ETUI OSE Social Pacts in Europe New Dynamics Edited by Giuseppe Fajertag and Philippe Pochet Second edition European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) Observatoire social européen (OSE) Social Pacts in Europe New Dynamics SECOND EDITION Edited by Giuseppe Fajertag and Philippe Pochet Brussels, 2000 © Publisher: ETUI, Brussels All rights reserved Cover: Geluck-Suykens & Partners / ETUI Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 A New Era for Social Pacts in Europe ......................................................................................................... 9 Philippe Pochet and Giuseppe Fajertag The European Union and National Social Pacts: Employmemt and Social Protection Put to the Test of Joint Regulation ........................................ 41 Janine Goetschy From Means to Ends: Linking Wage Moderation and Social Policy Reform ........................................................................................................................................................... 61 Anke Hassel and Bernhard Ebbinghaus Social Pacts in Italy and Europe: Similar Strategies and Structures; Different Models and National Stories ............................................................. 85 Serafino Negrelli Toward a New Social Pact in Belgium? .............................................................................................. 113 Etienne Arcq and Philippe Pochet Recent Issues on the Social Pact in Denmark ............................................................................ 135 Jens Lind Social Pacts in Finland .................................................................................................................................................. 161 Timo Kauppinen Alliance for Jobs – is Germany following the path of “competitive corporatism”? ............................................................................................................................................................................ 187 Reinhard Bispinck and Thorsten Schulten Social Pacts in Hellenic Industrial Relations: Odysseys or Sisyphus? .................................................................................................................................................. 219 Christos A. Ioannou SOCIAL PACTS IN EUROPE – NEW DYNAMICS 5 Social Partnership in Ireland’s Economic Transformation ................................. 237 Rory O’Donnell and Colm O’Reardon Innovation through Co-ordination – Two Decades of Social Pacts in the Netherlands .................................................................. 257 Anton Hemerijck, Marc Van der Meer and Jelle Visser A Spanner in the Works and Oil on Troubled Waters: The Divergent Fates of Social Pacts in Sweden and Norway ............................ 279 Jon Erik Dølvik and Andrew Martin Social Pacts in Portugal: From Comprehensive Policy Programmes to the Negotiation of Concrete Industrial Relations Reforms? ...................... 321 Maria da Paz Campos Lima and Reinhard Naumann Social Pacts in Spain ........................................................................................................................................................ 343 Sofía A. Pérez Social Pacts, Unemployment and EMU Macroeconomic Policy ........................ 365 Andrew Martin National Pacts and Wage Regulation in Europe: A Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 401 Franz Traxler List of authors ........................................................................................................................................................................... 419 6 SOCIAL PACTS IN EUROPE – NEW DYNAMICS Foreword Three years after we edited the book on Social Pacts in Europe, we thought it necessary and useful to return to the same period so as to analyse its most crucial national and transnational aspects. The contributors to the previous book were invited to feed into this analysis (except for the Finnish and Dutch cases). To broaden our overview, the national chapters have benefited from the addition of two new case studies: Spain and Greece. Furthermore, two new comparative chapters have been included in order to supplement the horizontal analyses. As with the previous volume, we again had no desire to engage in a theoretical debate about the term itself: social pact. The pragmatic approach which was developed and discussed among the authors on two occasions (seminars: Brussels, 27-28 September 1999 and 3 February 2000) consisted in moving to and for between comparative and national analyses, allowing each individual to draw his or her own conclusions from these discussions. The aim was to provide a variety of complementary texts, rather than to achieve a hypothetical consensus among their authors. Nevertheless, the lively debates during the seminars helped to increase the coherence and improved national and comparative chapters. Many thank to the participants. The editing work and the respect of the timetable have been greatly facilitated and improved thanks to the consistent follow-up of Fanny Kabatusuila (Observatoire social européen). Valérie Cotulelli (Observatoire social européen) was responsible for the texts’ layout and the pagination. We want to thank the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission for its financial support for this publication and the two preparatory seminars. Giuseppe Fajertag Philippe Pochet ETUI Observatoire social européen SOCIAL PACTS IN EUROPE – NEW DYNAMICS 7 8 SOCIAL PACTS IN EUROPE – NEW DYNAMICS A New Era for Social Pacts in Europe Philippe Pochet and Giuseppe Fajertag Whereas many people regarded tripartite forms of bargaining as outmoded and believed that economic and monetary union would bring about an “Americanisation” of industrial relations in Europe, social concertation has undergone an astonishingly lively and broad-based revival. Of the fifteen Member States of the European Union, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Finland and Portugal witnessed the emergence or re- emergence of such initiatives during the period 1992-1998. Since then, several attempts have been made to account for this phenomenon (Negrelli, 1997; Rhodes, 1997; Schmitter and Grote, 1997). The main hypothesis underpinning the introduction to our 1997 collective volume was concerned with the constraints and changes associated with the single currency. We asserted that the prospect of monetary union had acted as a catalyst for the signing of social pacts, in particular for countries likely to have difficulty in sustaining a monetary regime aiming for low inflation and a stable currency while keeping their public deficits under control (Fajertag and Pochet, 1997; Pochet, 1998 and 1999). That analysis attached priority above all to one main variable – pay bargaining – while pointing out that this is normally embedded in a wider set of measures affecting the labour market and/or social security. In noting a degree of convergence, we indicated at that time that a number of these agreements appeared to be unstable and linked with cyclical economic factors, rather than being a sign that bi- or tripartite relations were becoming structured or institutionalised into a sort of functional equivalent of neo- corporatist institutions. We also stressed that the transition to the third phase of EMU in 1999 would reopen a debate on suitable forms of concertation as well as on the content of agreements, no longer in the context of the Maastricht criteria establishing the single currency but in that of a unified monetary zone, the euro zone. We asked whether or not competitive pacts would be sustainable within the future monetary union, since “once it becomes operational, national collective bargaining systems will need to solve new problems whose precise nature it is difficult to gauge” (Pochet, 1998). SOCIAL PACTS IN EUROPE – NEW DYNAMICS 9 Philippe Pochet and Giuseppe Fajertag This introduction is one of a group of four contributions, each illustrating an aspect of the discussion surrounding the social pacts of the nineties and their future. Janine Goetschy puts the pacts of the nineties and those of the sixties and seventies into a historical perspective in terms of their degree of stability, the nature and quality of their transactions, and the role and stance of the actors. She also deliberates on the interactions between the European and national levels. Anke Hassel and Bernhard Ebbinghaus continue along these lines, also investigating content implications and in particular the relationship between pay bargaining and reform of social security. Among the complex processes of change, they argue that social policy reforms are both means and ends: means, because the concessions form part of a political exchange; ends, in that they constitute one way of reducing overall labour costs. The trajectories of three countries – Germany, Italy and the Netherlands – are contrasted. Serafino Negrelli takes up the debate on whether today’s social pacts are a continuation of or a break with neo- corporatism, considering that the traditional theories of convergence and corporatism do not offer an adequate framework for understanding the new social pacts of the nineties. The case of Italy is used as an illustration. He