scholarly journals Collective Bargaining in the Renewed Spanish Labour Law: a New Tool for Economic Policy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Rodríguez-Piñero Royo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The World

As in any other advanced democratic State, collective bargaining plays a central role in Spanish labour relations. Latest labour law reforms during the world financial crises have substantially affected this institution, and rules governing collective bargaining have changed profoundly, coherently with the general objective to increase employers’ ability to change its contents and to avoid the so-called “rigidification” of working conditions. Its role is formaly more important, but an objective analysis of this new regulations and its impact on Spanish labour relations leads to a completely different conclusion. It has been converted into an instrument of economic policy, with weaker collective agreements, allowing a general wage devaluation. This experience shows the vulnerability of collective labour law to external pressures. The temptation of using instruments of social dumping can be strong, producing changes in collective labour law that impose a model of collective bargaining unbalanced towards management’s interests. La negociación colectiva juega en España un papel central en las relaciones laborales. Las recientes reformas del Derecho del Trabajo han cambiado radicalmente esta institución, y su marco normativo ha cambiado en profundidad, de manera coherente con un objetivo general de favorecer la flexibilidad en las empresas y evitar la “rigidificación” de sus condiciones de trabajo. Formalmente, su papel se ha fortalecido, pero un análisis objetivo lleva a una conclusión completamente distinta. Se ha convertido en un instrumento de política económica, con convenios más débiles, que han conducido a una devaluación salarial. Esta experiencia demuestra la vulnerabilidad del derecho colectivo del trabajo a las presiones externas. Puede haber una fuerte tentación para el uso de instrumentos de dumping social, produciendo cambios en el Derecho colectivo que impognan un modelo de negociación colectiva desequilibrado en favor de los intereses empresariales.

Collective working conditions for everyone?! – Collective provisions with erga omnes effect and statutory extension of collective agreements from a German law perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-174
Author(s):  
Claudia Schubert ◽  
Laura Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

Not only in Germany but in many European states the level of coverage by collective agreements is declining. Since collective bargaining autonomy is based on the principle of voluntary membership, one of its weaknesses lies in the declining degree of organisation on both the employers’ and the employees’ side. In the long term, weak unions cannot ensure fair working conditions. As a result, collective bargaining agreements lose their inherent warranty of correctness. In the legal policy discussion, this has led to calls for the legislator. In response, in 2014 the German legislature passed the ‘Act to Strengthen the Autonomy of Collective Bargaining’ ( Tarifautonomiestärkungsgesetz) to lower the requirements for the extension of collective agreements and to introduce a national minimum wage. As this has not led to significant improvements, there are further-reaching proposals for the statutory extension of collective agreements. The extension of collective bargaining agreements to non-members does not strengthen the social partnership on the employee side. However, it is a legitimate means to avoid a race to the bottom in competing for the lowest social standard; extensions help in creating common labour standards as long as a sufficient margin is maintained for the social partners to negotiate sector-specific regulations and to shape working conditions. A legal system, which is based on rights of freedom and does not consider the freedom of association to be a solely goal-orientated right, offers limited options to strengthen the social partners through legislation. Extensions become increasingly difficult to justify, the higher the existing level of legal protection. Especially in countries with minimum wage legislation and a large amount of employee protection legislation the justification requirements increase. However, at least in Germany, to date the judiciary has not sufficiently considered these aspects. Even though international laws leave substantial freedoms to the states, all legal systems that are based on a strong and vital social partnership should be interested in obtaining and protecting the plurality of collective bargaining agreements. They should only lay down limits, where there are tendencies of eroding solidarity among workforces due to the parallel existence of several collective bargaining agreements. The associations themselves possess limited resources for extending their member base. Still, the more the individual can gain from association membership, the more likely employees and employers are to join their respective associations. Therefore, the state should demonstrate restraint regarding the regulation of labour conditions. However, such restraint will prove difficult for welfare states. Their governments will most likely opt to eliminate deficiencies through legislation, even at the price of further weakening collective bargaining autonomy. Compared to extensions, legal provisions have the disadvantage of being too general and less flexible because of the much slower adaptation process. Therefore, the main argument in favour of extensions is that they facilitate the differentiation of mandatory working conditions. To ensure their legitimation, a number of design options can be considered. Regarding this, neither European nor international law impose high requirements but existing differences between national legal systems demand custom-fit solutions.

