Database of coded collective agreements in selected low-paid sectors

This database provides access to the coded content of collective agreements from selected Member States and Norway. It presents an overview of the main topics and sub-topic covered in collective agreements beyond the topic of pay and compares how they have changed over time.

Background

Background

The database was developed by Eurofound as a part of the project ‘Collective bargaining beyond pay’ (2023-2025). It analyses and compares 94 collective agreements across three low-paid sectors (manufacture of food, leather, textiles and clothes; residential and social care; retail) in 11 EU Member States - Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia - and Norway. The research builds on Eurofound’s database of collective agreements related to low-paid workers, collected for the Agency’s pilot project on minimum wages and looks ‘beyond’ wage-setting at other topics featured in the collective agreements. Over 13,000 clauses were coded, analysed and grouped into key topics and sub-topics. The database shows how these topics have developed over time by comparing two versions of the same collective agreement, valid in 2015 (or closest year available) and in 2022 (or lates year available). Collective agreements were selected base on the sub-sample available in the Database on minimum wages for low-paid workers in collective agreements prior to its 2025 update.

The following experts at Eurofound can be contacted for questions relating to the database.

Mária Sedláková

Research officer
Working life research unit

Mária Sedláková ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Referat Arbeitsleben bei Eurofound. Sie ist verantwortlich für die Erstellung von Übersichtsberichten für sektorale Repräsentativitätsstudien, das Management und die Qualitätskontrolle der nationalen Berichterstattung über die Arbeitsbeziehungen, den sozialen Dialog und das Arbeitsleben sowie die Entwicklung eines Projekts über Tarifverhandlungen über die Bezahlung hinaus. Bevor sie zu Eurofound kam, arbeitete sie als technische Forschungsreferentin in der Abteilung Governance und Dreigliedrigkeit der Internationalen Arbeitsorganisation in Genf am Flaggschiffbericht 2022 des sozialen Dialogs. Sie arbeitete auch als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Central European Labour Studies Institute in Bratislava (2013–2020) mit den Schwerpunkten sozialer Dialog, Tarifverhandlungen, Arbeitsbedingungen und Arbeitssoziologie. Maria hat einen MA in Politikwissenschaft mit Spezialisierung auf Vergleichende Europäische Politik von der Central European University.

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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies