European Court of Human Rights: Unions fail with collective bargaining suit

“One company – one collective agreement” – this is the basic rule of the Collective Bargaining Act. This is intended to curb the power of small unions. And it stays that way. A lawsuit against the law failed in Strasbourg.

The fact remains: In Germany, the largest trade union in a company can also decide in the future which collective agreement should be concluded with the company. For a long time, smaller trade unions such as the train drivers’ union GDL have been fighting against the so-called collective agreement law.

They feel that if the other unions with more members are allowed to decide the rules, the interests of their particular professions will be lost. And in the end that was the end for the small unions, because there was no longer any reason to get involved in them.

Not too many strikes

In 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court dismissed the complaints from several trade unions – and now the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg too. The matter was also disputed by the European judges. But the majority on the bench found that the whole thing wasn’t that bad.

The smaller unions could still fight for the rights of their members. And what is very important: The German system is there to ensure that the companies are not paralyzed by too many strikes – strikes that would ultimately harm other employees.

Finally, the European judges point out that there are also rules in other countries that larger trade unions would prefer. With this judgment from Strasbourg, the smaller ones now only have what is already being practiced in part: they have to negotiate with the employers and the larger unions and expressly agree that there should still be special rules for the special professional groups.