Within the institutional framework of the Council of Europe, and more precisely the treaty system of the European Social Charter, the collective complaints procedure was created in 1995 as a monitoring mechanism specific for the protection of social rights.

In the past decade, the importance and use of this procedure has increased considerably, also as a consequence of a number of serious economic and social crises which have impacted, and are still impacting, negatively on the effective enjoyment of social rights in Europe.

The aim of this short book is to explore and clarify the development, specific features and problems of the collective complaints procedure, intended as a sui generisinstrument for the international protection of social rights, in the light of its evolutive application by the European Committee of Social Rights, the monitoring body of the European Social Charter.

A short monograph cannot indeed cover every relevant topic and issue concerning the collective complaints procedure in depth. The analysis carried out in this book focuses, therefore, only on the main peculiar and the most problematic aspects of collective complaints as a means for protecting social rights. I refer to the collective nature of the mechanism (and its implications from the standpoint of the admissibility of complaints), the adversarial character of the procedure and the particularities of the follow-up to findings of violation adopted by the European Committee of Social Rights. The crucial issues concerning the legal value and effects of the decisions on the merits of collective complaints, on the one hand, and the practical effectiveness and efficiency of the procedure, on the other hand, are also addressed.

The hope is that this book can serve to inform those new to the topic and also be of benefit to those seeking further knowledge on social rights protection at international and European levels as well as to all those who, working within public institutions and administrations, organised civil society and trade unions, deal on a daily basis with social rights and policies in a wide variety of areas.

I benefitted greatly, for the preparation of this book, from the experience of serving for 12 years – as member, president and general rapporteur – on the European Committee of Social Rights.