Bargaining for Equality-Strengthening collective bargaining systems to ensure fair wages and address income inequality in Europe. (BFORE)

The main ambition of BFORE, the “Bargaining for Equality” project, is to identify and analyse collective bargaining processes and practices across Europe that help tackle income inequality and ensure fair wages for all workers. To this end, the project will first examine the interplay between minimum wage regimes, wage structures, collective bargaining systems and inequality, accounting for recent developments, policy and social partner initiatives. Second, BFORE will investigate in detail what kind of agreements are settled, as well as the impact of bargaining practices, processes, strategies, and structures on workers’ incomes. Specific attention will go to the interrelation between sector- and company-level wage bargaining and to workers in the low-wage segment. Third, BFORE will highlight challenges and gaps, and propose an agenda for strengthening collective bargaining systems across Europe. BFORE has a comparative and a transnational scope, examining EU-level, national-level and sectoral-level dynamics in all EU Member States, Norway and the UK. The project covers six industrial relations regimes by means of national and regional/cluster analyses, consulting social partners, policy-makers, experts and other stakeholders to improve insights on the predistributive effects of collective bargaining. The project’s main focus is on bargaining structures, processes, practices and preferences. BFORE combines desk research, quantitative analyses and field work.