Mr. Philip Sack:

The reason the only enforcement of EWC agreements is through arbitration may well be because of that culture and history of voluntarism in Irish industrial relations. This arbitration is the most important means of enforcement because, by far, most European works councils are set up under agreements, not under the subsidiarity requirement, so, in fact, this is probably the most important aspect of enforcement in the legislation.

The big difference here is that, unlike general industrial relations, there is a European directive sitting behind this, requiring certain standards in terms of enforcement. That was why I put emphasis on what the directive requires around procedures and enforcement of rights. There is another European directive implemented in Irish law that does have a perfectly acceptable enforcement regime and, as mentioned earlier, that deals with information and consultation.

There is a ready model that could be adopted here.