Laval Un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet
| Laval Un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet | |
|---|---|
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| Court | European Court of Justice |
| Decided | 18 December 2007 |
| Citation(s) | C-341/05; [2008] IRLR 160 |
| Keywords | |
| Right to strike, freedom to provide services, Posted Workers Directive | |
Laval Un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet (2007) C-341/05 is an EU law case, relevant to all labour law within the European Union, including UK labour law, which held that there is a positive right to strike. However, it also held that the right to strike must be exercised proportionately and in particular this right was subject to justification where it could infringe the right to freedom to provide services under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union article 56 (ex TEC article 49).
Laval was shortly preceded by another case involving the right to strike on freedom of establishment The Rosella, and by the influential European Court of Human Rights decision in Demir and Baykara v Turkey. It was soon implicitly reversed by the Rome I Regulation, recital 35, which states that in terms of conflicts of laws, mandatory rules for employees "can only be derogated from to their benefit."
A Latvian company, Laval Un Partneri Ltd won a contract from the Swedish government to renovate schools. Laval Ltd posted Latvian workers to Sweden to work on site. These workers earned much less than comparable Swedish workers. The Swedish Building Workers' Union (Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet) asked Laval Ltd to sign its collective agreement. This collective agreement would have been more favourable than the terms required to protect posted workers under the Posted Workers Directive, and also contained a clause for setting pay that would not allow Laval Ltd to determine in advance what the pay would be. Laval Ltd refused to sign the collective agreement. The Swedish Builders Union, supported by the Electricians Union called a strike to blockade Laval Ltd's building sites. As a result, Laval Ltd could not do business in Sweden. It claimed that the blockade infringed its right to free movement of services under TEC article 49 (now TFEU article 56). The Swedish court referred the matter to the ECJ.
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