Wider Bargaining Agenda and Clause Trade-Offs in European Collective Agreements

Abstract

COLBAR-EUROPE (VS/2019/00777) aimed to contribute to the objectives of the EU’s Social Dialogue Program. This report addresses its Research Objective 3): To what extent is a wider bargaining agenda agreed upon and are clauses traded off against each other? This report builds on the data from the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database (CBA Database) with 602 coded CBAs from 27 European countries. The CBAs are coded for ten topics.

This report first analyses whether the topics bargained in sectoral agreements differ from those bargained in firm-level agreements. Half of the CBAs in the database are single-enterprise (SEB) and half multi-employer (MEB) bargaining agreements. The CBAs from the construction industry are more often MEB agreements, whereas the ones in the public sector are more often SEB agreements. In the CBA Database countries vary widely with respect to the shares of MEB versus SEB agreements. The topics concluded in the two types of agreements are rather similar, except for the topics social security and pensions, and wages, which are significantly more often agreed in MEB agreements. In half of the 602 CBAs all ten topics are addressed, in one quarter nine topics and in one tenth eight topics. The remaining small group addresses between three to seven topics. SEB agreements include on average significantly fewer topics than MEB agreements.

The report secondly analyses which topics are more likely to be combined with each other, and which are not. The social security and pension topic is often combined with the topics job descriptions, training, health and safety, and sickness and disability. In contrast, the training topic less often goes along with the health and safety, gender equality, and wages topics. The topic of work-family arrangements less often goes along with the social security, job security and employment, sickness and disability, and gender equality topics.