Chapter 6. Collective bargaining reforms in Southern Europe during the crisis: impact in the light of international standards
The objective of this chapter is to compare the reforms of collective bargaining regulations implemented in a number of Southern European countries during the Great Recession. We focus on Greece, Portugal and Spain, three countries subject to financial assistance programs, all of which have implemented regulatory changes in collective bargaining. However, while in Greece and Portugal those changes were explicitly included in their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with inter national creditors, in Spain the corresponding memorandum was limited to the financial sector. Nevertheless, the Spanish government also implemented important changes in collective bargaining. A comparison between the three countries sheds light on the similarity of the changes (promoting decentralized collective bargaining) although the specific changes affected different institutions at national level. The most expected impact would have been an increase in the use of company level agreements and a decrease of sector and any other multi employer collective agreement (CA) However, the available statistical information does not uphold this prediction and impacts even differ by country. In addition, we will also discuss the role of tripartite social dialogue on implementing changes in the legal regulation of collective bargaining.