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European wage-setting mechanisms under pressure: negotiated and unilateral change and the EU’s economic governance regime

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Marginson

    (IRRU, University of Warwick)

  • Christian Welz

    (Eurofound)

Abstract

Since the onset of the crisis in 2008, collective wage-setting mechanisms across the EU have faced pressure to become more ‘marketized’. Surveying developments across EU Member States, this article finds profound changes in wage-setting mechanisms in some countries, alongside less far-reaching ones in some others and little, if any change, in yet others. Pressure for further marketization has particularly focused on multi-employer bargaining arrangements, which constitute a fundamental feature of wage setting in western Europe. In particular, state supports underpinning such arrangements in the six countries subject to international financial assistance have been curtailed or removed. More profound changes are shown to have been driven by government imposition rather than negotiation between employers and unions. European and international institutions have exercised considerable influence, through requirements from the ‘troika’ but also through the EU’s new regime of economic governance. For the Member States subject to international financial assistance, an alternative to current EU policy prescriptions is to promote mechanisms facilitating company-level negotiations within, and to reinstate state supports for, multi-employer bargaining frameworks.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Marginson & Christian Welz, 2015. "European wage-setting mechanisms under pressure: negotiated and unilateral change and the EU’s economic governance regime," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 21(4), pages 429-450, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:21:y:2015:i:4:p:429-450
    DOI: 10.1177/1024258915602638
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. repec:ilo:ilowps:454205 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Glassner, Vera. & Keune, Maarten,, 2010. "Negotiating the crisis? : collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn," ILO Working Papers 994542053402676, International Labour Organization.
    3. Vera Glassner & Maarten Keune & Paul Marginson, 2011. "Collective bargaining in a time of crisis: developments in the private sector in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 17(3), pages 303-322, August.
    4. Christian Lyhne Ibsen & Søren Kaj Andersen & Jesper Due & Jørgen Steen Madsen, 2011. "Bargaining in the crisis - a comparison of the 2010 collective bargaining round in the Danish and Swedish manufacturing sectors," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 17(3), pages 323-339, August.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Martí López‐Andreu, 2019. "Employment Institutions under Liberalization Pressures: Analysing the Effects of Regulatory Change on Collective Bargaining in Spain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(2), pages 328-349, June.

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