Reporting system of the European Social Charter

The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) monitors compliance with the European Social Charter under two separate procedures:

through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and non-governmental organisations (Collective Complaints procedure) and;
through reports drawn up by States parties (Reporting procedure).

The reporting procedure is set out in Part IV of the 1961 Charter as amended by the 1991 Turin Protocol (ETS No. 142), which despite not having entered into force is being applied on the basis of a unanimous decision taken by the Committee of Ministers.

he Reporting system: an overview

The European Committee of Social Rights monitors compliance with the Charter under two separate procedures: through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and non-governmental organisations (Collective Complaints procedure) and through reports drawn up by States parties (Reporting system).

The Reporting system is formally governed by Articles 21-29 of the 1961 Charter.

In the framework of the reporting system, States Parties regularly submit a report on the implementation of the Charter in law and in practice.

These reports are examined by the European Committee of Social Rights, which decides whether the national situations they describe comply with the Charter.

The decisions adopted by the Committee in the framework of this monitoring system, called conclusions, are published every year. They can be consulted using the European Social Charter Case law Database (HUDOC Charter).

Insofar as they refer to binding legal provisions and are adopted by a monitoring body established by the Charter, the conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights must be respected by the States concerned; however, they are not enforceable in the domestic legal systems.

In practice, this means that when the Committee rules that the situation in a country is not in compliance with the Charter, one cannot require the Committee’s conclusions to be enforced in domestic law as would be the case with a ruling by a court in the State concerned.

As the decisions adopted by the European Committee of Social Rights in the framework of the Collective Complaints procedure, the conclusions adopted within the reporting system are declaratory; in other words, they set out the law.

On this basis, national authorities are required to take measures to give them effect under domestic law. In this connection, domestic courts can declare invalid or set aside domestic legislation if the Committee has ruled that it is not in compliance with the Charter.

Drafting reports

Following the form for the reports to be submitted in pursuance of the Charter, national reports should give for each accepted provision of the Charter any pertinent information on measures adopted to ensure its application, mentioning in particular:

- the legal framework – any laws or regulations, collective agreements or other provisions that contribute to such application; as well as where relevant pertinent national case-law – relevant decisions by courts and other judicial bodies;

- the measures taken (administrative arrangements, programmes, action plans, projects, etc.) to implement the legal framework;

- any pertinent figures, statistics or any other relevant information enabling an evaluation of the extent to which these provisions are applied.

States parties reports should be accompanied by the principal laws and regulations on which the application of the accepted provisions of the Charter is based.

The reports should, wherever appropriate, specify explicitly:

- whether they are only concerned with the situation of nationals or whether they apply equally to the nationals of the other Parties;

- whether they are valid for the national territory in its entirety;

- whether they apply to all categories of persons included in the scope of the provision.

The information required, especially statistics, should, unless otherwise stated, be supplied for the period covered by the report. Where statistics are requested for any provision, it is understood that, if complete statistics are lacking, States parties may supply data or estimates based on ad hoc studies, specialised or sample surveys, or other scientifically valid methods, whenever they consider the information so collected to be useful and ensuring that the administrative effort required to collect data is in proportion with the desired acquisition of information.

The first State report following the entry into force of the Charter in respect of the State concerned should contain detailed information on all relevant aspects of the provision, whereas for subsequent reports it will suffice to up-date the information on the legal framework given in previous reports.

However, each report should contain appropriate explanations and/or information relating to developments of the situation in practice during the reference period. In addition, it is recalled that each report, except the first report, shall contain replies to any questions raised by the European Committee of Social Rights in its conclusions, whether questions of a general nature addressed to all States (such questions appear in the “general introduction”) or specific questions contained in the conclusions proper in respect of each State for each provision.

The reporting system in motion

In the early 1990s a reform of the reporting system was set in motion. The aim was to make the Charter more effective and efficient. The reform culminated in 1991 in a Protocol amending the Charter. This text improved the reporting system. It confirmed the political role of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and clarified the powers and responsibilities of the European Committee of Social Rights. The Protocol also increased the participation of the social partners and non-governmental organisations in the system.

