Abstract
In October 2022, the European Union formally adopted the Directive on adequate minimum wages (Directive 2022/2041). The Directive asks all Member States to set minimum wages at 60 per cent of the median and 50 per cent of the national average wage, and to commit to increasing collective bargaining coverage to at least 80 per cent. The Directive follows on the principles laid out in the European Pillar of Social Rights and echoes widespread calls to ensure a living wage for all workers (see also Transfer issue 3/2019). It also represents a marked U-turn from the policies of the late 2000s and early 2010s, when the European Commission insisted on dismantling collective agreements in southern EU Member States and the European Court of Justice questioned the legitimacy of collective bargaining in cross-border competition. After decades of declining bargaining coverage in nearly all EU members and falling membership of union and employer organisations, the ambition to increase collective bargaining coverage to 80 per cent seems ambitious and – according to many observers – likely to remain on paper. But the legal obligation for Member States to develop action plans to strengthen collective bargaining also represents a unique opportunity. The European economy is facing enormous challenges of stalling growth, digitalisation, unravelling of economic globalisation and the return of great power rivalries and, not least, the imperative of the climate transition. To respond to these challenges in a productive and just way, and to prevent deepening inequalities among its citizens, the EU needs to rethink the involvement of the social partners in various dimensions of economic governance. As the Member States prepare to develop national action plans for collective bargaining, Transfer invited experts from around the EU to reflect on the discussions on the Directive taking place in different countries, the opportunities it might offer, and policy solutions that could help to increase collective bargaining coverage in different national contexts. We will publish this series across several issues of Transfer and will make it available online as a special collection, together with some of our earlier articles on collective bargaining and the importance of adequate minimum wages in Europe. In this issue, we kick off the discussion with reflections from Nathan Lillie on the perspectives of Nordic unions and from Anke Hassel on the possibilities of increasing collective bargaining coverage in Germany.