How does the attitude towards bargaining differ between Germany and other countries

The attitude towards bargaining in Germany differs significantly compared to many other countries. In Germany, collective bargaining is traditionally highly institutionalized, structured, and based on social partnership between trade unions and employer associations. German employers tend to have a more cautious and reserved approach to expanding statutory bargaining coverage, often leading to a relative decline in collective wage bargaining extensions compared to other European countries. There is also a strong emphasis on cooperation and long-term relationships in bargaining rather than confrontational or aggressive negotiation styles.

In contrast, many other countries may have more decentralized or less formal bargaining systems where individual or plant-level negotiations play a larger role, and bargaining may be more adversarial or open to frequent bargaining overrides or disputes. For example, in some countries, bargaining may be more transactional or flexible with less institutional continuity.

To summarize the differences:

These distinctions lead to a distinctive bargaining culture in Germany focusing on stability, consensus, and regulated negotiation processes compared to a more varied approach in other countries. ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

References

• Transforming German Workplace Relations: Quo Vadis Cooperation?

• Why does Germany abstain from statutory bargaining extensions? Explaining the exceptional German erosion of collective wage bargaining

• The Effects of Trust on the Preference for Decentralized Bargaining

• To Extend or Not to Extend: Explaining the Divergent Use of Statutory Bargaining Extensions in the Netherlands and Germany

• THE UKRAINIAN QUESTION IN THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE SECOND CZECHO-SLOVAK REPUBLIC AT THE TURN OF 1938-1939

• Trade unions and labour market dualisation: a comparison of policies and attitudes towards agency and migrant workers in Germany and Belgium

• Thrifty Wives and Lavish Husbands? Bargaining Power and Financial Decisions in Germany

• Implementation of palliative care as a mandatory cross-disciplinary subject (QB13) at the Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany

• General practitioners’ attitudes towards patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study

• Online Survey of Patients with Breast Cancer on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

• Trade Union Responses to Precarious Work in Seven European Countries

• Bargaining for Productivity: Comparative Report

• Editorial

• Employment relations without collective bargaining and strikes: the unusual case of civil servants in Germany

• From Autonomy to Subordination? Relations Between the State and the Representations of Interests on the German Labor Market

• Forces of reproduction and change in collective bargaining: A social field perspective

• Trade Unions, Bargaining Coverage and Low Pay: A Multilevel Test of Institutional Effects on Low-Pay Risk in Germany

• Beteiligung und Tarifpolitik: Debatten, Ansätze und Grenzen am Beispiel der IG Metall

• Good Bye Lenin Revisited: East-West Preferences Three Decades after German Reunification

• US Multi-Nationals and the German Industrial Relations System **