| Project summary | To support capacity building for collective bargaining in the services sector, BARSERVICE seeks to provide a complex analysis of industrial relations in the services sector 9 countries (6 EU Member States and 3 Candidate Countries). Knowing the current situation, its challenges and opportunities is the prerequisite for improvements in bargaining processes and coverage. The project will map the structure of collective agreements (which companies have them and what is their content), involvement of unions and employers' organizations, opinions and views of the social partners regarding (sectoral) collective bargaining, organizing rates and obstacles to organizing, the power position of trade unions and strategies to combat undeclared work in the service sector. The project will focus specifically on several areas of services: commerce, finance, social care and publishing. |
| Full Project title | BARSERVICE: Smart bargaining in the services sector: overview, challenges, opportunities |
| Funded by | European Commission - SOCPL-2022-IND-REL-01, Project numer: 101126532 |
| Duration | 2023 - 2025 |
| Countries Covered | BARSERVICE brings novel empirical evidence on the state of the art in industrial relations in the service sector in mostly understudied Member States (Croatia, Slovakia, Czechia, Romania, Italy and France) and Candidate Countries (North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). |
| Goal of the project | In response to these challenges, the BARSERVICE project aims to provide an in-depth analysis of industrial relations in the service sector from multiple perspectives. It seeks to identify both challenges and opportunities and offer practical policy recommendations and tools for social and policy actors. This is particularly relevant given the ongoing structural transformation in European countries marked by a shift from manufacturing to services, the deterioration of working conditions—especially in tertiary jobs—characterised by low wages, job instability, and gender segregation, as well as the limited space for effective collective bargaining and industrial relations. An important aspect of the project also involves uncovering the prevalence of undeclared work and identifying strategies to reduce it by promoting declared employment through improved working conditions and stronger collective bargaining frameworks. Specific objectives of the BARSERVICE project include: Understanding the key trends and context of labour market deregulation and its impact on working conditions, wages, job types, gender and immigrant segregation, the spread of undeclared or informal work and fictitious self-employment, digitalisation, and the limited reach of collective bargaining and low unionisation rates across the service sector in nine countries. Exploring the main challenges stemming from labour market deregulation, gender and migrant segregation, undeclared and informal work, fictitious self-employment, and weak collective bargaining structures, and assessing how selected EU Member States and Candidate Countries are responding to these challenges in line with EU-level social dialogue priorities. Analysing how deregulation-related challenges contribute to the limited coverage of collective bargaining and low unionisation rates in the service sector across six EU Member States and three Candidate Countries. Developing and analysing a coded, electronic database of 72 collective agreements in the service sector—specifically in social care, publishing, finance, and commerce—and examining provisions related to: work–family balance (e.g., pregnancy, maternity/paternity leave, childcare), individual contracts and job security, health and medical support, equality and workplace violence, working hours and scheduling, holidays and leave, sickness and disability, social security and pensions, training/apprenticeship, wages, employee participation, green clauses, work intensification, COVID-19-related changes, digitalisation, and other workplace reforms. Facilitating direct exchanges between national social partners in six EU Member States and three Candidate Countries and their EU-level counterparts to identify opportunities for strengthening collective bargaining in the service sector in response to current and emerging challenges. |
| Parties involved | |
| Coordinator | Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI) | Bratislava, Slovakia |
| Partners | WageIndicator Foundation | Amsterdam, Netherlands UNI Europa | Brussels, Belgium Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi | İzmir, Turkey Academia de Studii Economice (ASE) din Bucuresti | Bucharest, Romania Institut za razvoj i međunarodne odnose (IRMO) | Zagreb, Croatia Macedonia2025 | Skopje, North-Macedonia Ekonomski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu | Belgrade, Serbia |
| Associate partner |
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| Publications |
BARSERVICE D 1.1. - Conceptual and analytical framework France: Country report on the care sector |
| Newsletters | Collective Agreements Newsletter: Learn About Compensation for Overtime Work and Weekend Shifts! How is 🤖 AI at work addressed in collective agreements? CBA Database Presented at ILO Conference | BARTIME and BARSERVICE Projects Approved |
We thankfully acknowledge funding provided by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Project No. 101126532
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