Lothar Funk

Industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe

This article analyses industrial relations in the new Central and Eastern European EU member states and the candidate countries Bulgaria and Romania. Focusing on the private sector, it describes the major organisational attributes of the social partners and the structural features of the collective bargaining systems in these countries. The extent of strikes and industrial disputes is discussed, and some indications of future developments are presented.

A legally binding EU charter of fundamental rights

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is based, on the one hand, on the traditional concept that fundamental rights are a means to protect citizens against unjustified interference by public authorities. On the other hand, by contrast to the general defensive approach of negative rights, and more controversially, some chapters guarantee quite extensive positive rights to protection and entitlements, based on equality and solidarity. The following article offers an economic analysis of the efficiency and legitimacy of the Charter, including the question of whether it should be binding at a supranational level.

Current Structural Changes: Challenges for the German Labour Market and Collective Bargaining

High unemployment is, as it has been for so long, the number one political and economic problem in Germany. Germany is one of the very few Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries where structural unemployment appears to have increased significantly since the early 1990s (Brandt et al., 2005, p. 6). If effective solutions can be found to overcome these abject circumstances, then not only will the economic situation improve, but Germany will, in all probability, in the medium term, also achieve higher trend-rate growth. Even though the measures adopted as part of Agenda 2010, which have partly reduced the generosity of German social benefits, are steps in the right direction,1 they are by no means enough to solve the problem of persistently high unemployment in Germany. In the words of the Swedish economist, Lars Calmfors: ‘If reductions in benefit generosity are to make a maximum contribution to employment generation, they must be translated into lower real wage costs as efficiently as possible. It is, therefore, a step in the right direction that the unemployed may now have to accept jobs that pay less than the jobs they had before’ (Calmfors, 2004, p. 40). The German pay-setting system does not, however, appear to be responsive enough in reducing real wage levels to make welfare state and labour market reforms successful over a relatively short period.