ETUI-Education & EMF Seminar

Coordinating collective bargaining at the European level in the metalworking sector

Malta 17-20 September 2006

This event had the support of the European Union

Michael Panis from the General Workers' Union welcomed the participants to Malta and presented the activities of his confederation.

Manfred Anderle, Gewerkschaft Metall und Textil, Bart Samyn, EMF and Jean-Claude Le Douaron, ETUI-Education introduced the objectives and the programme of the seminar. The main points to be presented and discussed were:

· The Commission initiative about a legal framework for transnational agreements

· The various way to deal with precarious employment forms

· The EUCOB@: the collective bargaining exchange network

· The EMF policy guidelines and work programme

· The future work programme of the EMF

The Commission initiative about a legal framework for transnational agreements

Mrs Evelyne Pichot, DG Employment & Social affairs presented the Commission initiative about a legal framework for transnational agreements at European level. More than 100 agreements, social charters and joint declarations have been adopted at multinational company level and there seems to be a need to regulate several issues:

· which actors should be allowed to negotiate and sign those agreements,

· what kind of agreements and what contents,

· what type of implementation and enforcement measures should be set in place

The participants discussed what could be a possible EMF position, the main concern being that collective bargaining and negotiating agreements also at transnational level should be the prerogative of trade unions.

	Precarious employment form and how they are dealt with in some EU countries Blandine Landas,Fédération Générale des mines et de la métallurgie CFDT made a presentation about the developments in precarious employment in France. About 12% of employment in France is related to various forms of precariousness. It has to be noted that 73% of the new jobs created are precarious. Among the precarious employment forms · 12 % of employment in the private sector are fixed term contracts · 2004, 3 % of the private sector employment was covered by temporary agency workers · 2004, 13,4 % of the total employment was due to part time contracts · 73 % of the new created jobs are under precarious contract forms
Workers under precarious conditions are often the first to be hit in cases of job reduction, restructurarion and relocation. One of the new precarious employment form introduced by the French government is the so called CNE, contrat de nouvelle embauche, allowing SMEs with not more than 20 employees to sign contracts on a two year basis and making it possible during the two first years to get rid of the employee with very short notice, two weeks during the first 6 months and 1 month thereafter. About 30% of the workers recruited under this new employment form are not longer employed after 6 months. Some other employment forms have also be introduced: the employment contract for seniors and the employment contract for young workers.

Precarious employment form and how they are dealt with in some EU countries

Blandine Landas,Fédération Générale des mines et de la métallurgie CFDT made a presentation about the developments in precarious employment in France. About 12% of employment in France is related to various forms of precariousness. It has to be noted that 73% of the new jobs created are precarious. Among the precarious employment forms

· 12 % of employment in the private sector are fixed term contracts

· 2004, 3 % of the private sector employment was covered by temporary agency workers

· 2004, 13,4 % of the total employment was due to part time contracts

· 73 % of the new created jobs are under precarious contract forms

Workers under precarious conditions are often the first to be hit in cases of job reduction, restructurarion and relocation.

One of the new precarious employment form introduced by the French government is the so called CNE, contrat de nouvelle embauche, allowing SMEs with not more than 20 employees to sign contracts on a two year basis and making it possible during the two first years to get rid of the employee with very short notice, two weeks during the first 6 months and 1 month thereafter.

About 30% of the workers recruited under this new employment form are not longer employed after 6 months.

Some other employment forms have also be introduced: the employment contract for seniors and the employment contract for young workers.

