*ETUI-Torsten Müller 112 results

"Policy recommendations:
The Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages obliges Member States of the European Union (EU) with collective bargaining coverage of below 80% to establish action plans to promote collective bargaining, with the aim of progressively increasing collective bargaining coverage. To achieve this objective the following aspects are to be considered when establishing the action plan:
– procedurally, ensure that Member States meet the Directive's obligation to actively involve trade unions and employers' associations in establishing action plans;
– as regards content, the measures included in action plans should seek to strengthen trade unions' and employer organisations' capacity to act, as well as to provide political and institutional support for sectoral bargaining;
– measures to strengthen unions should aim to provide them with the right of access to companies and to protect union representatives from discrimination by the employer;
– measures to strengthen employers' organisations should aim to encourage the establishment of sectoral organisations and to improve employers' readiness to engage in (sectoral) collective bargaining;
– political and institutional support for sectoral collective bargaining should address public procurement and industrial policy to ensure that public contracts and public financial support more generally are given only to companies that respect and apply the provisions of collective agreements;
– ambitious national action plans are important to compensate or to correct minimalistic transposition of the Directive in many Member States. This will require intensifying political and public pressure on the respective national governments through trade unions and all other progressive actors interested in ensuring adequate minimum wages through high collective bargaining coverage."

"Die im Oktober 2022 verabschiedete EU-Richtlinie über angemessene Mindestlöhne in der Europäischen Union geht in ihrer Zielsetzung weit über die Absicherung angemessener (gesetzlicher) Mindestlöhne hinaus. Ihr zweites zentrales Ziel, Tarifverhandlungen in der gesamten EU grundlegend zu stärken, macht sie de facto auch zu einer Tarifvertragsstärkungsrichtlinie. Aufgrund der begrenzten europarechtlichen Kompetenzen auf dem Gebiet der Lohn- und Tarifpolitik setzt die Mindestlohnrichtlinie dabei weniger auf verbindliche inhaltliche Standards als vielmehr auf prozedurale Regelungen und inhaltliche Empfehlungen. Sie schafft somit einen europäischen Referenzrahmen für politische Initiativen auf nationaler Ebene, die auf eine Stärkung der Tarifbindung abzielen. Ihre konkreten Auswirkungen hängen daher entscheidend von ihrer Umsetzung und Nutzung auf nationaler Ebene ab. Vor diesem Hintergrund analysiert der Beitrag, inwiefern die Mindestlohnrichtlinie zur Erhöhung der Tarifbindung in Deutschland beitragen kann."

Mit der Verabschiedung der europäischen Mindestlohnrichtlinie hat die Europäische Union eine grundlegende Kehrtwende in der europäischen Arbeitspolitik vollzogen. Im Kern geht es darum, überall in der EU angemessene Mindestlöhne durchzusetzen. Dabei zielt sie nicht nur auf eine Erhöhung gesetzlicher Mindestlöhne, sondern zugleich auch darauf, die nationalen Tarifvertragssysteme zu stärken. Aufgrund der im Hinblick auf Löhne und Tarifverträge begrenzten rechtlichen Kompetenzen der EU enthält die Richtlinie im Wesentlichen prozedurale Vorgaben, während inhaltliche Ziele eher einen empfehlenden Charakter haben. Die Wirksamkeit der Richtlinie hängt damit entscheidend davon ab, ob nationale Akteure sie als politischen Referenzrahmen zu nutzen wissen."

"Policy recommendations
In 2024, there were substantial nominal increases in statutory minimum wages in the majority of Member States of the European Union (EU), which ensured minimum wage increases in real terms. Two factors in particular were instrumental in this: first, the still high levels of inflation across the EU, which made safeguarding the purchasing power of minimum wage-earners a political priority; and second, the fact that many Member States were already using the recently adopted Adequate Minimum Wage Directive's ‘double decency threshold' (defined in terms of the indicative reference values of 60% of the median wage and 50% of the average wage) even before its transposition into national law, which is not due until November this year. In order to ensure adequate minimum wages in the sense of the Directive's double decency threshold, however, the following policy pointers should be considered:
– Currently, only Slovenia meets the double decency threshold. Therefore further substantial minimum wage increases are needed across the EU in order to realise the Directive's overarching objectives of promoting social convergence and reducing wage inequality and in-work poverty through adequate minimum wages.
– The most effective way of achieving adequate minimum wages would be to follow the example of Bulgaria by incorporating (elements of) the double decency threshold in national law. European Economic, Employment and Social Policy 2024.02 | March ETUI Policy Brief – Further measures should be put in place to ensure that a minimum wage that meets the double decency threshold really ensures a decent standard of living, as foreseen by the Directive. Based on a country-specific basket of goods and services, Member States should therefore examine whether a minimum wage set at 60% of the median wage and 50% of the average wage is sufficient to be able to afford this basket of goods and services.
– One reason why a minimum wage that meets the double decency threshold may still not be sufficient to ensure a decent living standard is the fact that wages overall are very low and so necessarily also median and average wages.
– Member States should therefore immediately use the Directive's 80% threshold for adequate collective bargaining coverage as a trigger to develop action plans to increase collective bargaining coverage in particular by promoting sectoral collective bargaining as a means of raising the overall wage structure."

"The twin digital and green transition will have far-reaching labour market consequences in the manufacturing sector as regards the quantity, character and quality of employment. The effects of transition will be uneven between countries and regions, different industries and different categories of workers, depending on their various socio-economic starting points and the different degrees to which they are affected by the twin transition. Against this background, industriAll is calling for a just transition that is fair for all workers and that does not destroy, but rather preserves quality employment. Working time policy more generally and working time reduction more specifically is an important tool for achieving such a just transition by helping to safeguard employment and ensure good working and living conditions.

Diversity of working time standards across Europe
Analysing the state of working time arrangements across Europe reveals great diversity. There is still an east–west divide, with considerably longer weekly working hours in central and eastern European countries than in western European countries. The study, furthermore, illustrates the important role of collective agreements in ensuring shorter weekly and annual working hours. A comparison of statutory maximum working hours and collectively agreed working hours illustrates that collective agreements lead to considerably fewer weekly working hours. Moreover, because they ensure additional vacation days on top of the holidays provided for by legislation, collective agreements also help to ensure shorter annual working time. Weekly and annual working time are longer in CEE countries because legislation rather than collective agreements remains the dominant way of regulating working time there. From a sectoral perspective, the analysis illustrates that the collectively agreed working time in the metal and chemical industries tends to be shorter than in the rest of the economy. But the analysis also showed that normal actual weekly working time in the metal and chemical industries were on average more than 2.5 hours longer than collectively agreed working hours."

"Trade unions have repeatedly been challenged by neoliberal programmes implemented within Member States of the
European Union (EU) and at the European level. The twentyseven country chapters at the core of this book chart the features of the neoliberal challenge in the EU Member States and the measures implemented by unions in their attempts to adapt to changed circumstances since 2000. It is clear that union activity, either independently or in conjunction with allies, will be at the centre of revitalization campaigns if the pieces left from the neoliberal challenges are to be picked up and wielded into a coherent response.
This book offers a comprehensive comparative overview of the development, structure, and policies of national trade union movements in the EU. It presents an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing these organizations and their strategic and policy responses from 2000 to 2020."