DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in European Union
countries and recent developments
Roberto Pedersini
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine
Kiev 5-6 December 2013
Comparing industrial relations systems
It can be useful to look (at least) at three elements:
• Actors – the structure, ideology, and strategy of
representation
• Institutions – the (legal and collectively agreed)
rules that define the scope of industrial relations
(IR), the actors’ entitlements and prerogatives, the
structure and functioning of IR processes, the
effectiveness of the outcomes of IR processes
• Outcomes – the content of the actual regulation of
employment relations through IR, with both
distributive and regulatory implications
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
1
IR systems in the European Union: Actors
There are quite diverse IR systems in the European
Union, along the various basic dimensions:
Actors
• ‘Multi-organisation’ representation systems prevail,
both on the union and the employer sides
• Union density levels range from around 70% in
Nordic Countries to less than 10% in LT, FR and EE
• Employer density levels are regarded to be high, in
most of cases over 50%, with lower levels in a
number of CEECs and UK
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
2
Source: European Commission
(2011), Industrial Relations in
Europe 2010, Luxembourg:
Publications Office of the
European Union, p. 18
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
3
Source: European Commission
(2011), Industrial Relations in
Europe 2010, Luxembourg:
Publications Office of the
European Union, p. 30
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
4
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 24
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
5
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 23
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
6
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 25
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
7
Source: European Commission (2011), Industrial Relations in Europe 2010, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 34
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
8
IR systems in the European Union:
Institutions and processes
Institutions and processes
• Multi-employer bargaining prevails in EU-15
countries (plus SI and RO), single-employer
bargaining characterise most EU-12 countries and UK
• Legal extension mechanism are often present but
widely used only in a minority of countries (AT, BE,
FI, FR, LU), with a significant impact of the crisis in
certain cases (EL, ES, PT)
• Collective bargaining coverage rates range from 80%
and above in Nordic and Continental Europe
(including ES, FR and SI and with the exception of
DE) to less than 20% in Baltic countries
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
9
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 26
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
10
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 22
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
11
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 23
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
12
Source: European Commission (2011), Industrial Relations in Europe 2010, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 41
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
13
IR systems in the European Union:
Outcomes
Outcomes
• Wage moderation is an emerging feature of recent
years, which was reinforced by the economic crisis.
Collectively agreed pay increases in 2011 and 2012
were negative in real terms in a number of EU
countries.
• Wage freezes and even wage cuts were introduced as
part of austerity measures in the public sector in
2010-2013 (CY, EL, ES, IE, IT, UK, LT, LV)
• Organisational and working time flexibility continue
to be key topics of collective bargaining, including
within restructuring efforts
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
14
Source: European Commission (2013), Industrial Relations in Europe 2012, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 27
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
15
Major trends in IR in the European Union
• Weakening of the trade union capacity to represent
labour, as indicated by the decrease in density levels.
Difficulties concern especially the service sector and
young workers
• ‘Rationalisation’ of union and employer representation:
mergers and streamlining
• Decentralisation of collective bargaining, with the
segmentation of regulation and protections and the
decrease in coverage rates
• Reduction in conflict levels, with exceptions in some
sectors (like public services) and episodic (?) upsurges
• Challenges from the internationalisation of the
economy: business strategies and union solidarity
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
16
The Varieties of IR systems within
the European Union
• There is a common EU-wide supportive institutional
framework: economic competitiveness and social
cohesions (the European social model)
• With different IR traditions and ‘models’:
•
•
•
•
•
Voluntarist vs. Organised
Low institutionalisation vs. High institutionalisation
Antagonistic vs. Participatory
Decentralised vs. Centralised/Coordinated
Business unionism vs. Competitive unionism
• Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Continental, Mediterranean,
Eastern and Central European
• Benchmarking and mutual learning is possible, but the
strength of the national systems is crucial
 importance of institutional and capacity building
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
17
The future of the European social model:
Macro coordination and micro cooperation
• IR are often regarded as an essential element of European
social model because the can provide a contribution to macro
economic coordination and micro cooperation at the
workplace level, supporting both economic competitiveness
and fairness
• There are different views about the stability of IR within such
model:
•
Stability of IR institutions with consolidation, as they provide
competitive advantages for enterprises (varieties of capitalism)
•
Stability of IR institutions, but with decreasing inclusiveness
(dualisation processes)
•
Relative stability of IR institutions with changes in the
objectives they serve (substantial neoliberal convergence)
•
Erosion of IR institutions and deregulation (formal neoliberal
convergence)
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
18
Concluding remarks
• Over the latest decades, changes in the institutional
framework of the European countries have accumulated
(in IR, market regulation, including in the labour
market, corporate governance…)
• Actors, unions and employers alike, operate in this
changing environment to retain their regulatory
capacity or to gain more freedom
• IR are nowadays more driven towards ‘competitiveness’
than it used to be
• The stability and consolidation of the European social
model will also depend on the capacity of IR to continue
to support ‘solidarity’ among the workforce and
‘fairness’ between workers and employers
• But such capacity is linked to the continuing
promotional and supportive role of public policies and
institutions
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
19
Further information
• European Commission,
Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion:
Industrial Relations in Europe,
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=575&langId=en
• European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions:
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
• European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO)
• European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO)
• European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC)
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE SOCIALI
E POLITICHE
Industrial relations in EU countries and recent developments
TAIEX Workshop on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, Kiev 5-6 December 2013
20