Jens Bundvad, CO-industri, tried to introduce the concept of flexibility without precariousness through a critical presentation of the Danish “Flexsecurity” model. In order to function properly flexibility at the workplace has to be related to a high level of unemployment benefits, to active labour market policies and the unemployed workers should not be excluded from the social security system. A high level of collective bargaining coverage constitutes also a safeguard against exclusion. In working groups the participants were asked to discuss: · can we use collective bargaining to take precariousness out of flexibility · and how? · Are there areas where EMF could set a more specific standard?
The working groups concluded that precariousness is developing in most of the represented countries affecting mainly young and senior workers, women and migrant workers. We would need more effective tools to assess the level of precariousness. Experiences like the Danish one can't be transposed directly from one country to an other. Bogus self employment should also be tackled through collective bargaining and the employer’s side seems to be better coordinated when it comes to force precarious employment forms on workers. Some suggestions: · improve the information exchange through EUCOBA@ also about precarious employment forms. · exchange also good practices about how to deal with precarious employment forms. · try through collective agreements to set a limit on the proportion of temporary workers at the workplace · demand the same training rights for temporary workers at the workplace

Jens Bundvad, CO-industri, tried to introduce the concept of flexibility without precariousness through a critical presentation of the Danish “Flexsecurity” model.

In order to function properly flexibility at the workplace has to be related to a high level of unemployment benefits, to active labour market policies and the unemployed workers should not be excluded from the social security system. A high level of collective bargaining coverage constitutes also a safeguard against exclusion.

In working groups the participants were asked to discuss:

· can we use collective bargaining to take precariousness out of flexibility

· and how?

· Are there areas where EMF could set a more specific standard?

The working groups concluded that precariousness is developing in most of the represented countries affecting mainly young and senior workers, women and migrant workers. We would need more effective tools to assess the level of precariousness. Experiences like the Danish one can't be transposed directly from one country to an other. Bogus self employment should also be tackled through collective bargaining and the employer’s side seems to be better coordinated when it comes to force precarious employment forms on workers.

Some suggestions:

· improve the information exchange through EUCOBA@ also about precarious employment forms.

· exchange also good practices about how to deal with precarious employment forms.

· try through collective agreements to set a limit on the proportion of temporary workers at the workplace

