RESEARCH REPORT Industrial relations Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector When citing this report, please use the following wording: Eurofound (2019), Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector, Dublin. Authors: Josee Lamers (Lamers ICM Consultancy bv), Georg Adam (FORBA), Peter Kerckhofs (Eurofound) Research Manager: Peter Kerckhofs Eurofound Research Project: Representativeness studies © European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), 2019. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. 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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions Telephone: (+353 1) 204 31 00 Email: [email protected] Web: www.eurofound.europa.eu Country codes EU28 AT Austria FI Finland NL Netherlands BE Belgium FR France PL Poland BG Bulgaria HR Croatia PT Portugal CY Cyprus HU Hungary RO Romania CZ Czech Republic IE Ireland SE Sweden DE Germany IT Italy SI Slovenia DK Denmark LT Lithuania SK Slovakia EE Estonia LU Luxembourg UK United Kingdom EL Greece LV Latvia ES Spain MT Malta Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector Contents List of acronyms used in the report .................................................................................................................... 2 List of tables ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 List of figures ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................4 Objectives of the study ....................................................................................................................................... 4 European sectoral social dialogue for the telecommunications sector ............................................................. 5 Definitions and methodology ............................................................................................................................. 7 Data collection .................................................................................................................................................. 10 Quality control measures ................................................................................................................................. 11 Structure of the report ..................................................................................................................................... 11 1. Economic background and employment in the ICT-telecommunications sector ........................... 12 Types of companies and business structure of the sector ............................................................................... 12 Recent employment trends in telecommunications and ICT ........................................................................... 17 Characteristics of the workforce and working conditions ................................................................................ 22 Converging sectors – bringing ICT and telecommunications together ............................................................. 25 2. National level of interest representation ........................................................................................ 27 Sector coverage, sector relatedness and organisational density of trade unions ............................................ 29 Trade union involvement in collective bargaining............................................................................................ 36 Domain coverage of employer organisations ................................................................................................... 42 Large corporate employers as relevant industrial relations actors .................................................................. 50 Employer organisation and large corporation involvement in collective bargaining ....................................... 53 Collective bargaining patterns and social dialogue practices ........................................................................... 57 Social partners and the sectoral dialogue – participation in public policy ...................................................... 60 3. European level of interest representation....................................................................................... 69 Membership domain and membership composition of UNI Europa ............................................................... 69 Membership domain and membership composition of ETNO ......................................................................... 72 Domain coverage of DIGITAL SME and DigitalEurope ...................................................................................... 75 Other European trade union associations ........................................................................................................ 79 Other European employer and business associations ...................................................................................... 83 Representativeness of UNI Europa and ETNO in the ICT-telecommunications sector (including information for DIGITAL SME and DigitalEurope)................................................................................................................. 86 UNI Europa, ETNO and DIGITAL SME’s capacity to negotiate .......................................................................... 91 4. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 96 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 98 Other sources ................................................................................................................................................... 99 Annex 1: Supplementary information ............................................................................................... 101 Annex 1: Network of Eurofound Correspondents ............................................................................. 118 1 Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: ICT-telecommunications sector List of acronyms used in the report 5G: fifth generation of mobile networks DSM: digital single market ETNO: European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association EU: European Union OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OTT: over-the-top SME: Small and medium-sized enterprise VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol List of tables Table 1: Demarcation of the ICT and telecommunications sectors with NACE codes .............................7 Table 2: Domain patterns of the members of an organisation ................................................................8 Table 3: Number of companies in telecommunications and ICT sectors .............................................. 14 Table 4: Proportion of the sectoral workforce in the three largest companies .................................... 15 Table 5: Share of the sectoral workforce in the largest three companies ............................................ 15 Table 6: Change in number of companies in the ICT and telecommunications sectors, 2012 to 2017 17 Table 7: Development of employment in the telecommunications and ICT sectors, 2012–2016 (percentage difference) .................................................................................................... 19 Table 8: Features of business structure and employment of the ICT and telecommunications sectors, 2016 .................................................................................................................................. 19 Table 9: Proportion of the EU sectoral workforce by EU Member State .............................................. 20 Table 10: ICT-telecommunications workforce as a proportion of the total workforce by Member State .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Table 11: Number of self-employed individuals in telecommunications and ICT ................................. 23 Table 12: Overview of new flexibility forms in the ICT sector ............................................................... 24 Table 13: ICT-telecommunications sector-related trade unions and