EU 노동법제에 관한 연구

Abstract

In Korea, there has been no prior researches dealing EU labour legislation in depth. This paper, therefore, is firstly aiming at describing the general features of EU labour legislation on an objective point of view. This study starts from looking at the formation process of the EU labour legislation first, then examines its current system, structure and legal effects in general. In fact, EU labour legislation itself is still in the process of developing, thus it is necessary to understand the past transitional process beforehand in order to grasp the contents of the current law. In addition, unlike general international organizations, EU has its own legislative power. This means it is essential to understand the mutual relationship between the EU legislation and legislations of the member states prior to discussing the normative effect of the EU labor legislation. This paper focuses on the principle of equal treatment, working time and occupational safety, irregular work and restructuring issues in particular. To discuss those mentioned subjects, this paper mainly deals with the Treaties and Directives related to labour issues along with some decisions from the European Court of Justice for certain cases. Based on this, this paper is drawing out the characteristics of EU labour legislation and examining its connection with Korean legislation at the same time. The European Court of Justice has taken the principle of equal treatment as a general principle and has recognized so-called ‘direct effect’. Knowing that EU itself has been faced with this issue since the 1970s, it may make a good comparison to the Korean situation. Also EU has been making its continuous efforts, in spite of the continuous objection from England, to form a unificative labour market through equalization of working conditions along with the universal objective of improving the quality of life. And it is worthy of notice that EU approves a collective agreement concluded by social partners as a pattern of Directive in order to reflect the industrial or sectoral characteristics and diversities. In the issues of irregular work, the standing out point is that the Directive for part-time workers or fixed-term workers has been developed through social dialogues between employees and employers. It is a good comparison to the Korean case where compromising settlement is hardly found as both employees and employers stay in discussing the legitimacy of irregular work itself. Various Directives, concerning the protection of employees in case of the collective redundancy and the transfer or merger of undertakings and the insolvency, have been introduced simultaneously since the 1970s. It is due to the restructuring process occurring supra-nationally as making the single Europe. Considering that legislation related to this issue are to be proceeded sporadically after 1990 in Korea, the EU way can be a good comparison with the Korean way.