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DIGNITY AT THE WORKPLACE. WHAT IS PROTECTED AND WHO HAS TO PROTECT IT?
The clear and firm statement on the positive obligation of the state to take
preventive actions definitively closed earlier interpretation discussions, generated
by the obscure text of the provision.
The extension of the protection of dignity to other labour related rights has
not happened. The European Committee of Social Rights (the supervisory body
of the implementation of the Social Charter) declared, that “[h]uman dignity is
the fundamental value and indeed the core of positive European human rights
law”? — however this fundamental value was invoked only in social matters, such
as the right to social services in extreme poverty, eviction and homelessness, or
treatment in elderly homes.
Health and safety is the only exception. The Committee repeatedly emphasized
the importance of dignity in connection with the right to the protection of everyone
to health under Article 11, since physical and mental integrity is considered an
element of dignity. This explains connecting workplace health and safety to
dignity, under Article 3, with regard to the potential dignity harm of working
under unsafe or unhealthy conditions.” Besides Article 26, Article 3 remained the
only provision on fundamental workplace rights invoking dignity.
This independence of “dignity” from labour standards (wage, working time,
dismissal etc.) raises the question: can the violation of dignity in employment
occur even when “material” working conditions are provided at acceptable or even
high level? Article 26 answers “yes”, while not questioning the indispensability of
a floor of “material” conditions for dignity.
THE CFREU: EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN CONCEPT OF DIGNITY
Subsequently to several, unclear declarations on “dignity” in the international
documents, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU)
has clearly declared the double role of dignity in its Article 1: “Ihe dignity ofthe
human person is not only a fundamental right in itself, but constitutes the real
basis of fundamental rights.””* The declaration of this double role might suggest the
missing answer to the above question, how dignity, declared as a general, inherent,
inviolable right of all human beings, is connected to workplace standards. If
fundamental rights are identified as elements filling the idea of dignity, and dignity
” International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) v. France, Complaint No.
14/2003. (8 Sept. 2004), $31.
3 Klaus Lércher, Article 3 — The Right to Safe and Healthy Working Conditions, in Niklas
Bruun — Klaus Loercher - Isabelle Schoemann - Stefan Clauwaert (eds.), The European
Social Charter and the Employment Relation, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2017, 181-197, 189.
4 CFREU, Explanation to Article 1.
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