Several measures have been introduced to encourage employers to support the retention or hiring of workers, including modifications to (or introduction of) temporary short-time working arrangements, wage subsidies, non-wage cost reductions, expanding public sector employment, and self-employment. A number of these arrangements are relatively new, and the scale of their adoption is notably greater than in the past, and hence the treatment of these measures in this section is particularly extensive.
The social dialogue played an important role in concluding agreements on crisis response, see Box 2.
A variety of negotiated responses to the crisis exist in the European Union. A main characteristic of these schemes is that they often involve government support programmes in various forms such as subsidising short-term working arrangements, wage subsidies, etc; see for instance Glassner and Keune (2009).
Levels of successful conclusion of crisis-response agreements at sector and at company level vary both between Member States and between general economic sectors (manufacturing sectors versus private service sectors), reflecting institutional differences in collective bargaining arrangements, the varying impact of the crisis on different economic sectors and the implementation of specific public policies, notably short-time work schemes, which can act as a catalyst for negotiations. See Carley and Marginson (2010).
Crisis response agreements were concluded at different speeds, see Carley and Marginson (2010). Crisis-response agreements were reached at a relatively early stage in six Member States. In Belgium, social partners concluded a collective agreement for 2009-2010 in December 2008, while in the Netherlands, the government and social partners reached a wide-ranging agreement on crisis-related measures in October 2008. In March 2009, the Polish social partners reached a bipartite agreement on a package of anti-crisis measures and in July 2009 the French social partners reached a national cross-sector agreement on managing the employment consequences of the economic crisis. In Estonia in March 2009, a tripartite accord was reached, setting out principles for maintaining employment levels, while in Latvia a tripartite accord was concluded in June 2009, with the aim of reducing the public sector deficit.
In Slovakia, parallel governmental accords with the social partners were signed in early 2009. In Lithuania, the conclusion of an agreement in October 2009 was preceded by months of sustained trade union opposition to government austerity measures. In Spain, the social partners reached a three-year framework deal only in 2010. In the Czech Republic, a tripartite agreement on a set of ‘short-term’ crisis response measures was reached in February 2010. In Bulgaria, a tripartite agreement on a package of anti-crisis measures was signed in March 2010. In Ireland, a new protocol affirming the importance of maintaining employment was agreed in June 2010.