Preconditions for ‘Efficiency and Equity' in Two-Tier Bargaining;

- the Case of Danish and Swedish Manufacturing Sectors

Paper by Søren Kaj Andersen

The Danish and Swedish collective bargaining systems have been highlighted as examples of organised decentralisation; i.e. company level bargaining within the framework of national multiemployer agreements. The article describes and analyse preconditions for coordination in the two-tier bargaining systems in Danish and Swedish manufacturing. Further, similarities and differences between the two bargaining systems are discussed. It is argued that a strong concentration of interest representation on both sides of industry has been an important precondition for the coordination of bargaining between national and company level in both countries. Adding to this the strength of the vertical coordination seems to depend on the relatively high rate of unionisation and thereby the presence of shop stewards at workplace level. The most significant differences between the two bargaining systems concerns the timing of reform, organisational structures and the actual form and to some degree content of vertical coordinated bargaining.

Paper for the IIRA World Congress, 24.-29. august 2009, Sydney.