Labour Law and Work Organisation, November 2003

For anyone dealing with enquiries on employment issues, the new website on labour law and work organisation from DG Employment and Social Affairs will be a useful resource. Located at http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/labour_law/index_en.htm, the home page provides news, and links to the latest legislation, proposals, reports and studies. Currently for example there are the (unofficial) English language translations of measures adopted by the acceding countries to implement the European Works Council Directive. The left menu expands the home page content under various headings. Labour Law Directives links to the text of the relevant legislation in force. Documentation is grouped by topic under twenty-three sub-headings. The section on working time, for example, brings together the various directives, studies and reports on the topic and an implementation report. Under the menu section Implementing Reports, there are at present ten reports listed which review whether and how directives have been transposed into national legislation. One of the most recent reports looks at the issue of part-time work. The Publications section lists titles that are mainly available electronically to download and includes some publications from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Work Organisation contains a range of documents such as studies, reports and green papers and includes thematic papers from DG Employment and Social Affairs. The final menu links are Budget heading and Contacts. Altogether the site helpfully collates the full text of relevant documents and provides a convenient access route for anyone focussing on this area.