Torsten Mueller

European Trade Union Institute | ETUI · Research Department

This collection of four volumes charts the development of collective bargaining since the year 2000 in the 28 EU Member States. These four volumes document how the institutions of collective bargaining have been removed, fundamentally altered or markedly narrowed in scope in all 28 EU Member States. However, there are also positive examples to be f...

On 14 January 2020, the European Commission published a consultation document with a view to take legislative action to establish fair minimum wages in Europe; In this policy brief we argue for a pragmatic approach of taking the ‘in-work-povertywage’ threshold of 60 per cent of the national full-time gross median wage as the reference to assess the...

Trade unions have repeatedly been challenged by neoliberal programmes implemented within Member States of the European Union (EU) and at the European level. The twenty-seven country chapters at the core of this book chart the features of the neoliberal challenge in the EU Member States and the measures implemented by unions in their attempts to ada...

The aim of this study is to analyse the strategic debate about working time policy in the manufacturing sector. The study consists of four parts. Part 1 takes stock of national working time patterns in the EU manufacturing sector. This part deals with the national differences in working time regulation, focussing in particular on the role of legisl...

Despite substantial minimum wage increases, in almost half of the Member States with a statutory minimum wage, these were not sufficient to safeguard the purchasing power of minimum-wage earners in the current cost-of-living crisis. In order to better mitigate the negative effects of high inflation on the lives of workers and their families, Member...

During the COVID-19 pandemic all the EU Member States established some kind of job retention scheme to cushion the employment effects of the economic crisis. While all job retention schemes share this general objective, they differ considerably as regards their institutional design and underlying functional logic. The aim of this article is to anal...

It has almost become a cliché to say that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities while also generating new ones. However, the following pages of this year’s Benchmarking Working Europe clearly reveal that, far from being a platitude, the nexus between the pandemic and rising inequalities is both increasingly measurable and...

This contribution reviews the principal features of the German short-time work scheme during the first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic from March - December 2020. The analysis deals with institutional characteristics as well as quantitative features such as take-up and spending on short-time work. This publication is a virtual attachment to the...

This paper analyses the job retention schemes (JRS) implemented in response to the Covid-19 crisis, showing quantitative trends and differences in terms of expenditure on the schemes and the number of workers involved. The key focus is on a qualitative analysis of the schemes’ key properties. In order to understand the diversity of job retention sc...

Online available: https://illej.unibo.it/article/view/13368 In autumn 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a "Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union". For the first time in the history of the EU, draft legislation is on the table which explicitly aims not only to significantly increase the level and scope of mi...

This paper has been prepared for the UNI Europa Regional Conference 2021. A version in German and French can be found at: https://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Collective-Bargaining2/Collective-bargaining-systems-in-Europe-2021-study Over time, a great variety of collective bargaining systems been develope...

This article examines the European Trade Union Federations’ (ETUFs) role within the European polity in representing the interests of their affiliates vis-à-vis decision-makers at European level. In order to influence processes at European level, however, ETUFs need to aggregate and coordinate the often heterogeneous interests of their affiliates. T...

Die Studie bietet einen Überblick über die Mindestlohnsysteme, die Entwicklung der Mindestlöhne sowie aktuelle politische Debatten und Initiativen in allen 27 EU-Mitgliedsstaaten plus Großbritannien.

The study provides an overview of minimum wage regimes, the development of minimum wages and current political debates and initiatives in all 27 EU member states plus the UK.

In the EU27 there were more than 42 million applications for support for workers on short-time work or similar schemes, which corresponds to about one quarter of the overall EU workforce. If one includes the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the number of applications for short-time work rises to more than 50 million. With its proposed SURE programme...

This is the fourth volume of the book Collective Bargaining in Europe: towards an endgame. It contains: tables with indicators/data relevant for collective bargaining, a glossary of key terms, an overview of extension mechanisms in all 28 EU Member States and an index for the first three volumes.

All articles of this special issue are available on the Transfer Website: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/trsa/25/3 The articles by Schulten and Müller; D'Arcy and Finch; and Alsos, Nergaard, Van Den Heuvel are available as free downloads until Friday 18th October.

Available on Transfer's Website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1024258919873989 Summary The development of a European minimum wage policy is back on the political agenda. While in the past the debate about a European minimum wage policy was largely detached from developments at national level, more recently the debate has been based...

This is the third of four volumes charting the development of collective bargaining since the year 2000 in the 28 EU Member States. This volume covers the following countries: Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It also contains a conclusion which summarizes key trends identified in the various country chapters.

This book is one of four volumes that chart the development of collective bargaining since the year 2000 in the 28 EU Member States. Although collective bargaining is an integral part of the European social model, it does not sit easy with the dominant political and economic discourse in the EU. Advocates of the neoliberal policy agenda view collec...

■■ Der Beitrag analysiert unter dem Begriff des lohnpolitischen Interventionismus die unterschiedlichen Formen und Auswirkungen der Einflussnahme von europäischen Institutionen und nationalen Regierungen auf die nationalen Lohnpolitiken im Rahmen des europäischen Krisenmanagements ■■ Dabei zeigt sich, dass der lohnpolitische Interventionismus zwar...

