10.6092/issn.1561-8048/13356
application/pdf
1561-8048
13356
1
en
Emanuele Menegatti
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Editorial
Text.Serial.Journal
https://illej.unibo.it/
14
Editorial
2021-07-29
2021-07-26
2021-07-29
2021-07-29
I-II
ILLeJ
Emanuele Menegatti
2021/07/29
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/13356
I
Università di Bologna
1561-8048
1
en
II
Editorial
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/13356/12941
14
Editorial                                                                         Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Emanuele Menegatti                                                                       Issue 1, Vol. 14 (2021)
                                                                                               ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/13356




                                              Editorial
                                      Emanuele Menegatti


     This issue of the Italian Labour Law e-Journal is the product of a joint publishing initiative
 with Diritti Lavori e Mercati journal (issue no. 2/2021, forthcoming), dedicated to the recent
 proposal for a Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union.
     The Commission’s initiative comes after a long discussion about the desirability of a
 European instrument on minimum wages. The topic had already received a big deal of
 attention in the aftermath of the eastward enlargement of the EU, when the problem of wage
 competition in the single market came to the fore. The debate was then relaunched by the
 great recession started in 2008, bringing an unprecedented increase of in-work poverty and
 wage inequalities; situation exacerbated by the current crisis generated by the pandemic.
     In the State of the Union Address of September 2020, President von der Leyen recognized
 that “wage dumping destroys the dignity of work, penalises the entrepreneur who pays decent
 wages and distorts fair competition in the Single Market”; hence the pledge to put forward
 “a legal proposal to support Member States to set up a framework for minimum wages”
 granting everyone “access to minimum wages either through collective agreements or
 through statutory minimum wages”. The Commission’s legal proposal took eventually the
 form of a Directive, presented on 28 October 2020 after the conclusion of consultations
 under article 154 TFEU. The draft legislation is based on the social policy chapter, and here
 on article 153.1, letter b), according to which the Union shall support and complement the
 activities of the Member States in the field of “working conditions”.
     Although the initiative is at the top of the political agenda of the European Commission,
 the reaction has been lukewarm or even outright negative. First of all, because of the doubts
 surrounding its legal basis. As I am going to highlight in my contribution (Much ado about little:
 The Commission proposal for a Directive on adequate wages), the EU limited competence on “pay”
 (Article 153.5 TFEU) represents a relevant obstacle for the proposal, either for its legitimacy
 or for its effectiveness. Even from a pure political perspective, the legislative process is not
 going to be smooth as explained by Thorsten Schulten and Torsten Müller (A paradigm shift
 towards Social Europe? The proposed Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union), since
 the Directive may mark a fundamental paradigm shift involving the model of European
 integration and the role that social Europe should play within it.
     The sensitivity of the issues dealt with by the Commission’s proposal is also testified by
 the division caused among European Social Partners. The European Trade Union
 Confederation has immediately shown an enthusiastic support for an initiative promoting
 wage adequacy, as made clear by the contribution written by its General Secretary Luca
 Visentini (Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages: European institutions must respect the promise made
 to workers!), advocating for bolder and more effective solutions. On the contrary, as reported

 
     Professor of Labour Law, University of Bologna-Alma Mater Studiorum.
Emanuele Menegatti                                                         Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                  Issue 1, Vol. 14 (2021)
                                                                                                 Editorial


by Jeanette Grenfors and Elvira Gentile (The minimum wage Directive proposal and the promotion
of collective bargaining: the voice of SGI-Europe), SGI Europe - as well as the entire employers’ side
- is worried about the risks the Directive may represent for national well-established industrial
relation and collective bargaining systems.
     Not surprisingly, the Commission’s proposal got a mixed reception from member states
too, explainable by the large differences between national wage-setting mechanisms and
systems of industrial relations. In this issue we give room to various national perspectives on
the Directive, which are obviously much influenced by the kind of impact it may have on the
national system. As explained by Barbara Surdykowska and Łukasz Pisarczyk (The Impact of
the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the European Union on Polish Labour Law), the
adoption of the directive would require significant changes in Polish law, which are not very
likely to take place given the current condition of social partners, the attitude of the
authorities and other political forces. Some efforts may be required also for the German
system. This is particularly true in connection with the Directive’s provisions aiming at
increasing collective bargaining coverage, which is quite low in Germany, to the point that
Maximilian Fuchs (Notes on the proposal for a directive on adequate minimum wages: a German
perspective) is doubtful whether the next German government, soon in office, will continue to
support the minimum wage project. For other countries, the foreseeable impact of the
directive could be more modest. In this respect, Thomas Pasquier article (Proposal for a
Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union: a look at French law) explains how the
French system seems more demanding compared to the prescriptions delivered by the
proposal. Massimiliano Delfino (The proposal for an EU directive on adequate minimum wages and
its impact on Italy) sees a limited direct impact of the Directive on the Italian system. However,
he believes that the Commission initiative has the merit to bring again at the centre of the
Italian political debate the opportunity to address the issue of statutory intervention on
wages.




Copyright © 2021 Emanuele Menegatti. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License.




https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/13356                                                                 II
