Collective Bargaining

This country report of the European Project DECOBA describes the experiences in the metal and retail trades with decentralised bargaining. While the metal industry fits at least partly to the model of organised decentralisation, retail trade represents a rather different story of mainly disorganised decentralisation and overall decline of the bargaining coverage. The authors conclude that the overall trends in collective bargaining can be characterised by a parallel development of both organised and non-organised forms of decentralisation with strong differences among sectors.

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This paper, written in the frame of the project DECOBA, analyses the impact of the policies implemented via the European Semester on collective bargaining over the period from 2015 to 2017. The paper treats the policies recommended by the European commission and the implementation by the national governments and takes stock of their impact on collective bargaining. Taking into consideration first the whole EU, then focusing on the five target countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The conclusions shed light on the paradoxical discrepancy between the declared objectives the policies put in place and their effective results. The author underlines the need for restoring the respect of social partners’ role and autonomy as well as for preserving and (re-)establishing sector collective bargaining at national level.

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The employers are working towards an increase of the flexibility, often combined with on-call duties. Trade union LANV has criticised this unilateral approach. The union signals that the country belongs, together with Switzerland, to the European countries with the longest working week. LANV pleads in a position paper for flexible working hours that serve the workers and contribute to a better work-life balance. The union takes a firm stand against the watering down of existing legal provisions on working time and collectively agreed working hours.

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Based on research carried out in 2015-2016, the trade union confederation ICTU has published a comprehensive guide to employment equality law, in light of the 2015 Workplace Relations Act. The guide reflects changes in procedures and processes affecting both the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. It was published with the support of the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (IHREC). The guide has sections on several aspects, for instance, discrimination, employers’ liability, equal pay, victimisation and redress.

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The OECD launched a renewed webpage with information on collective bargaining across the OECD. Building on a rich set of survey and administrative data and using detailed information collected through OECD questionnaires that were addressed to Labour Ministries and social partners, the webpage provides an updated and comprehensive picture of collective bargaining systems and their different building blocks.

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A dispute in the printing sector on the freeze of night shift bonuses led to a strike across the country. The negotiations for a collective agreement ended without result. The unions speak about problems that date already from years, as night shifts become more and more important. The employers not only want to freeze the night shift bonuses, they also refuse to accept the 1.1% pay increase that was set as a norm for the 2017-negotiations. Workers picketed in front of the premises of the employers’ organisation Febelgra.

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Trade union FNV criticised the wage gap between men and women on the Equal Pay Day. The union organised a debate with Dutch politicians and companies on the differences in salaries between male and female employees. According to the FNV, it is high time for companies and politicians to close the gender wage gap (currently 16.1%). A FNV-survey, among over a thousand of its members, showed that 96% of respondents do not find the differences in salaries between the genders reasonable. On Equal Pay Day women symbolically lay down their work on the day from which they start working for free. If you were to follow the principle of equal pay, women are therefore only paid for 84 percent of the year.

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Women with university education have 29 percent lower salaries on average than their male colleagues, which means some 15,000 crowns less monthly, according to a study commissioned by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry. The study suggests that the gender pay gap has been rising with increasing education levels. Overall, the country has the second highest difference in the average earnings of men and women (22%) in the EU. According to the authors, the gender gap is also caused by the prevailing stereotype seeing man as a breadwinner and woman as someone looking after the household. Other negative factors contributing to the gender pay gap are the lower employment rates among women, long maternity leave and low parental benefits that don’t motivate fathers to participate in childcare, as well as lack of nurseries.

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The turbulence at Ryanair continues. The company’s Stansted pilots voted to reject a pay deal offered by the management in a 60% to 40% majority. A pay and pension boost of up to £24,000 (€27,000) each had been on offer from management - but only if pilots continued to negotiate with the airline directly. It is believed a number of other bases have also rejected the improved terms and conditions. The European Employee Representative Committee, which is not recognised by Ryanair management, also threatened industrial action and made a pay demand for pilots which is close to twice what the airline has offered. Moreover, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) that represents over 10,000 pilots in the UK launched a survey among Ryanair pilots in response to what it says is growing dissatisfaction with the company.

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The gross minimum wage will increase by 31%, to RON 1,900 (413 euro), from 1 January 2018. The gross minimum wage currently amounts to RON 1,450 (315 euro). The net minimum salary will only increase by 4.3% or less than RON 50, as most of the social contributions that are currently being paid by employers will be transferred to employees starting 1 January 2018. However, most workers are afraid that their net salaries will even drop once the announced change according to which the whole social contributions will be transferred to employees will come into force. The announced social contributions transfer has triggered protests, with the biggest ones being staged by the employees from the public health, police, and transport departments. However, the government said it would move on with the tax change.

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