THE ROAD TO 80% COLLECTIVE BARGAINING COVERAGE

Join the Center for Labor and a Just Economy and Dr. Thorsten Schulten for a presentation on the EU Minimum Wage directive and its aim to the strengthening of sectoral bargaining in Europe.

The EU Minimum Wage Directive, adopted in 2022, marks a paradigm shift in EU labor policy. While the EU has long contributed to weakening trade unions and collective bargaining systems through its liberalization policy, the new directive now explicitly aims to strengthen labor market institutions. In order to promote adequate minimum wages, statutory minimum wages should be raised and collective bargaining systems strengthened all over Europe. The Directive obliges all EU member States with collective bargaining coverage of below 80% to establish national action plans to promote collective bargaining, with the aim of progressively increasing collective bargaining coverage.

The presentation will discuss the implementation of the directive in individual Member States to date and identify the most important instruments that can contribute to higher collective bargaining coverage through a strengthening of sectoral bargaining.

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schulten is the scientific head of the Collective Agreement Archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation which is closely related to the German trade unions. He is also teaching as an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen, and guest researcher at Cornell University.

Further reading:
Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten, The road to 80% collective bargaining coverage. The need for ambitious national action plans under the Minimum Wage Directive, ETUI Policy Brief No. 1/2025, Brussels, https://www.etui.org/publications/road-80-collective-bargaining-coverage

Lunch will be provided. Please register by visiting https://tinyurl.com/ThorstenSchulten