Aunque cada vez con más frecuencia se señala en las declaraciones oficiales de las instituciones europeas e internacionales la necesidad de un mayor crecimiento salarial, esto no ha tenido aún como resultado la formulación de medidas políticas concretas de apoyo a las estructuras de negociación colectiva, para que sean la herramienta clave que gara...

Der Beitrag untersucht, wie sich im Verlauf der 2007/2008 einsetzenden Finanzmarkt- und Euro-Krise die Machtressourcen, Aufgaben und Politiken der Europäischen Gewerkschafsverbände (EGV) verändert haben. Die Analyse zeigt, dass keines von zwei angesichts der Wucht der Krise denkbaren Extremszenarien eintrat: Weder kam es durch Re-Nationalisierungst...

Este nuevo número de Gaceta Sindical, reflexión y debate cuenta con las aportaciones de diferentes personas que han realizado diferentes análisis y reflexiones sobre la importancia y la gravedad de las desigualdades y las brechas sociales, en este período de la historia que algunos han calificado como VICA (volátil, incierto, complejo y ambiguo), y...

There has been much recent attention to the upheavals, often externally induced, in collective bargaining and labour market regulation in southern European countries. In this article, we introduce a set of studies of changes, typically employer-driven, in collective wage regulation in northern Europe. We discuss possible drivers of change: contagio...

This article investigates the development of collective wage bargaining systems in manufacturing in five countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. We illustrate the responses of collective actors to two key challenges: first, increased cross-country competition between Northern European companies operating within the same high-value/...

Executive Summary LOW PAY IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE This study provides data confirming that workers in lower-skilled health and social care assistant positions earn considerably less than the national average wage in their country. It also shows that the higher the proportion of women in the sector, the lower the average relative income – and this...

The main objective of this chapter is to review the extent to which recent developments in the field of wages and collective bargaining con-tribute to achieving these objectives. The issues addressed in this chapter will be the country-specific recommendations as regards wages and collective bargaining, and the development of real and minimum wages...

A critical review of the Social Scoreboard proposed by the European Commission on April 2017 as part of the European Pillar of Social Rights package

WSI-Mitteilungen 7/2017, Schwerpunktheft Mindestlöhne in Deutschland - Erfahrungen und Analysen Living wages – normative and economic reasons for an adequate minimum wage Since the 1990s, ‘living wage initiatives’ have emerged around the globe, seeking to substantially increase minimum wages. While minimum wages are often set at a very low level...

Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, the European Commission’s approach to the issue of wages and collective bargaining has been based on a strategy of internal devaluation which primarily aims at the improvement of price competitiveness by lowering the relative prices of goods and services produced in a country vis-à-vis its trading pa...

AutorInnen aus 13 Ländern (Belgien, Dänemark, Finnland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Italien, Niederlande, Norwegen, Österreich, Portugal, Spanien, Ungarn und Deutschland), die dem europäischen Netzwerk gewerkschaftsnaher Forschungsinstitute (TURI) angehören, diskutieren über aktuelle Fragen der Lohn- und Tarifpolitik und ihre ökonomische Bedeutung...

Der Beitrag von Torsten Müller und Hans-Wolfgang Platzer »Gewerkschaften und Arbeitsbeziehungen im Europa der Krise – Strukturdaten und Entwicklungstrends im Vergleich« dient der Einführung in die Thematik und bietet auf der Grundlage des Machtressourcenansatzes einen profunden Überblick über die Veränderungen der Handlungsmöglichkeiten der europäi...

For years, European crisis management in the field of wages and collective bargaining has been dominated by an interventionist approach aimed at putting pressure on wages, at decentralising collective bargaining systems, and at reducing workers’ rights. In previous editions of the Benchmarking Working Europe report we illustrated the far-reaching c...

The focus of this paper is the need to reshape the financial assistance programmes and the related activities of the Troika in a way that would make them more socially and democratically acceptable. The starting point, therefore, is an analysis of the current role of the Troika and of each of its three constituent institutions in the framework of t...

The focus of this paper is the need to reshape the financial assistance programmes and the related activities of the Troika in a way that would make them more socially and democratically acceptable. The starting point, therefore, is an analysis of the current role of the Troika and of each of its three constituent institutions in the framework of t...

Die sozialere und demokratischere Ausgestaltung der Troika-Politik steht im Zentrum dieses Beitrags. Zu diesem Zweck werden zunächst die Rolle der Troika und der drei involvierten Institutionen im Rahmen der finanziellen Hilfsprogramme analysiert. Es folgt eine Diskussion des von der Troika verkörperten neuen Politikstils des europäischen Intervent...

Even as the danger of deflation looms large, the strategy of internal devaluation continues to dominate EU crisis management. In the field of wages and collective bargaining this strategy entails constant pressure on wages and the relentless pursuit of further ‘structural reforms’ aimed primarily at increasing the downward flexibility of wages. Thi...

This Working Paper critically reviews the empirical evidence and the basic assumptions on which European and national policymakers base their strategy of cutting and freezing public sector pay as one central element of the current crisis management. Using comparative studies and new statistical data, the paper demonstrates that these assumptions ar...

