Article 118a

Article 118a expands upon these provisions by emphasizing the improvement and harmonization of working conditions in Member States. It was enacted in order to provide greater health and safety protection to workers in the workplace. Paragraph 2 gives the Council of Ministers the mandate to adopt, through directives "minimum requirements for gradual implementation having regard to the conditions and technical rules obtaining in each of the Member States." The second part of this paragraph goes on to say that "[s]uch directives shall avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of small and medium-sized undertakings."

The third paragraph states that "the provisions adopted pursuant to this Article shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent measures for the protection of working conditions compatible with this Treaty."

 

The accelerated voting rules allow the Council, and ultimately the Commission, to act with unprecedented speed in formulating and enacting social legislation. While this may be an asset with regard to the protection of workers' rights to health and safety in the workplace, it potentially poses serious problems with regard to the Community economy. The Council, and the Commission, can enact legislation before there has been adequate discussion of its possible effects. The qualified majority vote rule allows the larger Member States, who tend to have the most restrictive national health and safety legislation, overrule the objections of the smaller Member States, many of whom tend to be poorer and have the least restrictive health and safety rules.

The second basic criticism of labor regulation is that transnational harmonization of labor standards will restrict the benefits which might otherwise flow from economic integration. Harmonized regulation requires that national systems which are varying stages of economic development must converge with regard to standards. This, in turn, would remove a source of comparative advantage for those nations which have lower labor and social costs. These states might then see harmonization as another form of protectionism used by more developed states against lower-cost goods and services. In the long run, the lower costs of the less-developed states would attract more investment and eventually bid up the demand for labor in those states. Eventually, convergence between the less-developed states and the more-developed states would occur. In addition, a removal of barriers to the movement of goods, services, and capital would lead to a process of "natural selection," whereby states would adopt the most efficient form. A central standard would inhibit these eventual developments and even lead to an overall welfare loss.

 

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