Overview of collective bargaining 2004-05

Europe

The annual review of collective bargaining across Europe has just been published by the WSI trade union institute in Germany. The assesses trends in pay increases against inflation and productivity growth in each country, following the ETUC's collective bargaining guideline that pay increases should compensate for rising prices and a share of the increase in productivity. WSI says that pay increases have so far failed to keep up with rising productivity in 2005. It also notes that Germany is the only country experiencing a fall in real wages and suggests that this is having an impact on pay on some of its close neighbours, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria.
Read more at > WSI