The aim of the EU Minimum Wage Directive is to protect workers from low pay. New research by Eurofound shows that policymakers, including the social partners, should look behind the figure of 80% bargaining coverage: not all agreements necessarily regulate workers’ pay, and in some countries pay rates in collective agreements can be outdated for too long. The research shows that, in most cases, collective agreements (related to low-paid sectors) provide for a top-up of minimum pay vis-à-vis the national minimum wage; however, this is not always guaranteed. In some countries, the (lowest basic) rates can be outdated and lower than the applicable minimum wage, sometimes for several years, and are thus not binding. In other cases, even if agreements exist, they do not regulate pay, or they only regulate pay for a few workers but not for those higher up the pay scale. All of these cases can be potentially foregone opportunities for trade unions and employers to have their sector- or company-specific say on pay.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.