Collective bargaining: what does the future hold

1
Collective bargaining what does the future
hold?

• Andrew Bibby
• www.andrewbibby.com

2
The situation in 2003

• Collective bargaining
• Directly affects living conditions of most EU
  citizens 80/90
• High even where unionisation is low
• No significant decline in recent decades
  (exception UK)
• Structures differ markedly between countries

3
The situation in 2003

• No room for complacency
• Share of GDP growth used for wages has fallen
• EU accession states have much lower levels of
  collective bargaining
• Companies are operating globally unions are
  negotiating nationally
• The world is changing.

4
EWCs
European companies (SEs)
EU enlargement
Globalisation
The uro
Management changes
M As
5
EU social partnership
National social pacts
EWCs
Sectoral collective bargaining at national level
Delegation to business units
Company based bargaining
Personal contracts
6
Four scenarios

• Supra-national sectoral collective bargaining
  (Judit)
• Supra-national company-based bargaining (Joan)
• Collapse of collective bargaining (Kerstin)
• A multi-layered approach to bargaining

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1 Supra-national sectoral bargaining?

• A European-wide banking/insurance agreement?
• Natural extension of historical process?
• Multinationals operating cross-border
• Extension of existing sectoral social dialogue
• European economic monetary union
• Defence against regime shopping in zone

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1 Supra-national sectoral bargaining?

• The effect of the Euro in ?24 countries
• Levelling up workers compare wages?
• Levelling down move to lower-cost areas?
• Less flexibility for national governments
• No opportunity for devaluation
• Limited scope for fiscal policies
• Pressure on actors in labour market
• ECB independence

9
1 Supra-national sectoral bargaining?

• Binding Euro-wide sectoral agreements
• How to defend richest/best organised areas
  without penalising poorer countries?
• NB major inequalities in EU25
• Assumes harmonisation social security/tax
• Unwelcome to employers
• Challenging for unions
• Loss of national autonomy
• Problems of legitimacy
• International industrial action illegal?

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1 Supra-national sectoral bargaining?

• It can be taken for granted that
  centralized collective bargaining on wages
  between organized employers and unions at the
  European level is out of the question at least
  in the short/medium term
• Jon Erik Dølvik

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2 Supra-national company-based bargaining?

• Reflects cross-border mergers and acquistions
  activity
• Extension of the European Works Council from
  consultation to negotiation
• Extension of multinational framework agreements
  (eg Telefónica, VW, Danone)
• Encouraged by the European Company (Societas
  Europaea) statute?

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2 Supra-national company-based bargaining?

• Unwelcome to companies
• Unwelcome to unions?
• Challenge to sectoral agreements
• Loss of national autonomy
• Limitations of current EWC model

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2 Supra-national company-based bargaining?

• The emergence of company-based,
  European-level bargaining or coordination is the
  least probable variant of the possible
  developments of Europeanization of collective
  bargaining
• Franz Traxler, Univ of Vienna

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3 Collapse of collective bargaining?

• The Kerstin dystopia
• Working for an agency not a bank
• Flexible work contract working as required
• Personal negotiation of pay and conditions
• Unions role replaced by commercial companies
  (WorkAssist)

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3 Collapse of collective bargaining?

• Social dumping to offshore countries
• Financial services no different from other
  consumer services
• Unhappy example of UK/USA
• Low level of collective bargaining in accession
  countries

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3 Collapse of collective bargaining?

• Would mean collapse of social Europe model
• Would mean collapse of trade union movement
• Not necessarily in employers interests?

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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• Coordinated decentralisation
• European level
• National cross-sectoral level
• National sectoral level
• Company level
• Local bargaining

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Global agreements
EU social dialogue
EU sectoral social dialogue
EWCs
Nat social partnership
Cross-sectoral bargaining
Nat sectoral bargaining
Nat company bargaining
Local bargaining
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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• A new kind of balance a kind of
  coordinated decentralisation based on
  multi-level framework bargaining and improved
  monitoring has developed in many member States
• High Level Group on Industrial
  Relations and Change, 2002

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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• Overall European framework
• Sectoral agreements set key parameters/minimum
  standards combined with company negotiations?
• Or sectoral agreements set standards for SMEs
  larger (multinational) companies negotiate
  separately?

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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• Coordination more than simple liaison
• Attempting to achieve the same or related
  outcomes in separate negotiations

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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• Implications
• Increased role for international union
  organisations
• Initiatives like UNIs CB Network essential
• Good information essential

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4 A multi-layered approach to collective
bargaining?

• Implications
• Unions must think global, not simply European
• Global works councils
• Develop multinationals Framework Agreements

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• Andrew Bibby
• www.andrewbibby.com