Coordinated bargaining in Europe: From incremental corrosion to frontal assault?

Abstract

The viability of coordinated, multi-employer bargaining arrangements as a cornerstone of labour market regulation in Western Europe has come under further threat following the crisis. Already, pressure for decentralization had corroded the capacity of sector agreements to specify universal standards applicable at company level. Procedural mechanisms articulating the two levels had become looser and more open-ended. This process has intensified in Northern European countries, whilst in Southern Europe, under pressure from the European institutions, a frontal assault on multi-employer bargaining arrangements is now underway. Reinforced European economic governance intensifies the need for coordination of bargaining across borders, but the capacity for achieving this is significantly reduced by the erosion of capacities for effective coordination within national bargaining systems.

Trade Union Channels for Influencing European Union Policies

“…However, trade unions face challenges that must be overcome in order to influence the EU. They are experiencing setbacks through declining membership and a reduced scope for action not only due to rulings by the European Court of Justice (e.g., the so-called Laval Quartet) but also because of austerity policies (Bücker & Warneck, 2010;Marginson, 2014;Scheuer, 2011). In addition, many obstacles to cross-border cooperation remain from the past such as institutional differences, scarcity of union resources, and low interest in the European level among members (Furåker & Bengtsson, 2013;Larsson, 2012).…”

Making work more equal

“…Rather, it cautions against applying universalist theorising about processes of labour market segmentation and inequalities (Almond and Rubery, 2000). A comparative institutionalist approach has been especially valuable recently in knocking down neoclassical economics claims about the inefficiencies of regulated labour markets -including, for example, new ideas about 'regulatory indeterminacy ' (Deakin and Sarwar, 2008; Damian Grimshaw, Colette Fagan, Gail Hebson and Isabel Tavora -9781526125972 Downloaded from manchesteropenhive.com at 06/07/2019 08:17:30PM via free access Lee and McCann, 2014) -and confronting universal policy prescriptions of the sort associated with Troika interventions seeking to dismantle collective bargaining and cut minimum wages Marginson, 2014;and Karamessini and Grimshaw, Chapter 17 in this volume). But the onward, international assault by neoliberal ideas and practices means important questions remain about the balance of societal and global systemic factors in driving change in labour market segmentation and the resilience of countries to retain societal norms and rules governing inequalities.…”

“…Making work more equal Lee and McCann, 2014) -and confronting universal policy prescriptions of the sort associated with Troika interventions seeking to dismantle collective bargaining and cut minimum wages Marginson, 2014; and Karamessini and Grimshaw, Chapter 17 in this volume). But the onward, international assault by neoliberal ideas and practices means important questions remain about the balance of societal and global systemic factors in driving change in labour market segmentation and the resilience of countries to retain societal norms and rules governing inequalities.…”

The durability of coordinated bargaining: Crisis, recovery and pay fixing in Ireland

“…Marginson, 2015), the import of the analysis nevertheless seems clear: changes in pay fixing regimes in Ireland, in common with other Troika programme countries, are a consequence of externally imposed Troika reforms. In the same way these developments have also been portrayed as a 'frontal assault' on coordinated bargaining in Europe's periphery (Marginson, 2015). A second cluster of countries comprises cases where 'some changes' have been evident: Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, and here domestic adjustments were seen as more important than externally imposed changes.…”