Draft 5, October 2012, Anna-Lena Börgö Etaat
industriAll – European Trade Union
Work Programme 2012-2016
Collective Bargaining and Social Policies
Collective bargaining is a core issue of trade unionism, and we need to defend the
autonomy of the trade union movement versus all external interventions in collective
bargaining systems, and all other efforts to weaken our strength and solidarity. This
has been especially obvious during the economic crisis. We need to develop
strategies to fight such attacks. Collective bargaining provides the best results for the
workers when carried out by autonomous social partners, following the rules and
traditions in each country. This is independent of the present economic and/or
political situation in the country. Strong national trade unions, a strong industriAll
European Trade Union (industriAll Europe), and European-wide coordinated
collective bargaining strategies are still the best viable answer to these challenges.
Our collective bargaining work is based on a sustainable strategy focusing on the
improvement of workers’ working and living conditions. In such a strategy an active
wage policy is an important goal. Therefore we need to co-ordinate national
collective bargaining policies and develop, enhance and promote an active European
collective bargaining and social policy agenda using all necessary tools, including the
social dialogue. In order to be able to follow this strategy, it is necessary to increase
the coverage rate of collective agreements. It is also of great importance to us to fight
against social competition, wage dumping, health and safety risks, and a downward
spiral of wages and working conditions. A precarious situation is not only limited to
the conditions at the work place and the working conditions overall, but is also linked
to situations where the job and employment security is in danger. Without a job we
are all in a precarious situation, and that is one of the reasons that we have to fight
for a growing and thriving industrial sector in Europe, capable of providing decent
jobs and fair wages.
We need to continue to keep our policies updated, to make them visible and in
accordance with the interests of our trade union membership, including the interests
of our growing white-collar membership. We also need to support the trade unions
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in Europe and their campaigning strategies towards organizing more workers,
without overlooking the newer and traditionally less organized sectors.
Wage Policies and tools
The Wage Coordination Rule
All three founding federations of industriAll Europe earlier adopted a Wage
Coordination Rule in each organization. Such a rule is of high priority for the coordination of collective bargaining. The core arguments for such rules, and the
content of these rules, are essentially the same, but the texts are now slightly
different. We need to discuss and confirm how the rule should be developed further,
and in that context also the actual wording of the rule. The evaluation should also
relate to productivity and inflation trends in order to handle situations of negative
productivity and/or inflation and of high fluctuation. It is also important to consider
the situations where, despite the coverage of collective agreements, we find that the
wage drift is negative, sometimes as a result of open-clauses in these collective
agreements.
IndustriAll Europe has – together with other European federations – to initiate a
stronger exchange of experiences with the European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC) in order to develop collective bargaining strategies.
Working time
There are ongoing negotiations between the social partners regarding possible
changes to the Working Time Directive. This process - whether the negotiations lead
to an agreement or the process continues according to the EU system - is important
for us. The working time rules shall not be impaired, but improved instead. The fight
against the opt-out clause is one of the key elements of the negotiations. Another
major problem is that more and more workers are not protected by the Directive.
This applies to those workers considered to have an autonomous ability to influence
their amount of working time, or when to work. This situation usually applied to
professional and managerial staff but is now applied to more and more types of
workers. In many cases, according to his/her individual contract, a worker in this
situation also has no right to payment for overtime. We shall follow and influence
the negotiations/process of possible changes to the Working Time Directive. We shall
evaluate and improve our guidelines concerning working time.
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Work-life balance
The current labour market is demanding more and more of the worker when it comes
to being available to the employer. This especially affects the need for protection to
ensure that workers have the opportunity to attain a good balance between family
and work. This is reflected not least in the need for working time regulations.
The balance between work and family life is also affected by the rights to various
periods of leave during working life. These may relate to parental leave for the father
and the mother at childbirth, the ability to care for sick children, and also the
opportunity to take time off from work to care for another close relative.
It is also of great importance to strive to highlight domestic unpaid work and its
consequences for women´s contributions on the labour market. For many women
this does not only have a negative effect on daily income but also on the level of
pension benefits they are entitled to.
We shall evaluate and improve our guidelines concerning social issues.
The Eucob@n system
Annual report
The Eucob@n system has to be evaluated and improved. When doing this it is of
importance to take into consideration our experiences when it comes to analyzing
the outcome of the Wage Coordination Rule. Difficulties can be linked to the fact
that analyses are made only retrospectively, and for a time period of one year. The
transparency of the report is crucial. It is an added value for the participating trade
union to be able to compare reported figures and data in detail as much as possible.
Incorporating the Wage Coordination Rule also requires a further developed macroeconomic chapter where focus is also put on forecasts of the inflation and
productivity trends in individual countries.
“Day-to-day” information
Via their membership the affiliated members of industriAll Europe are also part of a
wide network of trade unions in many sectors. By using this advantage to develop a
system for fast information we can create added value in situations where such
information is of the essence, i.e. when starting and finishing important negotiations
at national or sector level, when proposed changes to labour law have a big impact or
when important company-level negotiations are carried out.
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Strengthening the Eucob@an network
The network of rapporteurs giving information to the Eucob@n system is of crucial
importance for the success of the system. They are expected to give information as
an input to the Annual Report, but should also be linked to the daily collective
bargaining work within the affiliated trade union so that they can contribute to the
day-to-day information system. The list of rapporteurs should be updated regularly.
They should obtain information, and be offered training relevant to their task of
providing input for the Annual Report.
Eucob@n website
The development of the website will continue. The part of the website that relates to
information from industriAll Europe sectors should be designed in a unified form,
utilizing the best practice from each federation.
