Over the last ten years, Germany has been the country that has displayed the greatest degree of restraint in collective bargaining. Few other OECD countries have had such a modest increase in unit labour costs and few have lived below their means to the same extent in terms of wage policy. While...

In Germany the 2000s proved to be a decade of moderate increases in collectively-agreed minimum pay. Agreed pay in real terms rose by 6.7% over the whole period. However, by 2010 real actual earnings had fallen by 4% over the decade and were down to 96% of their 2000 level. As a consequence, the...

Die Tarifpolitik des vergangenen Jahres wurde geprägt von dem Konflikt bei der Deutschen Bahn, wo es der Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokführer nach hartem Arbeitskampf gelang, einen eigenständigen Tarifvertrag durchzusetzen. Auch in anderen Sektoren (Bauhauptgewerbe, Einzelhandel, Druck, Deutsche...

The legal basis of collective bargaining in Austria is laid down by the Labour Constitution Act (ArbVG). According to the ArbVG, collective agreements can be concluded only between collective organisations of employers and employees. Therefore, the Austrian labour law systematically benefits...