The war unleashed by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the results of the process of reforming the European Social Charter system are two of the main themes of the 2022 report published on 11 September by the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR).
The first of these events led the Organisation to exclude Russia from March 2022, which - de facto - put an end to its status as a State Party to the Charter and had a profound impact on Ukrainian citizens’ access to social rights.
The Committee expresses its deep concern for the Ukrainian population, but also “for all refugees, asylum seekers and others fleeing the conflict”.
It calls for the rights guaranteed to Ukrainians by the Charter to be protected both inside and outside Ukraine, and stresses that when the time comes for reconstruction, social rights must be included in the objectives.
With regard to the reform process, the ECSR welcomes the “enhanced dialogue with States Parties” envisaged by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
In 2022, the ECSR examined 33 reports submitted by States Parties and adopted 611 conclusions.
Non-compliance issues included excessively long working hours and working weeks, inadequate pay, preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, and restrictions on the right to unionise and the right to collective bargaining.
In addition, the number of collective claims has continued to rise, putting pressure on the ECSR’s ability to reduce the existing backlog and leading it to insist on “the urgent need for adequate resources”.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/8hr (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)