Work Package 2

WP2 aims to analyze the country-specific configuration, structure, and coverage of collective bargaining institutions, and to map the structure, characteristics, and representativeness of all the social partners operating in the ECEC and LTC services on both the union and employer’s side at the national-sectorial level in the six countries selected for the project (Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Slovakia). Furthermore, it aims to explore social partners’ positioning with regard to labour and skill shortage issues in the care sector and its link with the quality of work and collective bargaining coverage. This mapping action will include and distinguish between the different kinds of paid care services provision (public, private for-profit, private not-for-profit, informal in-home paid caregivers) to outline an overarching overview of the care sector.
The specific objectives of the WP2, each linked to a devoted task, are:

1. systematically revising the existing literature on collective bargaining, employment relations, and union action in the care sector at the country and EU level;
2. systematically mapping the configuration, structure, and coverage of collective bargaining institutions; the structure, characteristics, and representativeness of all the social partners in the care sector at the national level; and the social partners’ positioning with regard to labour and skill shortage issues;
3. providing a comparative overview of collective bargaining and the social partners in the care sector across different employment relations regimes.