Collective Bargaining over the Life Course and the Business Cycle
We address and discuss the question how and to what extent national and European systems of collective bargaining and the actors involved, respond to the growing importance of life course issues and approaches. The focus of the conference is on the dynamics and possible shifts of the collective bargaining agenda. Life course approaches increasingly receive attention in political, societal and academic debates. The main thrust of the life course approach is to take into account the varying needs and preferences that workers (and people in general) develop across the life course in view of the management of social risks and sustainable labour market participation. Life course policies acknowledge that today people’s career paths may be less standardized and “linear”, among other things, due to enhanced labour market participation of women and older workers and the trends towards further individualization.
Description
Life course policies can support and facilitate workers’ employability, productivity and life-long learning, which is also in the interest of business, and they can foster the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities. Thus life cycle policies can contribute to the European Union’s mission to become the most competitive and dynamic economy, capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.
The core and major advancement of life course policies lies in the integration and coordination of various rights, schemes and facilities in the area of leave (parental leave, care leave, career break, sabbatical leave, time-saving accounts), training and education, employability, part-time work and (flexible) retirement.
Life course facilities can be and are being provided for either by law or by collective agreements or other (collective) arrangements between employer and employees. What is at stake is not merely the existence of arrangements in law, but, moreover, whether in collective agreements an exchange possibility has been introduced between (more or less traditional) employment conditions and terms and the (new) life course elements. In referring to life course issues in collective agreements, we point at the different rights and facilities, e.g. work and care facilities, in mutual connection. The central question is whether there is a possibility, in collective bargaining, to exchange for example work for leave or work for care. In the life course approach the main issue is the (potential) integration of the various (traditional) domains of collective bargaining and the possibilities for the exchanging the facilities and rights aiming at a sustainable participation in those different domains.
The question to be raised is how this new focus of collective bargaining relates to its more traditional and macro-oriented – business cycle related - functions such as wage setting and the determination of working hours. Can new trade-offs be envisaged or already observed and what are the implications for trade unions’ and works councils’ positions and policies in this respect? How does the business cycle influence the attention and support for life course approaches? Another essential question is whether the life course perspective requires a different structure for collective labour agreements, e.g. framework agreements at the central level and more leeway at the decentralized level to elaborate relevant stipulations, à la carte or modular systems et cetera. Does the existing legal and actual system of collective bargaining fit into this development? Are other bargaining procedures or other bargaining parties needed? Is a new legal design required for this matter? What is the impact on the industrial relations?
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