The changing economic and labour market context in services after Covid-19 has increased the urgency for social partners to stimulate mutual learning to find suitable solutions across EU member states and at EU-level to secure improvements in bargaining and bargaining coverage. In response to this, the BARSERVICE project aims to provide an in-depth analysis of industrial relations in the service sector from different perspectives to disentangle the challenges and opportunities and in order to provide useful policy recommendations and tools for social and policy actors related to the structural transformation of European countries and increasing shift from manufacturing towards the service sector, the deterioration of the working conditions particularly pronounced in tertiary jobs, both in terms of low wages, unstable jobs and gender segregation and the lack of adequate space and margin of intervention for collective bargaining and industrial relations. An important aspect also relates to uncovering the likelihood and incidence of undeclared work and strategies to mitigate it and support declared work via decent working conditions and collective bargaining.

To support capacity building for collective bargaining in the services sector, BARSERVICE seeks to understand bargaining practices, challenges and opportunities for smart bargaining in services in 9 countries (6 EU Member States and 3 Candidate Countries, predominantly in Southern and Eastern Europe). Services constitute an important pillar of the European economy, yet little is known on bargaining therein. The changing economic and labour market context after Covid-19 has increased the urgency to extend knowledge and stimulate mutual learning of research and social dialogue, reflecting the priorities of the EC Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages.

BARSERVICE maps bargaining practices, structure and power relations between unions and employers, the effective coverage of collective agreements, content of collective agreements and strategies to uncover and reduce undeclared work in services. The findings directly inform capacity building initiatives of social partners, mutual exchange, co-creation and interactive learning for social partners in those member states and candidate countries where bargaining in services and those where bargaining in services needs to be enhanced and strengthened.

BARSERVICE focuses on four subsectors: social care, commerce, finance and publishing. It identifies the main challenges the sector faces in its trajectory for smart bargaining due to the: i) structural transformation of European economies and the importance of the service sector; ii) deterioration of working conditions in services in terms of low wages, unstable jobs and gender segregation; iii) lack of adequate space and margins of intervention for collective bargaining. A complementary aspect of the project is uncovering undeclared work, and strategies to mitigate it via decent working conditions and collective bargaining.

RQ1: What are the fundamental characteristics of economic structures, work, social dialogue and collective bargaining in the services sector across 9 countries?

RQ2: What are the common and different challenges for trade union organising and employer organising in the service sector in 9 countries? What do existing collective agreements in the service sector stipulate and is their content similar across subsectors and countries?

RQ3: What do existing collective agreements in the service sector stipulate and is their content similar across subsectors and countries?

RQ4: What are the specific challenges related to undeclared work in some subsectors of the service sector? In particular, what are the challenges specific for vulnerable groups such as migrant workers, youth and female workers that fall out of bargaining scope and legal employment? How do the different actors such as enforcement authorities, labour inspectors and social partners address and view these challenges and how do they aim to address these? Which empirical and methodological tools could be adopted by trade unions in order to better prevent and deter undeclared and under-declared work in services?

RQ5: What can trade unions and employers learn from the analysis to develop their capacity for collective bargaining?

RQ6: How do institutional and structural differences in labour markets and industrial relations across the studied countries explain similarities and differences in social actors’ strategies vis-a-vis collective bargaining?