On 14 January, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Nicholas Emiliou, issued a non-binding opinion regarding Case C-19/23 of the CJEU, which could open the door to the complete annulment of the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages, following a complaint from two member states.
This Directive delivers concrete improvements for workers in multiple ways. For those countries with statutory minimum wages, it requires governments to assess and ensure their adequacy using clear criteria like purchasing power, cost of living, and average wage levels – effectively pushing for higher minimum wages that allow for decent living standards.
Additionally, it mandates countries with low collective bargaining coverage (below 80%) to create and implement specific action plans to promote collective bargaining agreements (CBA), while also requiring steps to prevent union busting and protect workers who exercise their rights. This combination creates a strong framework that not only raises the floor for minimum wages but also strengthens workers’ collective power to negotiate better conditions.
This is especially important for countries such as the ones in Central and Eastern Europe, which currently have very low levels of CBA coverage. Over the last decades, international solidarity has supported organising and negotiating efforts of unions in countries with lower union density and low CBA coverage. Now the effects of this work could be undermined by the rejection of a supportive legal framework such as this Directive.
It’s already having positive effects.
The Adequate Minimum Wage Directive has already incentivised several national governments to re-examine the adequacy of their minimum wages, boosting the incomes of millions of low-paid workers throughout Europe. The Directive also pushes member states to support and develop plans to implement strategies for more collective bargaining agreements in their economies, a type of contract currently covering European workers very differently.
This dignity threshold is now in the crosshairs of the opinion, which, surprisingly, defends intra-EU competition based on lower minimum wages within the EU
Annulling the Directive would represent a major setback for all workers
The opinion from Mr. Emiliou inexplicably calls for the entire directive to be annulled. This would also include removing the obligation for member states to have an action plan to promote collective bargaining and to take measures to prevent anti-union practices. These are already obligations for member states under the European Social Charter and the ILO’s fundamental conventions, but their implementation can benefit from this Directive.
It’s also useful to remember that the lengthy negotiations that led to the approval of the Directive throughout the European legislative process took into consideration many concerns raised by stakeholders from several members states. .
Finally, as the European Transport Workers’ Federation, we want to highlight that the Court of Justice of the European Union is not obliged to follow this opinion.
We hope the court will uphold its long-standing jurisprudence and confirm the directive in its entirety, in line with the legal opinions of Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the vast majority of Member States.