Join the Center for Labor and a Just Econo my and Dr. Thorsten Schulten for a presentation on the EU Minimum Wage dire ctive and its aim to the strengthening of sectoral bargaining in Europe.
The EU Minimum Wage Directive\, adopted in 2022\, marks a paradigm shif t 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 institut ions. In order to promote adequate minimum wages\, statutory minimum wages should be raised and collective bargaining systems strengthened all over Eu rope. The Directive obliges all EU member States with collective bargaining coverage of below 80% to establish national action plans to promote collec tive bargaining\, with the aim of progressively increasing collective barga ining coverage.
The presentation will discuss the implementation of t he directive in individual Member States to date and identify the most impo rtant instruments that can contribute to higher collective bargaining cover age through a strengthening of sectoral bargaining.
Prof. Dr. Thorste n Schulten is the scientific head of the Collective Agreement Archive of th e Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foun dation which is closely related to the German trade unions. He is also teac hing as an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen\, and guest res earcher at Cornell University.
Further reading:
Torsten Müller a
nd 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/publication
s/road-80-collective-bargaining-coverage
Lunch will be provided. Plea se register by visiting https://tinyurl.com/ThorstenSchulten
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