The Urgent of Collective Bargaining Due to Decreasing of Minimum Wage

We know, a European market for a single EU and social care for each individual EU government. While the EU institutions have established and strengthened their powers, they have split into the field of pressure on social phenomena in an attempt to coordinate wage policies as well as the minimum wage.

Mininmum wage in the 21st century with EU enlargement means concern about wages and social level in new countries as a result of the economic crisis. The EU Parliament declared that minimum wage was below the subsistence level in several countries and thus called on the Council to adopt a directive on MW to be 60% of the salary. 

The current situation with collective bargaining is that at least 3.3 million workers benefit less from the collective agreement (EU agreement today at the turn of the century). Collective bargaining in the EU has decreased (22 of the 27 EU member states since 2000) as a result of the tendentious policies of the EU member states (approved by the European Commission), but also due to the distorted picture of the high levels of collective bargaining that were negative for the economy.

Reality emphasizes the opposite with facts that indicate that strong collective bargaining systems also contribute to higher wages and better working conditions, for a just society and a more effective economy. Romania (100% to 23%), Greece (100% to 25%) Bulgaria (56% to 23%), had the largest percentage drop in workers according to figures from the University of Amsterdam (ictwss.org), and they established the total number of workers is down 9 out of 15 countries for which data are available, including Greece (-1.2 million), Germany (-884,000) and Hungary (-439,000). At present, Lithuania has 7% satisfaction with collective bargaining workers versus 98% Austrian satisfaction.

Some social partners, through their European representative bodies, were in favor of the individual mechanisms applied in / for each country, due to the rights of the national partners to participate in the social dialogue. Employers are of the opinion that minimum wage should be the sole responsibility of each country, according to the principle of subsidiarity.

Last but not the least, the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions in European Countries pointed out that more than 1/4 of workers in Germany earn less than 60% of the average wage, while in Finland the percentage is 6.8%, in Austria 14.6% and in the UK 18.9%. Also, the difference between the lowest wages and those earning over 60% of the average wage is the largest in the EU. Although Cyprus does not have a general statutory minimum wage, it does have a statutory minimum wage for workers in six specific occupations: sales staff, office staff, medical and kindergarten medical staff, and kindergarten and school staff.