Regional collective bargaining networks
IndustriAll Europe needs a strong system of regional networks for collective
bargaining. Such a system is a part of our strategy based on the fact that collective
bargaining is no longer of national interest alone. The existing networks will be
evaluated and all sectors should be invited to either take part in relevant networks or
form new ones.
Common demands
The common demand on precarious work is a joint demand coming from all three
founding federations, but the time period for this demand and the way it has been
implement has differed between the federations. In future promotion and
monitoring of this demand it is important that this fact be acknowledged. It might
also influence the time period for the campaign, and the evaluation of the demand. A
joint future campaign plan for this demand for alI sectors should be made. To
conduct a review of the current campaigns and evaluation methods to be used is also
important in this new situation.
In some sectors there has been a common demand concerning training. The
evaluation of this demand continues, and so does the struggle to obtain results.
A common strategy should be developed as to what is a common demand, together
with a recommendation on how to work with such demands.
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Demographic changes
Demographic development in society will change the composition of the workforce
on the labour market. The number of older people that could still be on the labour
market will increase, while the number of young people will fall. The need to ensure
that workers are able to remain on the labour market until their pension age or even
longer if they so wish, for economic reasons, is dependent upon the working
conditions and on economic incentives to stay. Work places have to be adapted to
ensure this also will be optimal for older workers. We also have to consider older
workers as a major asset in terms of competence. Competence gained during a
working life is important, but technological developments will require much greater
technical knowledge in the future and such training should not only be given to young
workers. Ensuring that workers have the right qualifications to be able to keep the
job in the future is a dual responsibility: the employer has to provide training
possibilities and the worker has to take the opportunity to become more qualified. A
trade union task could be to develop special rules and regulations at the work place
for older workers via collective agreements – a ‘senior’ policy – that would enable
them to stay on as employees. The same kind of task for the trade unions can be
linked to the fact that there are huge, but not always sufficiently utilised sources of
competence, skills and knowledge in the large group made up of migrant workers.
Policies for education and training enabling this group of workers to enter into the
regular labour market are of great importance.
Another important aspect of the demographic change in society is the necessity for as
many young people as possible to enter the labour market. A massive unemployment rate among young people is not only devastating to their self-confidence, both
socially and professionally, but will also be a great loss for society in general. Whereas
the crisis has led to very high unemployment in some sectors and areas, we find at
the same time a lack of skilled labour in other sectors and areas. One way of dealing
with this is to increase the number of apprenticeship and training contracts. If the
total number of workers is compared with the number of apprentices and trainees
we see that many large companies do not train a high enough share of workers. Each
company should have a plan indicating how many apprentices and trainees they need
for several years ahead, and how they can guarantee good training for the workers.
The trade unions should take part in the process of drawing up these plans.
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Precarious work
In recent decades there has been a dramatic and far-reaching increase in precarious
work in all countries and industrial sectors, which is of major concern. The economic
crisis has also given some employers and governments the possibility to exploit this
situation in order to lower wages, worsen working conditions and introduce
precarious work. This development results in an erosion of the normal living and
working conditions for the individual worker. Particularly affected by this
development are young people, women and migrant workers. It is necessary to
reduce the low-wage sector in Europe through collective bargaining and/or legal
regulation – for instance on minimum wages – in accordance with the practices in
individual countries. Limited use of flexible work is necessary to be able to deal with
upcoming peaks of work, but a flexible labour market without enough social security,
including training, and active labour market policies to reduce unemployment, is a
precarious one. A precarious situation can also arise when workers are targets for
non-solicitation agreements between employers. Employers agree that they will not
employ workers from the other partner´s company, and this can have a big impact on
the individual workers´ possibilities to change employment and secure better
conditions. The presence of temporary agencies is also increasing. This development
puts pressure on the trade unions when it comes to organizing, and obtaining
collective agreements for workers working under circumstances that we are not used
to encountering.
We need to:
Promote the use of open-ended contracts
Limit the use of temporary and fixed-term contracts
Reject the extensive use of forced part-time contracts and promote the workers’ right
to transfer from part-time to full-time contracts if they so wish
Reject the use of bogus self-employment and zero-hour contracts
Limit the use of temporary agencies
Promote the organizing of temporary agency workers, and include them in the
struggle for decent wages and working conditions
Fight against all kinds of discrimination on the labour market
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European transnational agreements and systems
European Framework Agreements
The negotiation of European Framework Agreements at transnational company level
is important for the trade unions. Experience with such negotiations shows that it is
essential for European trade union federations take part in such negotiations and be
signatories to the agreements following the mandate system. The implementation of
the agreements relies on national industrial relations systems and the traditions in
each country. It is therefore important that such implementation takes place.
European system for transnational company agreements
The problems regarding a decision on an optional system for implementing
transnational company agreements still remain unsolved despite of the efforts made
by the EU Commission. We have to focus on future developments. Clear focus will
also be needed when the discussion of a future European industrial relations system
is put on the agenda. The right to strike shall be fully respected as a fundamental
right and this right shall be carried out in accordance with national law and practices.
Social Policy Issues
In many situations – differing from country to country – the collective bargaining tool
is used together with efforts to change the legislative rules in a positive way. It is
therefore important to be able to get a quick and good overview of developments at
EU level in order to be able to pay special attention to the initiatives introduced
there. At the moment such issues are: working time, flexicurity, pensions, health and
safety at work, and the interpretation and implementation of the Posting Directive.
All these issues require re-evaluation and/or reconfirmation of our former positions.
In order to see our policies through we need to influence the EU Commission, EU
Parliament, and other counterparts, as well as the ETUC.
Another important issue to consider is the existing systems of whistle blowing, and
their related problems. We have to examine possibilities to protect workers against
the negative impacts of these systems.
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