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that relevant Common Market law should be applied
in this country and should, where there is a conflict,
override English law."
For the new Member States many of the problems
which the national courts of the founder members have
encountered in the past still lie ahead, though it is to
be hoped that the experience gained by the latter will
be of assistance to the former.
As yet there has been no reference under Article 177
from Denmark, Ireland or the United Kingdom, al-
though one is shortly expected to arrive from the
latter country. Questions of Community law have also
been in issue in a number of cases in Great Britain,
although not in such circumstances as to make a refer-
ence appropriate.
Finally, may I mention a topic which is probably
that of most concern to national judges. Once the rule
of Community law has been interpreted, or if no inter-
pretation is needed, it is plain that the application of
that rule of law is for the national judge and, of course,
application includes remedy. What is the appropriate
remedy is, according to Community law, a matter for
the national judge, provided that in so doing he gives
proper protection to the party whose rights he has a
duty to safeguard.
As was said in
Molkerei
Zentrale :
"Difficulties arising within a Member State cannot
change the legal character of an immediately effec-
tive rule of Community law, especially as the rule
must apply with equal force to all Member States
. . . and Article 95 does not restrict the
right of
national courts
to apply whichever of the various
remedies
provided
by their own judicial
systems
are
suitable for protecting rights conferred on indivi-
duals by Community law."
In many actions, perhaps most, the appropriate
remedy will be an order for payment of an ascertained
sum of money.
My theme today has been that Community law
depends for its efficacy upon national judges, who in
applying it are thereby judges not only of their own
countries but of the whole Community
Company Law Changes to Protect
Workers' Rights
by JOHN TEMPLE LANG
In twenty years it will be inconceivable that anyone
would try to run a company without consulting the
people who work in it, John Temple Lang, a solicitor
who is now a Legal Adviser to the EEC Commission
told the Incorporated Law Society in Wexford. The
idea of consulting workers, whether through Works
Councils with a right to be consulted and a veto, or
through their representatives on Supervisory Boards of
directors, is becoming more accepted in the EEC
countries. The EEC Commission has suggested two-tier
boards, with one-third of the Supervisory Boards of
large companies elected either by or with the agree-
ment of the workers. None of these rights exist at
present under Irish law. It was up to Irish workers to
decide if they wanted these rights, and if so on what
basis. Consultation between managers and workers, on
a proper basis, offered a chance of changing the
present antagonistic relationship into a working part-
nership, and making a huge improvement in the whole
climate of labour relations. It is a pity that such
discussion as there has been in Ireland had con-
sisted of arguments for and against the whole idea of
worker representation, without much recognition of its
colossal potential. The way in which industrial demo-
cracy would work, indeed whether it would work at
all, and whether it would fulfil that potential would
depend on how it was made to work. The EEC's pro-
posal could not create the atmosphere in which it
would work best; that had to be done here.
Unions and workers' representatives
There are two basic questions about industrial demo-
cracy which only trade unionists could really resolve.
What is to be the relationship between trade union
officials and workers' representatives on company
hoards and what are to be the functions of collective
bargaining and of industrial democracy? Until these
questions were answered Irish unions would not be
ready for industrial democracy. Where the employees
of a company belong to more than one union, or some
are not unionised, how would each group be repre-
sented on the supervisory board?
If employees representatives are not union officials,
unions might be reluctant to transfer many important
questions from the collective bargaining sphere to be
dealt with by workers representatives. If they are union
officials, the job of representing employees on Super-
visory Boards might be a source of inter-union rivalry-
The present structure of the trade union movement in
Ireland would create unnecessary problems, if worker
representation was introduced. If Irish unions want to
get the benefits of industrial democracy for their mem-
bers, they would have to rationalize themselves on "one
firm, one union" lines, or at least agree on their
approach to the questions involved.
Important problems
A lot of important questions arose from the EEC
proposals which would have to be answered by
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