Round Table. Mission impossible? How to increase collective bargaining coverage in Germany and the EU

Hassel, Anke

doi:10.1177/10242589221149513

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The Directive on adequate minimum wages (Directive 2022/2041) 1 has been widely hailed as a major victory for European labour and an important step forward in the development of the EU’s social dimension. As many scholars have noted, its introduction constitutes a sharp break with the neoliberal agenda pursued by the previous Barroso Commission and other EU institutions during the eurozone crisis (Hassel, 2023; Lillie, 2023; Schulten and Müller, 2021). While the Directive’s main purposes are to improve the adequacy of national minimum wages and increase workers’ access to minimum wage protection, it specifically notes the importance of collective bargaining in achieving these aims, and thus contains several fairly robust provisions to support collective bargaining in the Member States.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Round Table. Implementing the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages in the Low Countries: the case of the Netherlands

Oude Nijhuis

2023

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Round Table. Implementing the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages in the Low Countries: the case of the Netherlands

Oude Nijhuis

2023

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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“…It will protect lower-paid workers and promote collective bargaining (Schulten and Müller, 2022). Hassel (2023) regards it as signalling a change in direction for EU politics, from broadly neoliberal marketmaking to social protection and partnership. The Directive explicitly encourages collective bargaining and sets targets to increase it, while also providing guidelines and targets for increasing minimum wages in ways that recognise the diversity of wage determination practices across the EU.…”

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confidence: 99%

Round Table. Nordic unions and the European Minimum Wage Directive

Lillie

2022

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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The new European Union Minimum Wage Directive (2022/2041) is rightly seen by many as a victory for European labour. It will protect lower-paid workers and promote collective bargaining (Schulten and Müller, 2022). Hassel (2023) regards it as signalling a change in direction for EU politics, from broadly neoliberal marketmaking to social protection and partnership. The Directive explicitly encourages collective bargaining and sets targets to increase it, while also providing guidelines and targets for increasing minimum wages in ways that recognise the diversity of wage determination practices across the EU. The scope and tone of the new Directive sets out an unambiguous purpose and direction, to protect workers and support collective bargaining. This sets it apart from other recent directives, such as the so-called 'Enforcement Directive' (2014/67), which just seeks to enforce existing law, and the Posted Workers Directive (revised) (2018/927), which seeks to 'balance' the rights of firms and workers rather than to protect workers. Just as importantly, its sets out processes for calculating what constitutes an adequate minimum wage (60 per cent of median and 50 per cent of average wages), and mandates that Member States with under 80 per cent collective bargaining coverage should set out implementation plans to increase their coverage.The assent of Nordic unions is testament to the clever design of the compromise behind the proposal. It shows sensitivity to their desire to head off any possibility of Brussels interfering with Nordic collective bargaining systems, while also providing useful mechanisms to push for higher minimum wages and stronger collective bargaining in countries where that is needed. Also notable is the way the Nordic unions overcame their long-held scepticism towards European labour regulations, and specifically their opposition to any mention of a minimum wage manifesting in European legislation. This may reflect a softening of the Nordic unions' stance, but certainly also the Directive's approach, which recognises the centrality of collective bargaining to wage determination in many EU countries.The Finnish discussion of the Directive, for example, was largely focused on reassuring everyone that nothing would change; as a headline in the Uusi Suomi: 'Minimum wage comes to the EUin Finland, no major changes are anticipated' put it (Koho, 2022). It is more or less taken for granted that this is the best possible outcome for Finland, on the assumption that labour standards emanating from Brussels at best do nothing for Finland, and at worst undermine or overrule Finnish standards. I will argue that this perspective takes insufficient account of the usefulness, also to Nordic unions, of minimum wages and EU-wide regulations.Through worker posting and labour migration, cracks are emerging in the Nordic labour markets. In these circumstances, quasi-minimum wages, in the form of extended collective agreements,

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Unions divided? Trade union attitudes towards the European Union’s Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages

Ozols,

Hristov,

Paster

2024

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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In October 2022, the European Union adopted a directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union (AMWD). This directive has sparked considerable controversy. While employers uniformly oppose the AMWD, unions are divided. In many EU countries, unions support the AMWD, while in Denmark and Sweden, they oppose it. This article aims to answer the question: Why do unions in some member states support the AMWD, while unions in other countries oppose it? Drawing on 27 semi-structured interviews with union representatives from 13 EU countries, the article presents a typology of union positions towards AMWD consisting of three types: domestically-oriented opposition, domestically-oriented support, and externally-oriented support. The article proposes an explanation for these three different types that is based on two variables: bargaining coverage, and the role of state institutions in protecting it.

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Round Table. Mission impossible? How to increase collective bargaining coverage in Germany and the EU

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Round Table. Implementing the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages in the Low Countries: the case of the Netherlands

Round Table. Implementing the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages in the Low Countries: the case of the Netherlands

Round Table. Nordic unions and the European Minimum Wage Directive

Unions divided? Trade union attitudes towards the European Union’s Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages

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