Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

Chart 1.5: Organisation rate of employers’ organisations, 2002 and 2008
Source: J. Visser, ICTWSS database 3.0, 2011.
Some 2008 data was revised. Newer data for 2009 on employer density and showing significant
changes in relation to 2008 is available only for Slovenia, where density decreased from 70% to
55%. For the other countries, data is either unavailable or show no differences (AT, BE, CZ) or
marginal differences (EE, SE) and was therefore not used.
Decentralisation and organisation of collective bargaining
Decentralisation of the level of collective bargaining has been one of the main trends in
collective bargaining over the last 20-30 years, as the focus for negotiations on wages and
working conditions has moved away from the national and sectoral level to the company
level. As noted in IRE 2010, this tends to lead to more multi-level bargaining in the place of
single-level bargaining, and has implications for the collective organisations outside the firm,
namely, trade unions and employers' organisations.
The most recent data indicates that the trend to decentralise collective bargaining continued
and accelerated during the economic crisis both among the EU-15 and EU-12 countries.
Bargaining centralisation was lower in 2010 compared with the average for 2007-2009 in ten
Member States. The most significant changes occurred in Ireland and Slovenia, where
centralisation dropped substantially. In four other countries, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and
Denmark, the centralisation of collective bargaining increased slightly during the same period.
Interestingly, the centralisation index for these countries was above the EU average even
before these recent increases. Bargaining centralisation in the European Union remains very
diverse with eight member states in which bargaining at local and company levels completely
predominates - the UK, Ireland and six new Member States. In the majority of countries,
however, bargaining still takes place primarily at the sectoral or industry level, often with
additional local or company bargaining. In 2010 Belgium was the only Member State where
cross-sectoral bargaining prevails.
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