ILO Convention No 94 in the aftermath of the Rüffert case

The purpose of this article is to discuss the ILO’s Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention 1949 (Convention No. 94) and, in particular, the legal situation in the aftermath of the decision on 3 April 2008 of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the Rüffert case (Case C-346/06). The authors argue that the labour law concerning social clauses in public contracts is an old and well-established institution that still has an important role to play. They analyse the Rüffert case and argue that there is a conflict or contradiction between the ECJ’s judgment and Convention No. 94. The authors propose how the Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC and the EU public procurement regime should be clarified in order to resolve this contradiction. This issue should be raised and promoted both by the EU Member States, in the aftermath of the discussions in June 2008 at the ILO Labour Conference in Geneva on Convention No. 94, and by the new Barroso Commission, which took office in spring 2010, as well as the European Parliament.