Most countries have ratified the abovementioned Protocol, but it has still not come into force. It still requires ratification by, and, in some cases, the signature of four Council of Europe’s member States. Given this situation, in a decision taken unanimously by the States party to the Charter, the Committee of Ministers requested them to envisage the application of certain of the measures provided for in this Protocol before its entry into force, in so far as the text of the Charter will allow. Since 1992 then, and still in accordance with the 1961 Charter, the Reporting system has taken account of the new provisions in articles 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Protocol in question.

In addition to the innovations arising from the Protocol of 1991 and in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter, the Committee of Ministers has over the years introduced specific rules regarding the presentation of reports by States parties. In response to the difficulties in applying these rules, they have been modified and rationalised on a number of occasions – (cf. Committee of Ministers' decisions adopted in 1984, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2006).

Following the decision taken by the Committee of Ministers in 2006, the provisions the Charter have been divided into four thematic groups. States parties present a report on the provisions relating to one of the four thematic groups on an annual basis. Consequently each provision of the Charter is reported on once every four years.

The four groups of provisions are as follows:

Group 1: Employment, training and equal opportunities / Article 1 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 15 – Article 18 - Article 20 - Article 24 - Article 25.

Group 2: Health, social security and social protection / Article 3 - Article 11 - Article 12 - Article 1 - Article 14 - Article 23 - Article 30.

Group 3: Labour rights : Article 2 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 21 - Article 22 - Article 26 - Article 28 - Article 29.

Group 4: Children, families, migrants / Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 16 - Article 17 - Article 19 - Article 27 - Article 31.

In April 2014, the Committee of Ministers adopted new changes to the Charter’s monitoring system. The most important aim of the changes is to simplify the reporting system for States Parties having accepted the Collective Complaints procedure (see relevant list); the changes can be summarised as follows:

States which have accepted the Collective Complaints procedure will submit a simplified report every two years. To prevent this simplification from causing excessive fluctuations in the workload of the European Committee of Social Rights from year to year, the States which have accepted the collective complaints procedure so far have been divided into two groups. The groups are composed by distributing the States according to the number of complaints registered against them (from the highest to the lowest), as follows:

- Group A, made up of eight States: France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Finland;

- Group B, made up of seven States: Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, Norway, Slovenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic.

Following the enforcement of these changes, the monitoring system functions as follows:

	Normal report	Simplified report
October 2014 Provisions from Group 4 Children, families, migrants	All states except the ones from group A	States from group A
October 2015 Provisions from Group 1 Employment, training and equal opportunities	All states except the ones from group B	States from group B
October 2016 Provisions from Group 2 Heal, social security and social protection	All states except the ones from group B	States from group B
October 2017 Provisions from Group 3 Labour rights	All states except the ones from group A	States from group A
October 2018 Provisions from Group 4 Children, families, migrants	All states except the ones from group B	States from group B
October 2019 Provisions from Group 1 Employment, training and equal opportunities	All states except the ones from group A	States from group A
October 2020 Provisions from Group 2 Heal, social security and social protection	All states except the ones from group A	States from group A
October 2021 Provisions from Group 3 Labour rights	All states except the ones from group B	States from group B
etc.

States which draw up a simplified report are required to state what follow-up action has been taken in response to the decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights on collective complaints and reply to any questions put in the event of deferrals for the relevant provisions.

As new States accept the collective complaints procedure, they will be assigned on an alternating basis to Group B then Group A, then to Group B again, and so on. The new system enters into force for all States which have already accepted the collective complaints procedure from October 2014 onwards and, for other States, one year after acceptance.

