ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews collective bargaining developments in the private sector of the major European economies. Its primary focus is on the structure of collective bargaining—the level, units, scope and form—and the implications of recent developments. It is a measure of its significance that, historically, the main distinguishing feature of these countries when compared to Japan and the US has been an inclusive structure of multiemployer bargaining at sector and/or cross-sector level. Indeed, as the European Commission (2009) recognizes, such collective bargaining could be said to be one of the defining features of the European social model—it means that the benefits are not just reserved to the well-organized; legislation can be ‘reflexive’ and ‘procedural’, allowing social partners to ‘tailor’ legal measures to suit their specific circumstances; and it helps to maintain the status and membership of trade unions and employers’ organizations, providing the platform for their greater involvement in and deliberation of economic and social policymaking, along with the networks for achieving greater social cohesion. Consistent with these benefits, the econometric evidence suggests that an inclusive structure of collective bargaining is a key factor in the greater equality of income and levels of trust or social capital in the wider society (for further details, see Panic 2007; Hutton 2008).
