With Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schulten
The EU Minimum Wage Directive, adopted in 2022, marks a paradigm shift in EU labor policy. While the EU has long contributed to weakening trade unions and collective bargaining systems through its liberalization policy, the new directive now explicitly aims to strengthen labor market institutions. The Directive obliges all EU member States with collective bargaining coverage of below 80% to establish national action plans to promote collective bargaining, with the aim of progressively increasing collective bargaining coverage. Prof. Thorsten Schulten will discuss the implementation of the directive in individual Member States to date and identify the most important instruments that can contribute to higher collective bargaining coverage through a strengthening of sectoral bargaining.
Prof. Schulten will also reflect on the role of labor in preserving democracy in Europe and will discuss the German experience with works councils and co-governance.
Lunch will be served. Please sign up here.
Thorsten Schulten is the scientific head of the Collective Agreement Archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation which is closely related to the German trade unions. He is also teaching as an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen.
Sponsored by the Labor Lab, Columbia Center for Political Economy, and the Columbia Law School Workers' Rights Student Coalition