Transcript Slide 1

Negotiating out of the crisis? Collective bargaining
in Europe during the economic downturn
Vera Glassner & Maarten Keune
(European Trade Union Institute/AIAS – Amsterdam
Institute for Advanced Labour Studies, Univ. of
Amsterdam)
ITC of the ILO Turin,
25-27 November 2009
The crisis and collective bargaining
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Profound crisis: in 2009 GDP -4.1% (EU); rapid increase
bankruptcies; unemployment from 7.5 (2007) to 9.5%;
increased uncertainty.
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Enterprises face decline demand and difficult access bank
loans; workers face decline employment and pressure on
wages.
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Role of collective bargaining (CB)?
Factors influening CB processes & outcomes
Industrial
relations system
Economic
situation
Crisis
response:
Negotiated?
Balanced?
Actor strategies
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State
policies
Social partner involvement in public policy influencing
collective bargaining
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Widespread tripartite consultation on crisis measures
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Consensus and conflict
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Introduction or extension of statutory short-time working
arrangements (‘Kurzarbeit’, ‘Chômage partiel’, ‘CIGS Cassa integrazione straordinaria’ etc.)
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Often rely on company or sector collective agreements for
their implementation
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High variety of ‚crisis-related‘ collective agreements
Aiming at striking the balance between companies‘
competitiveness and workers‘ purchasing power and
employment
● Different levels (inter-sectoral, sectoral, company)
● Bipartite, ‚autonomous‘ or ‚state-sponsored‘ (tripartite
sectoral/regional pacts, short-time working)
● Varying issues:
- Flexibilisation/reduction of working time, employment
relations and wage-setting,
- re-organisation
- training
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Main elements of company level agreements
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Flexible reduction of working time to promote employment
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Increasing employability through training
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Changes work organisation, restructuring
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Temporary deviations from pay rates of (inter-) sectoral
collective agreements
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Conflict part of bargaining process
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Higher level agreements and state measures facilitate
agreement
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Conclusions
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Wide variety of negotiated responses to the crisis: balance
of power of company-level social partners
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Key role industrial relations system, economic conditions,
state policy
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Crisis measures temporary solutions, but evolution of crisis
is uncertain
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Crisis agreements: acceleration ‘organised
decentralisation’  long term effects on bargaining
systems?
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