European Parliament presents its report on Minimum Wages

In April 2021, the co-rapporteurs Dennis Radtke (EPP/Germany) and Agnés Jongerius (S&D/Netherlands) presented their joint report on the proposal for a Directive on Minimum Wages.

The report mentions an increase in the obligation of collective bargaining coverage from 70% to 90% and indicates that minimum wages below an indicative reference value of 60% of the gross median wage and 50% of the gross average wage shall be considered inadequate. It also indicates that variations or deductions to the minimum wages would not be allowed. Trade unions are to be provided with different rights.

HOTREC considers that the report goes much beyond what is legally allowed by the Treaties – namely the prohibition of including variations and deductions and the inclusion of international indicators in the articles.

We also consider that including a percentage of collective bargaining coverage goes against legal certainty principles. At the same time, Members States where collective bargaining is not strong for the time being would not be able to reach 90% coverage (not even 70% coverage).

Rights to trade unions do not respect the diversity of national industrial relations systems nor the fact that representation is for the national level to decide.