For more information on the changes described above, it is possible to consult the full document on which the decision of the Committee of Ministers was based (Decision of the Committee of Ministers). Other information on the reform can also be found in the following document: Streamlining and improving the reporting and monitoring system of the European Social Charter

The rules in force

In compliance with the Committee of Ministers’ decisions of 2006 and 2014, States are currently required to drawing up their report on the basis of the following rules:

Reference period	Thematic groups / Articles	Date of submission of reports	Normal report	Simplified report	Adoption of the Conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights
01/01/2010- 31/12/2013	Group 4 Children, family, migrants Article 7 Article 8 Article 16 Article 17 Article 19 Article 27 Article 31	31/10/2014	All states except the ones from group A	States from Group A¹	December 2015
01/01/2011- 31/12/2014	Group 1 Employment, training and equal opportunities Article 1 Article 9 Article 10 Article 15 Article 18 Article 20* Article 24 Article 25	31/10/2015	All states except the ones from group B	States from Group B²	December 2016
01/01/2012- 31/12/2015	Group 2 Health, social security and social protection Article 3 Article 11 Article 12 Article 13 Article 14 Article 23* Article 30	31/10/2016	All states except the ones from group B	States from Group B²	December 2017
01/01/2013- 31/12/2016	Group 3 Labour rights Article 2 Article 4 Article 5 Article 6 Article 21* Article 22* Article 26 Article 28 Article 29	31/10/2017	All states except the ones from group A	States from Group A¹	December 2018
01/01/2014- 31/12/2017	Group 4 Children, family, migrants Article 7 Article 8 Article 16 Article 17 Article 19 Article 27 Article 31	31/10/2018	All states except the ones from group B	States from Group B²	December 2019
01/01/2015- 31/12/2018	Group 1 Employment, training and equal opportunities Article 1 Article 9 Article 10 Article 15 Article 18 Article 20* Article 24 Article 25	31/10/2019	All states except the ones from group A	States from Group A¹	December 2020

_____________

¹ States in Group A: France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Finland
² States in Group B: Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, Norway, Slovenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic
* NB: Articles 20, 21, 22 and 23 of the Revised Charter correspond to Articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the 1998 Additional Protocol.

Follow-up by the Committee of Ministers of the Conclusions adopted by the European Committee of Social Rights in the framework of the Reporting system

The Committee of Ministers intervenes in the last stage of the reporting system. After receiving the conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights, the Committee of Ministers adopts a Resolution by a majority of two-thirds of those voting. The resolution closes each supervision cycle and may contain individual recommendations to the States parties concerned.

When the European Committee of Social Rights concludes that a situation is not in conformity, the State Party has to bring the situation into conformity. If the State takes no action, the Committee of Ministers may address a Recommendation to that State, asking it to change the situation in law and/or in practice. In view of the importance of this decision, a two-thirds majority of those voting is required here.

In the case of both resolutions and recommendations, only States parties to the Charter may take part in the vote.

In the framework of the Reporting system, the Committee of Ministers’ work is prepared by the Governmental Committee of the European Social Charter and European Code of Social Security, comprising representatives of the governments of the States Parties to the Charter, assisted by observers representing European employers’ organisations and trade unions (European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Business Europe (ex UNICE) and International Organisation of Employers (IOE).

Texts adopted by the Committee of Ministers in the framework of the Reporting system are available on line on the Committee of Ministers’ website. It is also possible to retrieve these texts by performing a search on HUDOC Charter data base system.

Ultimately, it falls to the Committee to determine whether the situation has been brought into compliance with the Charter. This is done by the Committee in the framework of the Reporting system or the Collective Complaints procedure.

States Parties regularly submit a report on the implementation of the Charter in law and in practice. National reports are examined by the ECSR, which rules on whether the national situations they describe comply with the Charter (See further information about Drafting reports).

The European Committee of Social Rights examines the national reports and any comments received from third parties, as well as any information received in meetings. It then, makes a legal assessment of the conformity of the situation and adopts conclusions regarding the implementation of the European Social Charter by each of the States concerned.

The ECSR conclusions can be consulted on the European Social Charter HUDOC Database.

Follow-up to the conclusions by the Committee of Ministers

The follow-up of the conclusions of the ECSR is ensured by the Committee of Ministers. Its work is prepared by the Governmental Committee of the European Social Charter and European Code of Social Security (Governmental Committee), comprising representatives of the States party to the Charter and assisted by observers representing European trade unions and employers’ organisations: European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), BusinessEurope (ex UNICE) and International Organisation of Employers (IOE).

