A middle-class triumph? The demise of collective bargaining
Company closures dented GWU’s collective bargaining and 24,000 new service jobs left little room for collective bargaining
James Debono The seismic shift towards a knowledge and service-based economy has contributed to a decrease in the number of collective agreements in the private sector, industrial relations experts Rebecca Gatt and Godfrey Baldacchino have told MaltaToday.
The General Workers’ Union has been especially strong within the clothing and textile sector, but it lost 33 collective agreements in this sector alone because of company closures.
According to a study by Gatt and Baldacchino, 25% of full-time employees in the private sector were covered by a collective agreement negotiated by a trade union in 2008, down from 30% in 1995. It also showed that the General Workers’ Union had suffered the brunt of economic restructuring, with the number of collective agreements it negotiated, decreasing from 158 in 1995 to 109 in 2008.
“In that 13-year span, around 6,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector. This is the sector where – with the exception of the public sector – trade unions in Malta have traditionally been most strongly organised,” the authors told MaltaToday when asked to explain this phenomenon.
During the same period, service sector jobs increased by around 24,000 employees. But trade unions have found it hard to penetrate a sector which includes “a largely female workforce in small, family-owned companies” who are not so keen on trade union membership.
Other reasons militating against trade union membership are more sophisticated human resources management strategies, and a change in mentality. “Due to higher education and the adoption of middle-class values, employees are more likely to endorse values based on competitive individualism, rather than collective solidarity.”
To make inroads among service employees trade unions must change tack. “Service employees may prove to be a different clientele: they may seek more confidentiality, individual attention, legal assistance and a 24-hours online support amongst other things.”
Workers in the service-related activities are also more likely to perceive themselves as clients rather than members of their union. “They might also be looking for ‘service delivery’ but not necessarily membership.”
While both the Union Haddiema Maqghudin and the GWU have updated their corporate image, “some of their services, strategies and policies may also have to be rethought and readdressed” in view of these developments.
Defying the trend are a number of professional unions who have developed in Malta along the years. “These unions demonstrate how even ‘professional’ employees appreciate the value of organising themselves in trade unions… However, in the Maltese case, most of these unions do not negotiate collective agreements beyond the public sector which is 100% covered by collective agreements.”
But collective agreements still offer a number advantages to both employees and management. “Collective agreements are known to promote and maintain industrial peace as these establish the parameters along which management, employees and shareholders can benefit fairly from the employment relationship.”
Workers covered by collective agreements have a stronger sense of long-term security in terms of their standard of living; whilst management also secures stability and can therefore plan ahead, at least for the duration of a collective agreement typically, a minimum of three years.
“For every company that makes the news because it is engaged in an industrial dispute; there are thousands of others that are enjoying and benefitting from industrial peace, partly thanks to collective bargaining.” jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Search:
MALTATODAY
BUSINESSTODAY
Download MaltaToday Sunday issue front page in pdf file format