Digital collaborative platforms: A challenge for both the legislator and the social partners in the Nordic model

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annamaria Westregård
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Security Regulations

This paper focuses on the specific problems in the labour and social security legislation as it relates to crowdworkers in the digitalised new economy, analysing their place in labour market, and especially in the collective agreements which are the standard means of regulating working conditions in the Nordic model. Sweden has a binary system where a performing party is as either an employee or self-employed. The law on working and employment conditions offers only limited protection to those on short, fixed-term contracts; instead, it is social partners that have improved crowdworkers’ conditions in some industries by using collective bargaining. However, there are no collective agreements in the digital economy, or indeed for platform entrepreneurs. The complications of the parties’ positions will be analysed, especially as platforms do not consider themselves to be employers, but rather coordinators of the self-employed. It is not only labour law regulations that are important to prevent precariat among crowdworkers. It is also very important that the social security regulations adapt to the new labour market as the social security legislation is an important part of the Nordic model.

scholarly journals Changements technologiques et rapports collectifs du travail

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37
Author(s):  
André C. Côté
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Technological Changes ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
Teleological Interpretation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This paper focusses on the relationship between technological change and the labour relations system circumscribed by the Québec Labour Code. While a teleological interpretation of bargaining rights of certified associations by labour jurisdictions seems to have dealt adequately with the impact of such changes on certification, the doctrine of residual management rights, in the context of fixed-term agreements entrenched in the Québec Labour Code, appears to be, in the opinion of the author, unduly rigid and restrictive. The Freedman Report on Railway run-through and the subsequent discussions surrounding the Woods Commission Report in the 1960's, resulted in the inclusion in the Canada Labour Code of provisions pertaining to the possible adjustment, through collective bargaining, of collective agreements in the context of such technological changes. Various provisions to the same effect have subsequently been inserted in the Labour Codes of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British-Columbia. The Report of the Beaudry Commission recently proposed that the Québec Labour Code be similary modified by the inclusion of analoguous provisions. The author suggests that a reform along the lines thus suggested is, in principle, desirable to ensure a more equitable adaptability of our legal categories to the imperatives of technological change.

Developments in household services in Europe: working conditions and labour relations

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Yeandle
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Labour Supply ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

Drawing on a study of employment in household services in eight EU states, the article summarises some of the factors stimulating growing demand for these services, and argues that they are an important part of the necessary infrastructure of everyday life for Europe's citizens. The nature of the work performed by those working in this sector is analysed, and the important skills required of household services workers if high quality services are to be delivered are examined. The article concludes by drawing attention to the need for the social partners to address a number of urgent policy issues, including pay and conditions, the need for more attractive career structures and problems of labour supply, taking into account the particular challenges for both collective bargaining and regulation in this sector.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF LABOUR LAW AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

2020 ◽  
Vol 551 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Cristina Mihes
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employment Relationship ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Future ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Standard Employment Relationship

This paper seeks to take a look at recent labour law reforms in a number of selected CEE countries, and to examine the manner, in which the equation of standard employment relationship and the dynamics of collective bargaining processes have changed. The 1st section discusses the policy goals as well as drivers of legal changes, which have aff ected and guided recent labour law reforms in the sub-region. External infl uences over shaping of the new policy visions and recovery policies are also examined here. The 2nd section examines recent trends in regulating standard and non-standard employment relationship, as well as the collective agreements as determinants of working conditions and terms of employment. It also analyses the new approaches in the implementation of the guiding principles of collective bargaining, including the autonomy of the parties, and the principle of favourability. Furthermore, the 3rd section seeks to explore what the future looks like by traveling the paths opened by the works of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work, with a special focus on the Universal Labour Guarantee. Finally, a number of conclusions are drawn on the basis of the analysed data and policies.

