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To Extend or Not to Extend: Explaining the Divergent Use of Statutory Bargaining Extensions in the Netherlands and Germany
Author(s) -
Paster Thomas,
Oude Nijhuis Dennie,
Kiecker Maximilian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/bjir.12514
Subject(s) - statutory law , competition (biology) , wage , state (computer science) , extension (predicate logic) , labour economics , economics , collective bargaining , demographic economics , business , political science , law , ecology , algorithm , computer science , biology , programming language
Employee coverage by multi‐employer bargaining declined since the 1980s in many countries, but countries differ in the extent of that decline. These differences are due, in part, to statutory coverage extension. We analyse the use of statutory coverage extension in two countries, Germany and the Netherlands. Agreements are extended frequently in the Netherlands, where coverage remained stable as a result, but sparingly in Germany, where coverage eroded. The article shows that different employer attitudes are the main cause of this difference. These differences in employer attitudes result from (a) different perceptions of the effects of wage competition by non‐organized firms on organized firms and (b) differences in employer views on the appropriateness of state compulsion.