ETUC Collective Bargaining Committee 5 October 2006

Annual survey - “excessive flexibility” and “flexicurity” - transnational bargaining

The three main issues on the agenda at the ETUC Collective Bargaining Committee in Brussels on 5 October were:
- latest results from the annual survey of collective bargaining,
- excessive flexibility, and
- transnational bargaining - the proposed legal framework for European collective agreements.

The survey of collective bargaining so far this year suggested that negotiated remain at a similar level to 2005. However, it also showed that in four cases countries had failed to meet the ETUC's collective bargaining guideline for three or four years in a row. The guideline is that pay increases should compensate for inflation and provide a share of productivity growth to workers.

It was pointed out that the guideline is not just a mathematical formula but should have a political role. In the lead up to the 2007 Congress it was suggested that there should be more of a debate on how the guideline is used and the extent to which the ETUC and its affiliates could provide support to unions in those countries where collective bargaining results were repeatedly below the guideline.

The European Commission has pushed “flexicurity” up the political agenda. This is the idea that labour markets work better by combining greater flexibility with more security for workers. The ETUC is concerned that the emphasis of the Commission and the employers will be much more on achieving greater flexibility.

In response, the ETUC is planning to produce a pamphlet investigating the main elements of flexibility - working time, atypical contracts and low pay. This will argue that such forms of flexibility are not the best ways of boosting productivity and are certainly not the way to deal with competition from low-wage countries.

The final debate of the day was the latest discussion on the European Commission's proposals for a legal framework for European collective agreements. Participants confirmed the need to have European Industry Federations at the heart of this process and that it was important to clarify how mandates could be given to negotiate and sign such agreements. It was noted that the textile workers federation had now followed the metalworkers in establishing a procedure for negotiating a European agreement. The next stage in the process will be a seminar involving the employers that will take place on 27 November.

ETUC Confederal Secretary Walter Cerfeda explained that the three key priorities for the committee in the run up to the ETUC Congress in May 2007 were: transnational bargaining, the role and relevance of the ETUC guidelines for collective bargaining and minimum wages. This third subject was currently being examined by a taskforce consisting of representatives of the ETUC and ETUI-REHS research body and the ETUC was planning a number of meetings in countries which currently have statutory minimum wages to discuss their impact and implications for collective bargaining.