[myk9001]

> I recognise that Germany/Austria/France are different, but that's exactly my point, there is very little common European labour law.

So, I don't live in Germany but I tried to look into how things work there a little deeper.

It seems to have a lot in common with what you describe about Ireland actually.

[disgruntledphd2]

That's possible, but Germany has much stronger unions and work contracts than we would in Ireland.

In Ireland, companies are not obliged to recognize a union and can do other forms of employer representation instead. This is quite different from other EU countries.

[myk9001]

Thanks for the insight!