Wage bargaining in Germany. The role of works councils and opening clauses

"German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system: First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment level the works council is responsible for employer-employee negotiations. But since the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ellguth, Peter, Gerner, Hans-Dieter, Stegmaier, Jens
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Nürnberg 2012
IAB
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19135126124919533089-Wage-bargaining-in-Germany.-Th.htm
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author Ellguth, Peter
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Stegmaier, Jens
author_facet Ellguth, Peter
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Stegmaier, Jens
collection Library items
description "German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system: First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment level the works council is responsible for employer-employee negotiations. But since the mid-1980s more and more areas of regulation were transferred from the industry to the establishment level using so called opening-clauses. Our analysis relies on rich German establishment data and reveals new insights in the institutional machinery of wage bargaining: While the existence of such clauses is related to higher wages (11 %), their application results in wages cuts of roughly the same size. Regarding works councils our results suggest that they are able to prevent negative wage effects of opening clauses on average."
format TEXT
geographic Germany
id 19135126124919533089_8c9c3a5ff9954bd2a4b689e1a405f3d4
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19135126124919533089_8c9c3a5ff9954bd2a4b689e1a405f3d4
is_hierarchy_title Wage bargaining in Germany. The role of works councils and opening clauses
language English
physical 20 p.
Digital
publishDate 2012
publisher Nürnberg
IAB
spellingShingle Ellguth, Peter
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Stegmaier, Jens
collective bargaining
collective agreement
labour relations
statistics
wages
works council
Wage bargaining in Germany. The role of works councils and opening clauses
title Wage bargaining in Germany. The role of works councils and opening clauses
topic collective bargaining
collective agreement
labour relations
statistics
wages
works council
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19135126124919533089-Wage-bargaining-in-Germany.-Th.htm