• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

European collective agreements

Collective agreements are agreements concluded between single employers or their organisations on the one hand, and organisations of workers such as trade unions on the other. These agreements establish the content of individual contracts of employment and regulate relationships between the parties. At European level, various types of European collective agreements have been issued within the framework of Article 155 TFEU as well as at company level.

National collective agreements play a central role in all the Member States’ systems of employment and industrial relations, and they are emerging as a means to regulate some elements of the employment relationship at European level also. The role of collective agreements within the EU has been continually expanding: they now perform a central role in EU employment and industrial relations. The functions of national collective agreements in relation to EU labour standards include collective agreements implementing directives, derogation by collective agreements, collective agreements setting labour standards, and collective bargaining in the shadow of EC law. In addition, there is the expanding role of collective agreements at EU level.

Article 155(1) TFEU refers to the dialogue between the European social partners, which ‘may lead to contractual relations, including agreements’. Article 155(2) TFEU refers to ‘agreements concluded at Community level and these may include many of the results of the European social dialogue as carried on since 1985’. In addition, there are other collective agreements with an EU dimension, such as multinational cross-border agreements, and these may also be eligible for inclusion within the framework of Article 155 TFEU.

European social dialogue distinguishes between at least five types of European collective agreement:

• interconfederal/intersectoral agreements between the social partners organised at European level (ETUC, BUSINESSEUROPE, CEEP). Examples include the framework agreements on parental leave (including its revision), part-time work and fixed-term work, which were transformed into directives, and the agreement on telework;
• multi-sector agreements that are negotiated and signed by the European social partners representing different sectors. Examples include the multi-sector Agreement on Workers’ Health Protection through the Good Handling and Use of Crystalline Silica and Products Containing It;
• European industry/sectoral agreements between social partners organised on an industry/sectoral basis at European level. Examples include the agreements on working time arrangements reached in different sectors of the transport industry (air, sea, rail and road), the 2008 agreement on working conditions in the maritime sector, which incorporates certain provisions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Maritime Labour Convention (2006) into Union law and the 2010 framework agreement on the prevention from sharp injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector concluded by HOSPEEM and EPSU.
• agreements with a multinational enterprise having affiliates in more than one EU Member State. Examples include the 1,527 European Works Council agreements signed so far (as of mid-October 2009), the 49 agreements providing for employee involvement within European companies (mid-October 2009), as well as framework agreements on labour policies, international labour standards and restructuring issues signed by European Works Councils and in certain cases also by European industry federations;
• agreements covering areas in more than one Member State. These take the form of agreements between employers and interregional trade union councils in a number of cross-border areas.

The spectrum of EU collective agreements envisaged by Article 155 TFEU is very wide, in contrast to the limitations imposed by restricted competences and voting procedures in the EU institutions. EU collective agreements are not subject to any explicit restriction either as to substantive content or legislative procedure. Furthermore, EU collective agreements may be concluded outside the procedure envisaged by Article 155 TFEU. There is an autonomous European social dialogue whereby the procedures of reaching agreements do not engage the EU institutions. European social dialogue is not formally dependent on Union law, whatever benefits it may derive from use of the EU’s legal framework.

In the context of the 2008 Renewed Social Agenda, the European Commission has focused particular attention on the increasing number of transnational framework agreements signed both at global and European company level. In its document of 2 July 2008, the Commission listed 147 transnational company agreements. The document forms part of the Social Agenda for 2005–2010, which ‘envisages the drawing-up of an optional European framework for social partners wishing to formalise the conduct and the outcome of transnational collective bargaining in order to support companies and sectors to handle challenges dealing with issues such as work organisation, employment, working conditions, training’. In order to gain a deeper insight into this complex matter, the Commission has decided to set up an expert group on transnational company agreements.

See also: Agreement on Social Policy; collective bargaining; competition law and collective agreements; EU system of industrial relations; European social dialogue and implementation of agreements; European social model; horizontal subsidiarity; International/European Framework Agreements; social dialogue.