Dezentralisierung der Tarifpolitik – Ergebnisse der WSI-Betriebsrätebefragung 2015

The article analyses the process of the decentralisation of collective bargaining based on data from the WSI works council survey 2015. According to this study, the importance of collective bargaining as the central control instrument for setting work and pay conditions has declined. In 2015, 67% of firms with works councils were covered by collective agreements, equivalent to 82% of the workforce. This shows that compared to 2005 collective bargaining coverage declined by 5 percentage points, while the proportion of businesses, which are not subject to a collective agreement but use it as an orientation for setting wages and working conditions, is also declining. At the same time, according to works councils, opening and differentiation clauses are being used in every fifth establishment to deviate from agreed standards. In another 13% of establishments work councils report deviations from collective agreements which are not covered by such clauses. The study shows that the higher the union density, the lower the probability of such uncontrolled deviations is. Overall, the works councils have predominantly conflicting views on the decentralisation of collective bargaining or judge it to be generally a problematic trend.