Collective bargaining in the energy sector in Central and West Europe
This initiative was launched as part of a wider collective bargaining and social dialogue project in 2008. EPSU affiliates in the energy sector from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were invited to take part in a workshop in January 2008 to exchange information and discuss commons issues. The countries were chosen because of the extent to which energy multinationals like EON, RWE and EDF are becoming major players in these countries along with the development of a more integrated energy market.
A number of important themes were identified including employer threats to end sector-level bargaining, the impact of new developments such as renewable energy and also the spread of low pay in what has traditionally been a high-paying sector. The participants agreed that it would be worthwhile to continue to meet to discuss some of these issues in more depth.
A second meeting in October (not covered by the project) concentrated on pay negotiations and salary structures. In particular the meeting recognised that an important element of the growing problem of low pay in the sector was related to outsourcing and the extent to which many workers are now employed by companies that are not covered by energy sector collective agreements.
Further meetings of the group took place on 27 January and 24-25 March 2009 organised with the support of the ETUI education institute. The meetings discussed pay rates in the energy sector, training, the use of fixed-term and agency workers and the trends in profits and dividend payments in comparison to changes in wages and salaries.
The participating unions agreed in principle to main their network on the basis that costs of organising meetings and interpretation will be shared between EPSU and the affiliates involved. The latest meeting took place on 6 October and continues the discussions on pay rates, the scope of sectoral collective agreements, the impact of smart meters and collective bargaining guidelines adopted by ver.di’s energy sector negotiating committee.