· demand the same training rights for temporary workers at the workplace

	Evaluating the EUCOB@ collective bargaining information exchange network Dirk Bergrath EMF, Jens Bundvad CO-industri and Rudolf Welzmüller IG Metall introduced a discussion about the EUCOB@ database (the presentations can be downloaded from the section Seminar documents). A number of problems related to how to compare the outcomes of collective bargaining were discussed: d
Wage gap · Difference in absolute amount of agreed pay and earnings (paid wages): · - difference in the wage rate per hour: e.g. 15 € agreed pay - 16,75 € paid · - difference in annual pay: due to extra-bonus etc. · Especially in the car industry wide spread phenomenon – but changed! · Extra-pay: voluntary or/and works agreement (works council – management) · But: Cut-backs during the last years! · Wage Drift · Difference in the increase of agreed pay and of earnings · For example: Increase of agreed wages of 3 % - increase of paid wages of 2.0 %. · Can be done by reduction of wage gap: agreed wage increases but the portion of extra-pay get reduced (partly or at the same amount) · What determines the wage drift? · Cut or Increase of extra-pay (individual allowances, premium pay, bonuses etc.) - beyond and above agreed pay · Composition of workforce (skill structure, white/blue collar, share of precarious jobs...) · Coverage of employee by collective agreement · Temporary wage reduction due to special agreements (opening clauses, deviation for a certain period...) Wage Drift · Negative wage drift indicates that Trade Unions lost to a certain extent the control about wage development · Negative wage drift is to a certain degree the outcome of economic (sluggish economy, high unemployment, labour market: increase of precarious jobs), political (weakness of Trade Unions, loss of coverage, increased power of employer) and social (composition of workforce) influences · Negative wage drift is partly a consequence of temporary deviation from agreed wages and of opening clauses · How to calculate a one-off payment? Problems and questions · Other sources of information already exist · Data limited to the production sector, special data for metal sector is hard to get (best available for free: US-Labor Statistics) · Economic development very different in European countries · Qualitative aspects of economic trends, relevant to the sector · Size and focus of the macroeconomic part? In working groups the participants debated the following questions: · How should the wage drift and the wage gap be taken into account in the database? In order to compare the figures the real wage payments should be presented in the reports, even if this means that wage drift and gap are reported one year later. We need to have clear explanations about how we count the wage drift. The first step must be to collect the data about agreed pay raises new rules for overtime etc, one time payment included and regardless at what level the agreements are concluded. The periodicity of the agreements and an annual comparison should be included. · How could one time payments be accounted for? One time payments should be specified in the reports. · Would it be advisable to include macroeconomic data and in such case how much? Only a few figures should be included. Most of the data is available through other sources. · How should the outcome of decentralised negotiations be integrated in the database? · In what way are national negotiators using the data from Eucoba@ and do they disseminate those data within their organisations? The situation varies from country to country. Knowledge about the Ecoba@ needs to be disseminated.
Evaluation of the EMF action programme 2003-2007 Jens Bundvad and Manfred Anderle reminded the participants about a number of issues enumerated in the EMF action programme: · EUCOBA@ · The common demand regarding training · The wage coordination rule · Variable Pay and Financial participations · Gender Equality · Working time · Social issues · Enlargement · P&MS
· Sustainable development · Casual and atypical employment · Industrial Action · Social dialogue · Regional networks In working groups the participants discussed how those issues have been subject to coordination during the past period and what difficulties national organisations face in order to set them on the agenda. EUCOBA@ has been improved but there is still a lack of responses and reporting. We need to remind each others about the necessity to report. The cooperation with the CPC and the EWC coordinators should be increased since a number of collective bargaining issues are dealt with at company level in many countries. The common demand seems to have been partly forgotten. We need to se the issue of training as a part of a European strategy. Instead of seeing it as a purely national matter. On mobility we could have a checklist with items to be integrated in contracts when workers are moving across borders. The labour market seems to be split in a number of countries due to mobility of legal and illegal migrant workers accepting or be forced to accept lower conditions. Gender equality needs to be enforced in our priorities and EUCOBA@ should also take this priority into consideration. Wages and the coordination rule, we haven't achieved to get the principles of the rule as a part of a common European strategy. There is strong pressure from employers and MNCs threatening with restructuration in order to achieve lower wages. The rule seems to have been subordinated to more national and immediate factors. In the future we should beef up the rule by presenting the EUCOBA@ report in the various countries. The working time charter stipulates a goal of maximum 1760 working hours per year and a reduction of overtime. The employers are putting pressure for more flexibility. The working time charter needs to be updated taking into account the emerging factors as the distribution of working time and the life span of the workers. In order to increase the knowledge about PM&S issues, trade unions representing those categories of staff could be asked to present their activities. The future work programme of the EMF Bart Samyn opened a debate about the future work programme of the EMF by presenting the background of the actual situation. The following questions were discussed in working groups.

What with the wage coordination rule?

The principles of the rule have to be reaffirmed, even if the various national situations with decentralised negotiations can make it difficult. The rule can only be assessed in the long run. Make the rule more visible at all possible levels. The rule should be presented as a common demand. Could we agree about a principle about a minimum wage?

•How to deal with restructuring/ relocations?

In case of relocation to a new location we have to see to that the workforce is organised.

A lot of experiences exist and they should be made available to all.

How to strengthen our information flow, how to expand it?

· Include all trade unions. They have to disseminate the information about EUCOBA@ and the information system down to the shop floor level.

· We need the affiliated trade union to report more also about important company agreements.

Can we start a second common demand after 2009?

· It is still too early to decide about a new one. We need to follow up the common demand on training and make it visible towards the employers in all countries. The individual right of qualification has to be taken seriously. And we must first reach results.

Towards a European workers charter? (Minimum standards for working and labour conditions in Europe)

· We need to define a common minimum standard combining criteria of wage, working time, flexibility, precariousness

What with EMF Working time charter?

· The reality of the various form of flexibility is difficult to describe. Perhaps we should arrange a meeting of national negotiators with flexibility on the agenda. The existing Charters need to be evaluated before we take further steps. The basic principle must be that flexibility should be negotiated.