forced a Latvian company to observe local pay deals in the so-called Vaxholm case.

There is now concern that the entire Nordic system of collective bargaining whereby employers and workers agree conditions for the workplace – including pay – could be undermined by the December judgement.

The collective system is seen as underpinning the 'flexicurity' social model in the Nordic countries, which combines easy hiring and firing with high benefits for the unemployed.

A rare alliance
"Interpretations of the judgement are every which way and opinions among the judges in the court must have differed widely," says Mr Auken, who is one of Denmark's most senior politicians.

His demand for clarification was last week supported in the Europe committee by members of the two leftist opposition parties and also by the right-wing eurosceptic Danish People's Party. Together, the parties make up a majority in Danish parliament.

This rare alliance has so far forced the liberal-conservative government to promise to analyse the consequences of the Vaxholm ruling before the summer.

But this may not be enough to satisfy the opposition.

"We already have criticised the government for letting the issue rest for two months, and I find it very worrying if the government is not able to produce anything before summer," said Mr Auken.

The opposition's demand is also backed by members of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, currently running a petition on the same issue.

The Danish government plans to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in parliament this spring.

Copenhagen asked to check workers' rights before EU treaty ratified