Having looked at the most problematic issues relating to the admissibility of collective complaints, it is now time to dwell on the main features and tools characterising the proceedings before the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), concerning the examination and assessment of such complaints.

An Adversarial Procedure

The collective complaints procedure is essentially of a judicial nature, being characterised by the adversarial principle and carried out, most of the times, exclusively in writing.

Once a complaint is declared admissible, the ECSR asks the respondent state to submit written observations on the merits of the complaint within a time limit which it fixes. It then invites the organisation that lodged the complaint to submit a response to these submissions within the same time limit, before inviting the state to submit a further response. Once this further response has been submitted, the written procedure can be considered, in principle, to be closed.

Third-Party Observations

During the written procedure, several kinds of intervention in the proceedings by entities which are not parties to the complaint are possible.

Firstly, there may be interventions by the international social partners mentioned in Article 1 of the 1995 Protocol, which are invited to submit observations on any complaint, whether lodged by international or national NGOs or by national trade unions or employers’ organisations. Any other state which has accepted the collective complaints procedure may also intervene by submitting comments.

However, in practice, interventions by other states parties to the Protocol are very rare. By contrast, interventions by the social partners mentioned above, particularly the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), are more common.

It has also to be pointed out that when states parties or international social partners intervene by submitting observations, this does not have the effect of making them parties to the proceedings, and the ECSR's decision cannot produce direct legal consequences for states other than the one against which the complaint is directed. These submissions are simply observations on the complaint, which the Committee must consider when making its assessment and coming to its final decision, and they may also be submitted ad adiuvandum, in other words to lend the intervening body's support to the allegations of one of the parties to the proceedings.