Based on the proposals made by the Governmental Committee, the Committee of Ministers adopts a Resolution. The resolution closes each supervision cycle and may contain individual recommendations to the States Parties concerned.

With the adoption of the reform package by the Committee of Ministers in September 2022 [link to page on reform], further emphasis is placed on recommendations as a way to engage further with States Parties in order to achieve compliance with the Charter. That may include as appropriate technical meetings, exchanges of good practices, and cooperation projects.

Texts adopted by the Committee of Ministers in the framework of the reporting procedure are available on line on the Committee of Ministers’ website. It is also possible to retrieve these texts by performing a search on HUDOC Charter data base system.

The only body entitled to make a legal assessment of the conformity of a situation with the Charter is the ECSR.

New and current reporting procedure

Since 2023, as a result of the 2022 reform, provisions of the Charter are divided into two groups and States Parties (not having accepted the collective complaints procedure) report on one group every two years , this means that all accepted provisons are reported on every four years.

States parties having accepted the collective complaints procedure report on one group of provisions every four years. This means that all accepted provisions are reported on every eight years.

The two group of provisions are divided as follows:

Group 1: Article 1 – Article 2 – Article 3 – Article 4 – Article 5 – Article 6 – Article 8 – Article 9 – Article 10 – Article 18 – Article 19 – Article 20 – Article 21 – Article 22 – Article 24 – Article – 25 – Article 28 – Article 29.

Group 2 : Article 7 - Article 11 - Article 12 - Article 13 - Article 14 - Article 15 - Article 16 - Article 17 - Article 23 - Article 26 - Article 27 - Article 30 - Article 31.

In order to make the procedure more topical and focused, so-called “targeted questions” are prepared by the ECSR and the Governmental Committee.

With respect to reporting on follow-up to decisions in collective complaints in cases where the Committee of Ministers addressed recommendations to States Parties after the ECSR found a violation. In the follow-up to collective complaints, in cases where the Committee of Ministers addressed recommendations to States Parties after the ECSR found that the Charter had not been applied in a satisfactory manner, States Parties shall be asked to submit one single report on the follow-up undertaken two years after the Committee of Ministers’ recommendation.

The assessment of the ECSR on the follow-up reports mentioned in the previous paragraph shall be transmitted to the Committee of Ministers. Depending on the ECSR’s assessment, the Committee of Ministers may close the case with a resolution or renew the recommendation or, before doing so, it may refer the case to the GC for further consultations.

In addition to the regular reporting procedure, the new reform introduces the possibility of asking States Parties to submit ad-hoc reports on new or critical issues arise with a broad or transversal scope or a pan-European dimension for analysis or review by the ECSR. However, the European Committee of Social Rights will not make conclusions on the conformity of the situation with the Charter, in the context of the ad hoc reporting procedure. Instead the ECSR may, as appropriate propose general orientations.

The subject and timing of ad hoc reports is decided by the ECSR and the Governmental Committee.

The table for reporting is currently the following

Year	Submission of Reports	European Committee of Social Rights’ conclusions
2023	Ad hoc report
2024	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the First Group of provisions	Possible ECSR analysis of ad hoc reports
2025	16 States that have accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the First Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 27 States (First Group of provisions)
2026	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 16 States (First Group of provisions)
2027		ECSR conclusions for 27 States (Second Group of provisions)
2028	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the First Group of provisions
2029	16 States that have accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 27 States (First Group of provisions)
2030	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 16 States (Second Group of provisions)
2031		ECSR conclusions for 27 States (Second Group of provisions)
2032	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on First Group of provisions
2033	16 States that have accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the First Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 27 States (First Group of provisions)
2034	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 16 States (First Group of provisions)
2035		ECSR conclusions for 27 States (Second Group of provisions)
2036	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the First Group of provisions
2037	16 States that have accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 27 States (First Group of provisions)
2038	27 States that have not accepted the collective complaints procedure submit reports on the Second Group of provisions	ECSR conclusions for 16 States (Second Group of provisions)

Functioning of the reporting procedure up to 2022

Following the decision taken by the Committee of Ministers in 2006, and up to the 2022 reform, the provisions the Charter were divided into four thematic groups. States Parties were required to present a report on the provisions relating to one of the four thematic groups on an annual basis. Consequently each provision of the Charter reported on once every four years.

