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 multi
The legal basis of collective bargaining in Germany is laid down by the Collective Agreements Act, 1949. Collective agreements can be concluded between employer associations (or individual employers) and trade unions. In contrast, works councils – statutory employee representation bodies elected at
On 21 and 22 April 2005 an international conference on 'minimum wages in Europe' was held in Zurich (Switzerland) with participants from seven European countries including representatives from the European Commission, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), several national trade union
The current German federal government is a 'red-green' coalition of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), which was re-elected in September 2002. In 2003, there were four major regional elections at the
In December 2003, the leading German association of private investors (Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz, DSW) published a study on management board members' income at Germany’s 30 leading public limited companies listed on the German Stock Exchange Index (Deutscher Aktienindex, DAX) -
Since the 1990s, the German system of sector-level collective bargaining has seen a continuous process of transformation towards more company-level bargaining. This transformation has taken various forms:
At the general election held in September 2002, the 'red-green' federal coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and Alliance 90/the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) successfully, if narrowly, defended its majority in the first chamber of
In January 2003, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans-Böckler Foundation published its report on the 2002 collective bargaining round (Tarifpolitscher
On 13 December 2002, the Employers’ Association for Private Banking (Arbeitgeberverband des privaten Bankgewerbes, AGV Banken), the Collective Bargaining Community for Public Banks (Tarifgemeinschaft öffentlicher Banken) and the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver
On 12 July 2002, the Bundesrat- the second chamber of parliament, representing the federal states' (Länder) governments - rejected the government's bill for a 'law on collectively agreed pay in public procurement' (Gesetz zur tariflichen Entlohnung bei öffentlichen Aufträgen). More than two months
In July 2002, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans-Böckler Foundation published an interim report on the 2002 collective bargaining round (Tarifpolitischer
On 14 June 2002, the German Metalworkers' Union (IG Metall) and the Employers' Association for the Steel Industry (Arbeitgeberverband Stahl) signed a new pay agreement [1] for the 85,000 or so employees in the west German steel industry, covering the collective bargaining districts of North Rhine