The failure of the current supply-side policies in generating growth and employment illustrates the need for a macroeconomic reorientation towards a demand-and wage-led model of growth. A central element of this reorientation is the implementation of a European minimum wage standard. In order to combat poverty and to foster internal demand, such a...

Over the past decade, European company-level employment regulation has emerged: European Works Councils (EWCs) and trade unions have begun to negotiate company-level collective agreements which have a far-reaching impact across borders on issues as diverse as company restructuring, health and safety, and profit-sharing. The negotiating parties have...

Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 189 1. Le rôle de la politique salariale dans la nouvelle gouvernance économique européenne ...................................................................................................................... 190 2. I...

Transnationale Unternehmensvereinbarungen sind ein neuartiges, seit Anfang der 2000er Jahre im Wachstum begriffenes Instrument konzernbezogener Arbeitsbeziehungen. Die transnationale Vereinbarungspolitik gilt u.a. den Themen Chancengleichheit, Arbeitssicherheit und Gesundheitsschutz sowie Unternehmensrestrukturierungen. Durch transnationale Verein...

Transnationale Unternehmensvereinbarungen sind ein neuartiges, seit Anfang der 2000er Jahre im Wachstum begriffenes Instrument konzernbezogener Arbeitsbeziehungen. Die transnationale Vereinbarungspolitik gilt u.a. den Themen Chancengleichheit, Arbeitssicherheit und Gesundheitsschutz sowie Unternehmensrestrukturierungen. Durch transnationale Verein...

Seit Anfang der 2000er Jahre gewinnen transnationale Unternehmensvereinbarungen an Bedeutung. Hiermit werden auf europäischer Konzernebene zwischen Management und Belegschaftsvertretungen Vereinbarungen geschlossen und Absprachen getroffen, die sich einer breiten Palette von Themen widmen. Der Beitrag analysiert auf Basis einer Analyse im Metallsek...

The continuing advance of globalization, together with deepening European integration, has increased the significance of the transnational level of trade union organization and action. This study offers a comprehensive overview of the development, structure, and policies of global and European trade union federations to serve as a reference work on...

The conclusion of framework agreements at European company level is a relatively new phenomenon which has gained momentum over the past decade, as an increasing number of European Works Councils (EWCs) moved beyond the information and consultation function foreseen in the EWC Directive. This new negotiating role of EWCs confronts trade unions with...

Im letzten Jahrzehnt haben europäische Unternehmensvereinbarungen als neuartiges Instrument der Erwerbsregulierung an Bedeutung gewonnen. Europäische Betriebsräte und Gewerkschaften handeln in zunehmenden Maß mit Unternehmen grenzübergreifende Vereinbarungen zu Themen wie Arbeitssicherheit, Gewinnbeteiligung und den Umgang mit Umstrukturierungen au...

Negli ultimi anni, gli Accordi Quadro Internazionali sono diventati un nuovo strumento di regolazione nell'ambito dei gruppi transnazionali. Alla luce di una rapida panoramica sulla nascita degli AQI e di un'analisi quantitativa di tali strumenti, nonché di un'analisi delle strategie messe in atto dalle Federazioni Sindacali Globali, l'articolo ana...

This article is based on a comprehensive investigation of the organization and policies of all 12 European industry federations (EIFs) since the beginning of the 1990s. The focus in the present analysis lies on the evolution of the tasks, governance capacity and functions of the EIFs in the areas of company policy and collective bargaining — areas...

European and international framework agreements : the new tools of transnational industrial relations In recent years transnational framework agreements (TFAs) at global and European levels have emerged as a new tool of regulation within transnational companies. Based on an outline of the origins of TFAs, a quantitative overview of TFAs and an anal...

This article deals with the organisational development as well as policy evolution of the twelve existing European trade union federations since the beginning of the 1990s. The analysis mainly focuses on whether and how the intensification of the European integration process and EU enlargement changed the conditions for interest representation at t...

Mit der voranschreitenden Globalisierung und vertieften europäischen Integration gewinnen die transnationalen gewerkschaftlichen Organisations- und Handlungsebenen an Bedeutung. Diese Studie vermittelt in einer Kombination aus Nachschlagewerk und vertiefender Problemanalyse ein umfassendes Bild der Entwicklung, Organisation und Politik der globalen...

In recent years transnational framework agreements (TFAs) at global and European level have emerged as a new tool of regulation within transnational companies. Based on an outline of the origins of TFAs, a quantitative overview of TFAs and an analysis of the strategies pursued by global and European union federations in concluding TFAs, this articl...

Introduction The increasing number of transnational framework agreements (TFAs) signed in recent years, both at global and European levels, has begun to attract the attention of the ILO, the European Commission and research experts. This report provides an analytical presentation of the content of TFAs, examines the strategies of the employer and u...

The Global Unions broke new ground when they developed the international framework agreements (IFAs) which they have concluded with transnational companies since the mid-1990s as an innovative tool of global trade union policy. This new policy approach had become feasible and necessary under a certain constellation of economic, political, and socie...