Today, at the Val Duchesse Social Partners Summit, the European Commission, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and European social partners signed a ‘Tripartite Declaration for a Thriving European Social Dialogue’.

In this pilot project, Eurofound successfully established the feasibility of, and piloted, an EU-wide database of minimum pay rates contained in collective agreements related to low-paid workers. A conceptual and measurement framework was devised, a total of 692 collective agreements – related to 24 low-paid sectors of interest – were selected to be ‘fully coded’ and representative data on negotiated minimum pay were compiled for 24 EU Member States. Based on more than 3,202 renewal texts, time series of collectively agreed minimum rates were created from 2015 to 2022 for 19 countries. This is the first time that an EU-wide data collection has provided comparative time series on negotiated pay. Key findings are is that in some countries outdated agreements contain rates below the applicable statutory minima, and that the potential of collective agreements to regulate pay generally or for employees earning higher wages than the minimum pay is not always fully capitalised on.

Achieving the right to disconnect is becoming a test case of the European Union’s commitment to social dialogue.

The rise in telework and more flexible working patterns, speeded up by the pandemic, has intensified concerns about an ‘always on’ culture and employees’ constant connection to their workplace, leading them to work additional and often unpaid hours. One of the solutions put forward to help address this issue is the introduction of a right to disconnect. Based on a survey of HR managers and employees, this report explores EU Member States’ legislation around the right to disconnect and assesses the impact of company policies in this area on employees’ hours of connection, working time, work–life balance, health and well-being, and overall workplace satisfaction.

In the EU, non-compliance with statutory or negotiated minimum wages averages 6.93% or 1.3%, depending on the statistics used. The lowest national estimate is 0.01% in Belgium and the highest is 11.59% in Hungary. It mostly affects young workers, those on fixed-term or part-time contracts and those working for small companies. It is more common in services than in manufacturing, and is characterised by shorter working time. Member States monitor, enforce and promote compliance in similar ways, although with some differences. This report identifies hindering and enabling factors. Some countries focus on specific economic sectors, such as construction, domestic work, platform work, agriculture and meat processing. National authorities often enforce minimum wages indirectly by helping employers comply, raising workers’ awareness, and helping stakeholders increase cooperation and develop faster procedures. Combining these soft initiatives with tougher measures increases the effectiveness of inspectorates’ actions in enforcing compliance with minimum wages.

Wages are among the central subjects for collective bargaining. Collective bargaining may set wage floors as well as setting wages above these floors where economic factors allow, and wage adjustments which may ensure that workers get a fair share of productivity gains while not impairing the capacity of employers to operate profitably.

This Review of Wage Setting through Collective Bargaining provides insights about the wage component in collective agreements, as well as about the dynamics of the wage bargaining process in the private sector based on examples from selected countries in a variety of regions, wage bargaining systems and income levels. It is aimed at supporting social partners by providing them with additional tools and information that can be used in the course of their own negotiations.

Για να δείτε το κείμενο της μελέτης πατήστε εδώ [19]

The most important changes in the regulation of working time in Europe in 2021 and 2022 were related to the transposition of two European directives: the Work–life Balance Directive and the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive. The reduction of working time and more specifically the four-day working week have been increasingly debated in many EU Member States. In 2022, the average collectively agreed working week in the EU stood at 38.1 hours. Of the sectors analysed, agreed working hours were shortest in public administration, at around 37.7 hours – still longer than the overall average – and longest in the retail sector, at 38.5 hours. The average collectively agreed paid annual leave entitlement stood at 24.3 days in the EU, and was higher in the Member States that were part of the EU prior to its 2004 enlargement (EU14), at 25.3 days, than in the other Member States, at only 20.9 days. If working collectively agreed hours, full-time workers in the EU27 would have worked, on average, 1,714 hours in 2022, with an average of 1,682 hours in the EU14 and 1,820 hours in the other Member States.

Mark your calendar for the second European Employment & Social Rights Forum [27], taking place on 16 and 17 November 2023 online and in Brussels (the Egg).

Join EU institution representatives, national policymakers, Ministers, business leaders, social partners, civil society, and academia as they delve into the dynamic realm of artificial intelligence and its impact on the world of work.

After a long period of price stability, inflation has made a remarkable comeback in the EU. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the disruption of the international supply chain, among other factors, have driven up the prices of commodities and goods. While nominal wages picked up in 2021 and 2022, real wage growth has remained below inflation, affecting mainly low-income groups. Even though EU institutions expect inflation to slowly decline by 2025, many collective bargaining rounds have barely been able to keep up with the rapid increase in prices in 2022. Consequently, trade unions’ demands for compensation and pay increases in collectively agreed wages put pressure on some sectors. Updating minimum wages (in line with the directive on adequate minimum wages) plays a key role in protecting the purchasing power of low wages. With wages not keeping up with inflation rates, tensions may resurface in social dialogue and collective bargaining over the coming years.

Delegates attending the 111th International Labour Conference  [35] (ILC) have adopted a new Recommendation on Quality Apprenticeships  [36].

The new labour standard aims to support “opportunities for people of all ages to skill, reskill and upskill continuously” in rapidly changing labour markets. It provides a clear definition of apprenticeships, specifies aspirational standards for quality apprenticeships, including rights and protection for apprentices.