This monograph explores and clarifies the specific features of the collective complaints procedure, established by the treaty system of the European Social Charter as an instrument for the protection of social rights, in the light of its evolutive application by the European Committee of Social Rights.

Within the framework of the human rights treaty system of the European Social Charter, the collective complaints procedure was created in 1995 as an optional quasi-jurisdictional monitoring mechanism specific for the protection of social rights. In recent years, the importance and use of this procedure has increased considerably, in the context of a number of serious economic and social crises which are impacting negatively on the effective enjoyment of social rights in Europe.

The present monograph explores and clarifies the specific features of the collective complaints procedure, intended as a sui generis instrument for the protection of social rights in the light of its evolutive application by the European Committee of Social Rights (the monitoring body of the European Social Charter) and its real impact on the state and conditions of social rights in the European countries concerned. 

The analysis particularly dwells on the collective nature of the mechanism, and its implications from the standpoint of the admissibility of complaints, on the adversarial character of the procedure and on the particularities of the follow-up to findings of violation adopted by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). The crucial issues concerning the legal value and effects of the ECSR’s decisions on the merits of collective complaints, on the one hand, and the effectiveness of the collective complaints procedure as a means for the protection of social rights, on the other hand, are also addressed. Lastly, the book proposes some reflections on the supposed limitations on the effectiveness of a procedure which is conceived to deal not with individual situations of human rights violations but with violations characterized by elements of "collective importance" for many subjects.

Preface; Introduction: Increased Interest in the Protection of Social Rights at the European Level: The Case of the European Social Charter and the Collective Complaints Procedure; 1. The European Social Charter Treaty System in a Nutshell; 2. Foundations and Rationale of the Collective Complaints Procedure within the European Social Charter System; 3. The Admissibility of Collective Complaints under the ESC System; 4. Procedural Stages, Aspects and Tools in the Examination of Collective Complaints; 5. The Result of the Assessment of Collective Complaints: The ECSR’s Decisions on the Merits and Their Follow-Up; 6. Jurisdictional Nature and Legal Value of the ECSR’s Decisions on the Merits; 7. The Interpretative Importance of the ECSR’s Case Law; 8. Final Considerations: Eff ectiveness and Appropriateness of the Collective Complaints Procedure as an Instrument for Protecting Social Rights in Europe; Bibliography; Index.