Besamusca, J., & Tijdens, K.G. (2018). Collective Bargaining Agreements and Industrial Relations in Commerce Sector throughout Europe. Presentation for ILERA 2018, South Korea. WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam.
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ABSTRACT
The CBA database contains a large number of collective bargaining agreements that are made available online in the original language and coded in a comprehensive and uniform way using the custom made COBRA system (Ceccon et al 2016). - 116 Collective Bargaining Agreements from the European commerce sector - 95 in retail - 40 in wholesale - 14 in additional (sub)sectors (e.g. catering staff in road stations, or distribution centres in supermarkets) - Includes information on meta data and nine substantive topics: (1) employment contracts, (2) health and medical assistance, (3) training, (4) sickness and disability, (5) social security and pensions, (6) working hours, (7) gender equality, (8) work-family balance and (9) wages.
Signatories: - 50 are signed with single employers (17 cover multinational companies), 59 with employers’ associations and 7 with multiple individual employers. - All agreements except two were concluded with at least one trade union - and 6 (i.e. 5%) with at least one professional association. Scope - Starting date, ranging from 1970 to 2016, - Both starting and ending dates (70%), ranging from 2012 to 2020. - Agreements with specified start and end dates are closed for periods between 9 months and 10 years; the average duration is 2.5 years (30 months). - In 87% of the cases, the agreements cover workers in the sector or firm throughout the country, - whereas 13% apply only to specific regions; - 30% of the agreements cover trade union members only.