Social Convergence, Development Failures and Industrial Relations: The Case of Portugal

Transcription

1

2 Social Convergence, Development Failures and Industrial Relations: The Case of Pilar González Faculty of Economics, University of Porto António Figueiredo Quaternaire

3 Context joined the EU with very low per capita income in comparative terms and the political discourse that helped to transform EU integration into a national consensus was dominated by two main arguments: the EU as an essential protection for a young democracy such as ; growth and development as the main prospective outcome of integration. Free unions and collective bargaining were introduced only after democratic change in 1974 in a context of strong power imbalances in the labour market, highly favourable to workers. The labour law that emerged from this period was strongly protective of employment and collective agreements. Labour relations in this period were very conflictual and distrust between employers and unions was generalised.

4 Context The need to increase labour market flexibility after the normalisation of Portuguese democracy gave birth to the introduction of (very flexible) temporary contracts. The coexistence of very rigid regulation of fixed-term contracts and very flexible regulation of temporary contracts generated a labour force segmentation that still characterises the Portuguese labour market. In the mid-1980s, the Standing Committee for Social Concertation was set up, aimed at creating a new channel for centralised social dialogue (aside the sectoral level negotiation). Centralised social dialogue has been particularly dynamic since the mid-2000s increase in the number of social pacts agreed, including medium-term pacts; the scope of the topics under discussion and of agreements has been widened; the number of actors involved has increased. This process has helped build up trust among the social partners but has been disrupted by the crisis and the consequent bailout.

5 Context 70 Union density in, Union (a) and employer organisation (b) density in the EU, Source: Visser, ictwss_v5.1. 5

6 GDP per capita in PPS (Index, EU28 = 100) Economic convergence EU28 No recent signs of economic convergence. The crisis as a big negative shock. GDPpc in the EU (EU28=100), 2016 Romania Latvia Greece Estonia Slovakia Cyprus Czech Republic Malta EU28 Euro area 19 Finland Germany Denmark Netherlands Luxembourg Source: Eurostat 6

7 Social convergence: some indicators Labour market Unemployment rate The convergence towards EU unemployment level. The crisis as a big negative 70.0shock Employment rate EU15 EU15 Source: Eurostat 7

8 Social convergence: some indicators Labour market High and persistent Share of temporary employees in divergence. total employment (%) Convergence towards EU unemployment standards Temporary contracts as a main source of flexibility The increasing dualization of the labour market Precariousness as a source of divergence (within the country and by EU standards) EU15 Source: Eurostat 8

9 Social convergence: some indicators Labour market Figure 12: Activity rate - females High and persistent proximity Low incidence of part-time in divergence with 80.0the EU 75.0 Figure 13: Activity rate - males EU15 EU15 Source: Eurostat 9

10 16, , , , , , ,000.0 Social convergence: some indicators Labour market wage earnings per capita (PPS) Bulgaria Romania Latvia Lithuania Hungary Slovakia Estonia Czech Republic Croatia Poland Low wages and not converging. The crisis as a big negative shock. Median hourly earnings in PPS (2014) Slovenia Cyprus Greece Malta Spain Italy UK EU28 Austria Euro area 19 France Finland Netherlands Sweden Germany Luxembourg Belgium Ireland UE28 ZE19 Denmark Source: Eurostat 10

11 Romania Bulgaria Hungary Croatia Greece Latvia Lithuania Slovakia Poland Estonia Czech Republic Spain Italy (*) Slovenia Cyprus EU28 Malta UK Ireland (*) Euro area 19 Finland Sweden France Belgium Netherlands Denmark Germany Austria Luxembourg (*) Social convergence: some indicators Income distribution Median equivalised net income in the EU, ,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 (*) 2014 Source: Eurostat, SILC 39 Low 37income and very unequally distributed. 35 Convergence path interrupted 33 by the crisis Gini coeficient of equivalised disposable income in the EU, EU27 Euro area 19 11

12 Social convergence: some indicators Education The relevance of the education deficit despite the convergence of the last decades Malta Spain Italy Greece Euro area 19 Structure of population by educational level, 2016 EU15 Belgium Luxembourg Romania Netherlands Denmark EU28 France Ireland Cyprus Bulgaria Hungary Sweden Croatia Primary Secondary Tertiary UK Germany Austria Finland Slovenia Estonia Latvia Poland Slovakia Czech Lithuania Source: Source: Eurostat, Labour Force Survey 12

13 Conclusion Convergence towards the average EU is, in, strongly associated with the recent history of the country. Most of the specificities, that apply also to industrial relations, rely on a social process marked both by the legacy of the autocratic regime and of a revolutionary transition. joined the EU in 1986 having high gaps as regards the EU average either in terms of economic indicators (per capita GDP) and social indicators (namely education, poverty, income inequality and wages). Those gaps remained high till the present times but recent trends show rather important dynamics. The recent crisis (felt in mainly after 2009) interrupted a trend towards convergence that clearly marked the previous decade as regards a relevant group of social indicators (even if without a clear convergence path of economic convergence). 13

14 Conclusion The process of social convergence witnessed in the early 2000s has been accompanied by a process of accumulation of trust among the social partners and of higher visibility and recognition of the role of social dialogue to fight the structural deficits of the Portuguese labour market, namely: the need to fight low wages; the need to overcome skill shortages existing in the country and the need to further invest in education and training; the need to ensure a healthy social security system and its sustainability; the increased concern on sustainability needs brought into the public debate much more accurately, the issues of ageing and fertility contributing to an increasing perception of the need to integrate gender equality and reconciliation of work and family life into the social agenda; The need to overcome the segmentation of the labour market by means of the trade-off between more secure temporary contracts and more flexible regular ones. The need to seriously discuss representativeness of industrial relations actors (at the EU level) 14

15 Thank you! 15