The impact of downsizing on remaining workers’ sickness absence

We address developments in collective wage bargaining arrangements in northern Europe in the light of two major political-economic challenges: EU eastern enlargement and the financial and economic crisis which broke in 2008. Through the lens of debates on convergence and divergence, we examine three dimensions of collective wage bargaining: coordination across sectors; articulation between different levels; and regulation of wage floors. We draw on findings from five countries and four sectors. Our analysis undermines the proposition that developments exhibit a common liberalising trajectory. It points to the differential impact of the two major political-economic challenges as between sectors, highlights similar and different policy responses by actors within a sector across countries, reveals differing consequences for governance of collective wage bargaining across sectors and countries, and finds no uniform trend in wage inequality outcomes.