(CN) — Denmark’s challenge to the EU’s new minimum wage law fell flat on Tuesday, after Europe’s top court in Luxembourg said the directive plays fair, respecting how each country sets its own pay rules while pushing for better working conditions across the bloc.
In its Grand Chamber ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union brushed off Denmark’s argument that the 2022 law meddles with national control over pay and collective bargaining. The judges agreed the directive touches on wage policy but said it stops short of “direct interference by EU law in the determination of pay within the member states.”
The law, adopted by EU lawmakers in October 2022, tells member states to guarantee decent minimum wages by law and boost collective bargaining coverage. If fewer than 80% of workers are covered by collective agreements, governments must draw up an action plan for improvement.
Denmark, backed by Sweden, warned that the measure threatened the Nordic wage model, where unions and employers set pay through negotiations with little or no state interference. By requiring governments to act when coverage falls short, Denmark said, the EU was effectively pushing them to step into pay-setting for the first time.
But the court saw it differently. It said the law only imposes “procedural obligations as to means, and not obligations as to the result to be achieved, in full respect for the autonomy of the social partners and the different systems for setting pay in the member...
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