"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."

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