Das Verhältnis von Staat und Tarifautonomie

Collective bargaining decline constitutes a major challenge for the German system of labour relations as well as for society in general. The article analyses and discusses a variety of concepts which have been presented in an attempt to stabilise multi-employer collective bargaining. A first group of strategies aims at strengthening the membership of parties to a collective agreement. Many of these concepts focus on changes in federal laws for improving incentives to join or remain a member of the union or employers’ association respectively. A second group of measures focuses on mandatory provisions such as public procurement laws or the extension of collective agreements and more directly enforces compliance to collectively agreed standards. The article concludes that there is no fundamental contradiction between intervention by the state and collective bargaining autonomy as – by law – the state is obliged to provide for a stable collective bargaining system.