The right to an effective remedy and due diligence legislation in the EU

In the global landscape, the EU stands out for its focus on “decent work” and “sustainable development” policies, thanks to which it has been recognised as a “responsible leader in the world of work”, considering its marked aptitude for a well considered a balance between the economic needs of the entrepreneurs and protection of human and workers’ rights. In recent years, the European legislation on these subjects has been very prolific. A thorough examination of these regulations shows that, despite a complete and exhaustive regulation of the duties imposed on companies to ensure respect for the fundamental human and workers' rights within their GVCs, there is a lack of instruments granting immediate access to justice and remedies to those who have suffered, directly or indirectly, damages as a result of the violation of the above duties. Such a deficiency in the relevant EU legislation stands in open contrast with the UNGPs, whose third pillar is dedicated precisely to access to remedies, and with the SDGs set out in the UN 2030 Agenda. Therefore, through a critical legal analysis of the European Union's legislative policies on “decent work” and “sustainable development”, the main purpose of this paper is to understand: (i) the rationale behind this reiterated legal vacuum in the protection of the human and workers' rights, having particular regard to the balance of interests carried out by the EU legislator; (ii) what impact it may have on the actual implementation of the policies and (iii) what corrective and supplementary measures should be introduced to eliminate such a gap. For this purpose, in addition to a critical approach to the study of European legislation, it will be necessary to examine the papers and reports drafted on the matter by both the agencies of the European Union and the legal doctrine, bearing in mind that the EU itself has long affirmed the relevance of access to justice as an indispensable element for the effective affirmation of human and labour rights. The distinctive feature and the relevance of this paper, thus, lie in the desire to look at the most recent European legislation through a critical legal perspective, in order to understand its actual scope with respect to the protection of human and labour rights, in light of the strong extraterritorial effectiveness it aims to produce. The difficulty of having direct access to remedial tools in case of violations of fundamental rights keeps alive the deep inequalities between workers all over the world and at the same time hinders the effective attainment of the global threshold of decent work, at the risk of undermining the actual innovative impact of European policies.