Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

this would imply that industrial relations in the public sector are now showing similar
characteristics to private sector industrial relations.
The main trends highlighted by this introductory chapter include the trend towards
privatisation and outsourcing of parts of the public sector, the impact of this and the
implications for industrial relations in the public sector. The crisis has also had an impact on
employment and industrial relations in the public sector, and will in all likelihood continue to
have an effect in the medium term. This issue is explored more fully in chapter 4 of this
report.
This chapter has also shown that across the public sector, industrial relations in each of the
EU-27 are relatively homogeneous, characterised more by differences to other sectors than to
other countries. It has been shown that two main systems of public sector industrial relations
exist in the EU-27, characterised by very centralised collective bargaining and a high
coverage rate, intensive interaction of social partners in the public sector with government
authorities, high (but not exceptionally high) fragmentation of actors and a relatively high
degree of actors’ densities. These characteristics correspond with Dense and Political sectoral
industrial relations systems, regimes or models, or Organised corporatism and Social
Partnership national industrial relations systems, respectively.
This chapter has set the scene for the rest of this report by providing an overview of national
and public sector industrial relations in all EU Member States at the end of the first decade of
the new millennium. Looking to the future, the EU-27 has been struggling with a global
economic, financial and budgetary crisis since 2008, both the economic and political context
framework is likely to change in the future and neither public nor private sector industrial
relations will be immune to these changes. Austerity policies in all EU Member States include
the public sector and the burden of public deficit cuts will accelerate the transformation of the
public sector in the EU-27 which can be expected to impose major changes on public sector
industrial relations. Although the future is therefore uncertain, the diversity of the role of the
public sector in different countries and the different embeddedness of the public sector in
different countries serves to continue the diversity of public sector industrial relations systems
in the EU-27. It is therefore likely that heterogeneity in both public and private sector
industrial relations in the EU-27 will remain in the near future.
The next chapter of this report looks in detail at industrial relations in a specific group of
countries – the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) – examining their main
characteristics, development, and future challenges. Chapter 3 examines the specific pressures
that are being brought to bear on public sector industrial relations in the EU, while chapter 4
highlights the impact that the current recession and in particular national austerity measures
have had on public sector industrial relations. Chapter 5 continues the forward-looking theme
by examining the growth of the green economy, the impact of this on skills needs and the
labour market, and the role that social partners can play in greening the labour market.
Chapter 6 continues this examination of the role of the social partners by highlighting their
role in and influence over debates and policies in the area of welfare and pensions systems, in
the context of the changing economic and social environment. Chapter 7 looks at the main
recent developments in the European social dialogue at cross-sector and sector level, while
chapter 8 presents the main legislative developments in the employment and social field.
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