European transnational company agreements (TCAs) – designed to ensure appropriate employment conditions within the entire business group, including subsidiary companies – are often perceived as opportunities to promote social dialogue. However, the limited collective bargaining coverage and/or lower employment standards that characterise Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have shaped a labour relations environment different from that of Western Europe. In this volume, a group of labour law experts thoroughly investigates the labour-related challenges arising in this context. 

The overall approach is twofold: relevant literature and court decisions are taken into account, but a major strength of the endeavour derives from in-depth personal interviews with trade unionists, representatives of employers’ organisations, and European Works Council delegates. Building on this rich foundation, the contributors examine such factors as the following: 

•           the structural fragility of TCAs combined with their continuing symbolic significance;

  
  



•           linking social dialogue with the simultaneous digitalisation;

  
  



•           bridging voluntary corporate initiatives and authentic, autonomous collective bargaining;

  
  



•           effect of such EU legislation as the 2022 Adequate Minimum Wages Directive;

  
  



•           advancing occupational safety and health;

  
  



•           hybrid forms of disruption and symbolic protest;

  
  



•           information, consultation, and participation rights during cross-border corporate reorganisations; and

  
  



•           employers’ obligations in subcontracting and supply chain contexts. 

  
  

Recognising that European labour law and social policy have entered a new phase in the past decade, the contributors present the role of TCAs as a significant element in a broader transformation of labour relations. Unions, employers, policymakers, practitioners, and academics concerned with labour and employment law will welcome not only the contributors’ critical diagnosis and practical policy-relevant guidance but also their recognition that TCAs can serve as laboratories of transnational labour solidarity. 

This book was created as a result of research project no. 2019/33/B/HS5/02067, financed by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki).