1. Please note that Art. 153(5) TFEU does not give any competence to the EU to support and complement the activities of the Member States in the field of “pay.” Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union art 153(5), Mar. 30, 2010, 2010 O.J. (C 83) 116 [hereinafter TFEU].
2. Actually, in the pending case, Sindicatos dos Bancários do Norte v. Banco Portuguěs de Negócios, the CJEU is asked, in question four, to clarify whether the right to working conditions that respect dignity, laid down in Article 31(1) of the Charter, may be interpreted as meaning that employees have the right to fair remuneration which ensures that they and their families can enjoy a satisfactory standard of living. 2012 O.J. (151) 35. See also 2012 O.J. (209) 9 (posing a similar question).
3. This reflects the state of affairs in secondary EU employment law. As was observed during the adoption process of the PWD, apart from minimum wages, all other issues were already covered by minimum harmonization at the EU level. See Wolfgang Däubler, Der Richtlinien-vorschlag zur Entsendung von Arbeitnehmern: Ein Mittelzur Abwehr von Sozialem Dumping?, 4 Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht [EuZW] 370, 373 (1993).
4. Similar to the Hobbesian social contract, see supra note 44.
5. See Commission European , supra note 7.