EU: a collective agreement transposing a EU directive can apply to employees who are not union members

Whereas the Court of Justice gave a rough ride to Scandinavian social relations systems with the Viking and Laval cases, it recognized their specificities in a decree on December 18, 2008, concerning Directive 91/533/EC on an employer's obligation to inform employees. When the provisions of this directive are transposed via a collective agreement, they can apply to employees who are not union members and who, in these countries, would be excluded from the application of the agreement. (Ref. 090048)
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In this case, a Danish worker was employed five times by a town council as part of insertion contracts. Each time, he went to the employer to demand information on the labor relation. The employer answered within 15 days, in accordance with the provisions of the collective agreement applying to Danish town councils. This agreement provides that employers have such time to correct the information provided or to send the letter if he hadn’t already done it. According to the collective agreement,

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