This chapter discusses three main themes that are important components of recent bargaining and collective agreements on gender equality: (1) closing the gender pay gap; (2) maternity protection, parental leave and work–life balance; and (3) gender-based violence at work. Despite the external environment leading to the decentralization and weakening of bargaining in many countries across the world, in recent years bargaining has become more gender-focused. The bargaining agenda has been extended to include new issues that reflect the intersection of the private area of family/home and the public area of work, thereby extending the scope of the employment relationship. In particular, domestic violence is a new workplace bargaining issue that “widens the reach of the employment relationship by recognizing the intersection of the private and work domains and represents a qualitative new step” (Pillinger, Schmidt & Wintour 2016).

CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP THROUGH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Collective bargaining has played a role in closing the gender pay gap, and as discussed previously, there is wide agreement that centralized bargaining generally has a positive impact on gender pay inequalities (Hayter 2011; Pillinger 2014; Ponzellini, Aumayr & Wolf 2010). A reduction in the gender pay gap from 2004 to 2008 can be attributed to three main factors: (1) working in the public sector; (2) membership of a trade union; and (3) working in a large firm (Olsen et al. 2010). The success of bargaining strategies is dependent on a range of factors (discussed in Chapter 1), as well as the level of union commitment to the issue and the proportion of women in a sector (Dawson 2018; Elvira & Saporta 2001; Rubery & Koukiadaki 2016).

However, the trend towards the individualization of pay and a lack of pay transparency makes the issue of pay inequalities between women and men complex to tackle, particularly in the context of the economic crisis and a general trend towards rising wage inequalities (Antonczyk et al. 2010).