Abstract
In recent months European trade union organisations have been making progress in the field of europeanisation of industrial relations and coordination of wage policies in particular.
The recent policy developed by the European Metalworkers’ Federation aims at coordinating the national-level collective bargaining in this sector. A coordinated bargaining policy should play a major role in intensifying and reinforcing the social dimension of European unity. The EMF is aware that wage bargaining in the EMU will be exposed to the pressures of greater competition with the risk of a downward spiral in wage undercutting and its objective in this respect is to counter the employers’ view of a European economic area with a common currency but with a wage policy fragmented at company, regional and national levels.
The resolution adopted at the 3rd European collective bargaining conference in Frankfurt on 9 and 10 December 1998 states that the key point of reference for a coordinated wage policy must be to offset the rate of inflation and to ensure that workers’ incomes retain a balanced participation in productivity gains. The EMF also supports the initiatives regarding regional and bilateral bargaining “cross-linking” and the exchange of collective bargaining observers.
Earlier, in July 1998, the EMF adopted a Charter on Working Time establishing common European standards in order to guarantee that working time does not become a subject for European competition. The EMF reconfirmed its commitment to a 35-hour working week, with a 1750 hours maximum normal annual actual working time as a target for bargaining at national level and an annual 100-hour ceiling on paid overtime.