Strike rules in the EU27 and beyond: A comparative overview

Collective action is, still today, very much linked to the highly specific national industrial relations systems which means that trade unions in Europe have to act within the national “legislative” boundaries, while seeking to coordinate national actions on a trans-national scale in such a way that they acquire a European impact.

This publication assembles up-to-date information on the rules governing collective action in the different EU Member States and provides a non-exhaustive overview of national situations: what types of action exist in the different countries? Are they lawful? What kinds of restriction or procedural requirement have to be taken into consideration when taking collective action? What are the effects on the workers in the different countries?

Information for this report was collected from wide-ranging written sources and checked and amended by the national legal experts of the NETLEX network.