CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Legal dimensions of international framework agreements – Sobczak
at all levels of the company, thus reinforcing the chances that the agreement
will be effective.
Almost all IFAs establish regular monitoring either by the EWC or
by a special committee of the signatories. At least one annual meeting is
usually held between the management and workers’ representatives on
the actions that they have adopted and the difficulties that they have
faced. The meeting can sometimes be used to define indicators in order
to evaluate the impact of the agreement. Very few IFAs explicitly mention
inviting NGOs to these meetings. (Such invitations might well mark
the first step from a bilateral social dialogue to a trilateral civil dialogue.)
The signatories can amend the initial text during the annual meeting;
several IFAs explicitly allow this. No problem will arise if all signatories
agree to the amendment, but lack of consensus may cause a legal
problem. In any case, each of the signatories is permitted to unilaterally
cancel the agreement. Such a cancellation should have no practical
impact if only one of the representatives on the workers’ side cancels the
IFA, and the management and at least one of the different workers’ representatives
continue to support the agreement.
Legal value
Given their lack of a specific legal framework, IFAs are often considered
to be “soft law”, that is, no breach can be taken to the courts (for
example, Hepple, 2002, p. 241). In this way, the argument runs, IFAs
differ from legislative standards and collective agreements since these
instruments have legal effect in most of Europe. Yet this analysis can be
challenged for two reasons. First, the legally binding character of a standard
constitutes no guarantee of effective implementation (Lascoumes
and Serverin, 1986; Hepple, 2005, p. 66). Beyond the legal value, the
social partners’ collective “ownership” of the norm should also be considered.
The involvement of workers’ representatives in drawing up and
monitoring IFAs may contribute to their — and workers’ — ownership.
Consequently, IFAs may be no less effective than other social norms.
Second, examples in other fields show that courts may recognize the legal
effect of IFAs.
Legal nature
IFAs are not an existing legal category, and may not be considered
the same as collective agreements as they are defined in national labour
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