The four groups of provisions were as follows:

Group 1: Employment, training and equal opportunities / Article 1 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 15 - Article 18 - Article 20 - Article 24 - Article 25.
Group 2: Health, social security and social protection / Article 3 - Article 11 - Article 12 - Article 13 - Article 14 - Article 23 - Article 30.
Group 3: Labour rights / Article 2 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 21 - Article 22 - Article 26 - Article 28 - Article 29.
Group 4: Children, families, migrants / Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 16 - Article 17 - Article 19 - Article 27 - Article 31.

The last reports following this procedure were to be provided on Group 4 by 31 December 2022 for examination by the ECSR in 2023.

Since 2014, States Parties having accepted the collective complaints procedure were to submit a simplified report every two years. In order to prevent excessive fluctuations in the workload of the ECSR from year to year, those States which have accepted the collective complaints procedure so far had been divided into two groups. The groups were composed by distributing the States according to the number of complaints registered against them (from the highest to the lowest), as follows:

Group A, made up of eight States: France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Finland;
Group B, made up of eight States: Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, Norway, Slovenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Spain.

Simplified reports were to contain information on what follow-up action had been taken in response to the decisions of the ECSR in collective complaints.

The European Social Charter
a guardian of our social rights

Indietro The European Committee of Social Rights publishes its Conclusions on Labour Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) today published its Conclusions 2022 in respect of 33 States on the articles of the European Social Charter relating to Labour Rights.

In the framework of the reporting procedure, the ECSR adopted 611 conclusions: 255 conclusions of conformity with the Charter and 245 conclusions of non-conformity. In 111 cases, the ECSR was unable to assess the situation due to insufficient information ("deferrals").

In the framework of the right to just conditions of work the ECSR found that in some countries the law does not guarantee the right to reasonable weekly working hours for certain categories of workers and noted that in some jobs the working day may exceed 16 hours and even be as long as 24 hours.

In many countries, the ECSR concluded that the work performed on a public holiday is not adequately compensated and that the right of all workers to public holidays with pay is not guaranteed. Also in some countries workers who suffer from illness or injury while on holiday are not entitled to take the days lost at another time.

The information provided to the ECSR on fair remuneration revealed that in a number of countries, the statutory minimum wage or the lowest wages fixed by collective agreements were too low in comparison with the average wage and did not ensure a decent standard of living.

With respect to the obligation by States to promote joint consultation between workers and employers, the ECSR noted the insufficient promotion of collective bargaining and the restrictions on the right to collective bargaining on behalf of a certain category of workers.

The ECSR found, in some cases, that workers are not granted an effective right to participate in the decision-making process within the undertaking about working conditions, work organisation and the working environment, and legal remedies are not available to workers in the event of infringements of their right to take part in the determination and improvement of working conditions and the working environment.

In several countries, the ECSR noted the lack of appropriate and effective redress (compensation and reinstatement) in cases of sexual harassment, and the absence of adequate prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace

The ECSR concluded that, in several countries, preventive measures aimed at ensuring that redundancies do not take effect before employers’ obligation to inform and to consult has been fulfilled (such as recourse to administrative and judicial proceedings) do not exist, as well as the effective sanctions applicable in cases where employers fail to fulfil their obligations, under the Charter, of information and consultation in collective redundance procedures.

Nevertheless, the ECSR noted with satisfaction positive developments in some countries concerning restrictions on the right to strike, and legislative measures concerning the definition and prohibition of harassment and sexual harassment at work.

Also amendments to the labour codes of several countries have introduced regulations aimed at ensuring that person(s) exercising worker’s representation functions do not suffer discrimination or other negative consequences due to their role.

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands Curaçao, the Netherlands Caribbean part, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Tϋrkiye and the United Kingdom.