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Agreements

Agreements are the outcome of collective bargaining and social dialogue processes. Social partners are encouraged to negotiate and conclude collective agreements  that can then be implemented at European, national, regional, sectoral or company level.  Increasingly Union labour laws are shaped by agreements that the parties voluntarily enter into and by soft law mechanisms. 

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In this pilot project, Eurofound successfully established the feasibility of, and piloted, an EU-wide database of minimum pay rates contained in collective agreements related to low-paid workers. A conceptual and...

26 jaanuar 2024
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Research report

Eurofound expert(s)

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Christine Aumayr-Pintar is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. Her current research topics include minimum wages, collectively agreed wages and gender...

Senior research manager,
Working life research unit
Publications results (40)

This article discusses developments in collectively agreed wages in the European Union in 2016, putting them into the perspective of developments over the past 15 years. The tendency for growth in both nominal and real collectively agreed wages from 2015 continued. In two countries (Belgium and

25 July 2017

This report describes the developments in collectively agreed pay in the EU Member States in 2014 and compares them to developments in previous years. While growth in collectively agreed pay in nominal terms declined, the declining growth of prices resulted in real collectively agreed pay increasing

05 August 2015

The average collectively agreed weekly working time in the European Union of 38.1 hours did not change between 2013 and 2014. In both years, the working week also remained, on average, 30 minutes shorter than the EU28 average in the EU15 Member States, and more than 90 minutes longer in the more

16 July 2015

In 2013, the average collective agreed weekly working time in the European Union was 38.1 hours, the same as in 2012. However, the working week was, on average, 30 minutes shorter in the pre-2004 EU15 Member States, and more than 90 minutes longer in the more recent Member States. If the

23 June 2014

The available national data reveal that average nominal collectively agreed pay increases in 2013 were roughly the same as or lower than those in 2012 in all the countries examined. However, because of lower inflation rates, employees in a number of countries saw the purchasing power of their wages

12 June 2014

EIRO’s annual analysis of collectively agreed pay for 2012 finds that although average nominal agreed increases were slightly greater than in 2011 in many countries, the rise in prices diminished people’s purchasing power. In real terms, only a handful of countries had positive collective pay

09 July 2013

In 2012, average collectively agreed weekly working time in the European Union, including Croatia, stood at 38.1 hours, the same as for the EU27 in 2011. The working week was on average 30 minutes shorter in the pre-2004 EU15 countries and over 1 hour and 30 minutes longer in the new Member States

25 June 2013

According to EIRO’s annual analysis of pay trends, average collective agreed nominal pay increases in 2011 did not differ greatly from 2010 in most of the 13 countries with available data. Most variations ranged between 0.1 and 0.4 percentage points, except for Belgium with the highest growth in

08 October 2012

In 2011, average collective agreed weekly working time in the European Union stood at 38.1 hours. The working week was on average 30 minutes shorter in the pre-2004 EU15 countries and over 1 hour and 30 minutes longer in the new Member States. Agreed normal annual working time averages nearly 1,720

15 August 2012

EIRO’s annual analysis of pay trends for 2010 finds that average collectively agreed nominal wage increases were lower than in 2009 in almost all 13 countries with available data, with Malta being the exception. The highest reductions in nominal pay increases were in Slovakia (5.5% in 2009 to 2.2%

16 October 2011

Online resources results (321)

Pay increase not expected to boost purchasing power

In August 2013, the social partners concluded a long-term national centralised labour market settlement. The Pact for Employment and Growth (23.8KB PDF) [1] envisages that pay increases will be made in two instalments over the next two years. The first increase of €20 per month (or a corresponding

Film industry finally strikes collective agreement

In 2003, after a protracted industrial dispute in the French film industry, the social partners in the live performance and audio-visual sectors were asked to clarify and simplify their collective bargaining system (*FR1202041Q*). Both sectors make extensive use of short-term employment contracts

Social partners agree minimum wage rise

The national minimum wage in Estonia has been fixed annually by tripartite agreement since 1992. Since 2002, it has been negotiated between the Estonian Trade Union Confederation (EAKL [1]) and the Estonian Employers’ Confederation (ETTK [2]) and then brought into effect by government decree (

Collective agreements boosted by social dialogue projects

In spring 2012, 20 projects to promote social dialogue were launched in Lithuania, financed by the European Social Fund. At the time, there was just one sectoral collective agreement in place. Since then, discussions have taken place on 253 enterprise-level collective agreements, 32 territorial

Social partners agree way ahead for coal industry

Spain’s coal industry employs 4,894 workers. Of these, 3,407 work directly for 15 extractive coal companies and a further 1,487 are employed through subcontracting companies.

Agreement gives equal status to blue- and white-collar workers

The term ‘blue-collar worker’ was introduced at the very beginning of the 20th century to describe manual workers. Two decades later, the term ‘white-collar worker’ appeared, describing employees who were engaged in work requiring predominantly mental, rather than physical, effort. During the last

Precarious work under the spotlight

Ten forms of precarious work in Bulgaria and the extent of their regulation by national labour legislation have been analysed in a joint study by experts from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB [1]) and the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa (CL Podkrepa [2]). [1] http:/

Major new agreement in banking sector

Following the financial collapse of Allied Irish Banks (AIB [1]) in 2009, the Irish government took control and now owns 99.8% of the bank. In early 2012, AIB and the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA [2]) entered a mediation process at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC [3]). [1] http://www

New agreement in the wood and furniture sector

The output of the wood and furniture sector, together with the fashion and the food sectors, accounts for 6% of Italy’s manufacturing industry production. Despite its significance to the economy, however, there is currently a serious crisis in the industry and around 10,000 enterprises have closed

Cooperative sector agrees new representativeness rules

Italy’s private sector is not covered by any specific legislation setting out the criteria for representativeness required of social partners before they may participate in collective bargaining. All the social partners, even if they are small and not particularly representative, can sign collective


Blogs results (2)
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Minimum wages have risen significantly in 2022, as the EU Member States leave behind the cautious mood of the pandemic. However, rising inflation is eating up these wage increases, and only flexibility in the regular minimum wage setting processes may avoid generalised losses in purchasing power

15 juuni 2022
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Whatever the benefits of telework – and there are many, including more flexible working time, increased productivity and less commuting – there are drawbacks, as many of the one-third of Europeans who were exclusively working from home during the pandemic will attest. Primary among these is the ‘alw

3 detsember 2020

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