“Collective bargaining can advance equality and foster inclusion”, says a new ILO report, the first in a new series of reports on social dialogue. The higher the coverage of employees by collective agreements, the lower the wage differences are, says the report entitled Social Dialogue Report 2022: Collective bargaining for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery , which is based on a review of collective agreements and practices in 80 countries at different levels of economic development and the legal and regulatory frameworks in 125 countries.
According to the report, over one third of employees (35%) in 98 countries have their wages, working time and other conditions of work set by autonomous collective negotiations between a trade union and an employer or employers’ organization. But there is a considerable variation across countries, ranging from over 75% in many European countries and Uruguay to below 25% in around half of the countries for which data are available.