The implementation of the Telework and Work-related Stress Agreements: European social dialogue through ‘soft’ law?

Abstract

The Framework agreements on Telework and Work-related stress present unique challenges to our understanding of the European social dialogue, given that they were the first European inter-sectoral collective agreements to be implemented via ‘soft’ means rather than legally binding directives. Their implementation and substantive effects were in practice piecemeal; this implies a retreat of the European social dialogue as a viable means of regulating social Europe.