The architecture of modern anti-unionism in Canada: Class struggle and the erosion of workers’ collective freedoms

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Charles Smith ◽  
Andrew Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Labour Legislation ◽  
The Relationship

Over the past four decades, governments have backed away from the promotion of collective bargaining in Canada resulting in a tendency towards anti-unionism. Examining this new reality, this article investigates two interrelated trends in Canadian anti-unionism over the last two decades in an effort to conceptualize the role of the state in regulating labour relations. First, we investigate legislative attempts to undermine or eliminate the ability of workers to collectively bargain and strike. Second, the article unpacks the political economy of anti-unionism in the private sector by focusing on the role of lobby groups that have shaped labour legislation. These two interrelated threads allow us to expose the relationship between employers and governments, which has threatened the strength of organized labour in the private and public sector and shaped a uniquely Canadian anti-unionism. Finally, we conclude by examining both the strengths and limitations of the unique fight-back strategies used by the labour movement, which has sought to elevate aspects of Canadian labour law to be protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This, we argue, offers restrictive possibilities for advancing collective bargaining rights in the existing labour relations framework.

The future of labour law in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Labour Law ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Lecture Series ◽  
Law Faculty ◽  
The World ◽  
Disciplinary Perspective ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
The University

This contribution contains the text of the first Roger Blanpain Lecture held at the Law Faculty of the University of Leuven on 8 May 2017. The Roger Blanpain Lecture Series aims to bring a renowned expert in the field of labour law and labour relations to the Law Faculty of the KU Leuven once per year. The idea is to stay close to the academic approach of professor Blanpain and the Institute for Labour Law, which implies the study of labour law from an international, comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective. The lecture aims to offer a ‘window to the world’ to our students and the Institute’s academic and professional partners as well as the wider public.

scholarly journals THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE PROCESS OF SHAPING WORKING CONDITIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63
Author(s):  
Jan Horecký ◽  
◽  
Michal Smejkal ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
International Environment ◽  
National Environment ◽  
Conditions Of Work

The article explores the influence and importance of social dialogue and collective bargaining on the formation of working conditions. Social dialogue and collective bargaining are among the basic ways to influence the conditions of work through employees’ representatives and how to represent the weaker party from the point of view of labour law (the interests of the employee). The article points out the fundamental importance of social dialogue in creating an environment of decent work, both in the international environment (especially the competence of the International Labour Organization or the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights) and wages or addressing the impacts of COVID-19 pandemics in the national environment of the Czech Republic.

scholarly journals Working Time and Work-Life Balance in Romania during the Pandemic Issues and Evolutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-155
Author(s):  
Magdolna Vallasek
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Rest Time

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic did not leave the world of work untouched. In the new circumstances, challenges and tasks that had previously been widely debated came to the fore. Among these, we can list the issues of working time and rest time, and consequently the work–life balance or sometimes imbalance of the employees. As a result of the pandemic, some processes that have been observed in labour law for a long time have been accelerated. In our opinion, the particularity of the current situation is based on the considerable size of digitalization, the use of new technologies in work, and the widespread use of atypical labour relations, which had a major impact on the solutions that were chosen to countervail the effects of the pandemic.

A New Dimension in Collective Agreements

1976 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-515
Author(s):  
Ruth Ben-Israel
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Flexible Framework ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
The Individual

From the late 19th century on, a series of social and economic changes have altered the system of labour relations. The transition of bargaining over terms of employment, from the individual to the collective sphere, was the culmination of the historical stages of development. Changes in labour relations have always been, and remain dynamic. Therefore, collective labour law, like the industrial relations system itself, is constantly taking new steps to formulate up-to-date patterns of thought and behaviour. Hence, the legal system finds it difficult to dictate firm policies, and can only try to catch up with the development bypost factumlegislation and theorization, which can set but a broad and flexible framework.The collective agreement is presented in this study as a universal phenomenon, resulting from the historical stages of development in labour relations. These stages have led to the crystallization of the collective agreement as it is known today, and to the formulation of its distinctive traits.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document