Social dialogue: urgent to turn words into deeds

EU instruments encouraging social dialogue and collective bargaining are very valuable—but not if employers can walk away.

Collective bargaining and social dialogue have been under pressure across the European Union in recent decades. The trend towards dismantling of collective-bargaining structures reached its nadir in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis, with the onerous bail-out conditions applied by the ‘troika’ of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund to recipient member states such as Greece.

During its now-expiring mandate the European Commission has managed to turn the page. The minimum-wages directive—including the requirement that member states produce action plans to raise collective-bargaining coverage to 80 per cent, where below—and the Council of the EU recommendation on strengthening social dialogue are excellent attempts to repair past mistakes. They stand out as concrete instruments to attain a genuine social Europe.

Many European countries however need to build, or rebuild, collective-bargaining systems to ensure that the twin green and digital transitions will lead to fair and inclusive labour markets, underpinned by quality employment. After the directive and the recommendation were adopted, industriAll Europe, the trade-union federation representing industrial workers, seized the opportunities provided and reached out to its 200 affiliated unions to map the obstacles which must be overcome to reach their goals and targets.

Employers’ refusal

One of the main obstacles across all European countries and, increasingly, even in countries with a well-established tradition of social dialogue and collective bargaining—as seen in the case of Tesla in Sweden—is employers’ refusal to sit at the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith. This is also a creeping trend at the European level, most notably with Business Europe’s refusal to sign the La Hulpe Declaration last month, having earlier walked away from the negotiations on a European agreement on ‘telework’.

The biggest specific disappointment has been Eurogas’ failure to adopt the Just Transition Agreement arrived at, after nine months of negotiations, by the delegations from the employers and the unions (industriAll Europe and the European Federation of Public Service Unions). The agreement would have guaranteed a just transition for gas workers, faced with the massive transformation which is under way.

This trend needs to be reversed and the new EU instruments used to their full potential to overcome employers’ refusal to bargain. The tools to bring employers to the negotiating table, notably at sector level, range from incentives to coercive measures, such as ‘good faith bargaining’ in Ireland or the attempt to introduce social conditionality in public procurement in Germany. It is clear that we need more pressure from the political level for employers to shoulder their responsibility.

Social conditionality on all public funds at all levels—but especially at the European level—is essential in this perspective. Social conditionality means public funds should only go to companies that, among other things, respect trade-union rights and have a collective agreement. Conditionality has to become a reality in the new commission mandate, as requested also by the former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta in his report on the future of the internal market.

Growing victimisation

Another key obstacle is the extremely worrying trend of victimisation of trade-union members and especially leaders. These attacks go as far as harassment, including online but also at the workplace. Article 4 of the minimum-wages directive provides for protection against the victimisation of union representatives exercising the right to collective bargaining.

This protection must become a reality on the ground. Anti-union activities by employers have taken place across Europe for decades—industriAll Europe has been involved in countless company cases where union representatives have been intimidated or members individually or collectively fired. But the recent phenomenon of far-right sympathisers attacking trade unions is gaining ground and becoming of particular concern.

Affiliated industriaAll members in Finland—a country with a tradition of social dialogue and collective bargaining which the current right-wing government has challenged—have reported images of union leaders circulating on far-right ‘social media’ channels with defamatory message and even threats. It is of utmost urgency to resist these attacks as assaults on democracy, since trade unions and social dialogue are backbones of democratic societies.

Positive development

One positive development—most probably in anticipation of implementation of the minimum-wages directive—can be observed in Bulgaria. There the parliament has decided that violations of workers’ rights to freedom of association will be punishable by one to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to €4,000. The new rules cover all offences (whether involving force, threats or any other unlawful means) against the right of workers to join a union, forcing them to renounce membership or preventing them from forming a union.We need more examples like this across Europe.

The incoming commission after the European Parliament elections must continue to strengthen social dialogue and collective bargaining. Workers and their trade unions across Europe expect more concrete measures to remove the obstacles they face in bargaining for quality jobs. We need measures that bring employers to the bargaining table and that protect trade unions against attacks and victimisation.