Skills shortages are a serious threat to the EU’s competitiveness and workers' security. Currently, more than three quarters of companies in the EU say they have difficulties finding labour with the necessary skills. At the same time, the EU is far from reaching its target on adult learning. To successfully address skills needs, and thereby help both businesses and workers benefit from the green and digital transitions, a meaningful social dialogue is needed.
The approaching Europe Day reminds us of the beginning of what is now the European Union. This year, 9 May also marks the start of the “European Year of Skills” with the objective to promote skills and, thereby, boosting competitiveness and creating good jobs.
Ongoing skills development has rightly been identified as essential for the Union’s ability to compete and successfully achieve the green and digital transitions.
Despite an upward trend, the share of adults regularly participating in education and training in the EU remains low. At the same time more than three quarters of companies in the EU say they have difficulties finding workers with the necessary skills and shortages have increased significantly in key sectors.
The Union, and in particular the Member States, can do a lot to contribute to reaching the EU’s headline target on adult learning. However, when it comes to identifying tangible solutions to meet the needs of the labour market, it is the social partners who know best what is required.
The dialogue between trade unions and employers is, therefore, an important and necessary complement to public policies when it comes to addressing skills needs.
The decision establishing the European Year of Skills emphasises that social partners are an important part of the solution to the EU’s skills gap. This is also a key finding in the OECD report "Negotiating Our Way Up". The report argues that collective bargaining can help both companies and workers to successfully manage change and ensure a good working life.
In Sweden, the social partners have a long history of taking joint responsibility for identifying new challenges and collectively agreeing on balanced solutions.
As early as the 1970s, social partners in Sweden began concluding collective agreements to make it easier for white-collar workers made redundant to find a new job. These Employment Transition Agreements enabled the creation of an important, but also a proactive complement to the Public Employment Service.
As in other parts of the EU, the need for skills development has also increased in Sweden.
Almost six out of ten white-collar workers in the private sector in Sweden consider themselves in need of further training to remain attractive on the labour market.
Considerable efforts have been made over the years to improve the Employment Transition Agreements. These resulted in last year’s historical social partner agreements on skills development, transition, and employment protection. These agreements will bring about greatly improved opportunities for individuals to, on their own initiative, develop their skills during working life and, thereby, strengthen their future position in the labour market. The landmark agreements also resulted in the state taking on a greater responsibility for the transitions of all, including those not covered by collective agreements.
A key explanation for why social partners in Sweden have succeeded in contributing to meeting changing skills requirements, and thereby strengthening the competitiveness of business and the security of individuals, is the Swedish labour market model. This model is characterized by a system in which the state has given the social partners considerable room of manoeuvre to regulate the labour market and a possibility to make deviations from legislation through collective agreements. This unique model, together with the Swedish trade unions' pragmatic approach to restructuring, has created strong incentives for the social partners to jointly identify tailored and balanced solutions.
This is not to suggest that the Swedish model can be copied outright.
However, as both the OECD and the Commission have pointed out, there is much evidence to suggest that the involvement of social partners is important in equipping workers with skills for a changing labour market. But it’s not enough to involve the social partners, the social dialogue needs to be meaningful which requires political support and a strong mandate for collective bargaining.
Member States have a great responsibility, and the EU has an important supportive role in promoting skills. But to successfully meet new skills demands, there must also be room of manoeuvre for trade unions and employers to identify and agree on tailored and balanced solutions.
Let Europe Day and the launch of the European Year of Skills remind us of the importance of social dialogue in enabling both businesses and workers to benefit from the green and digital transitions.
Martin Linder is the President of Unionen, Sweden’s largest trade union on the private labour market and the largest white-collar union in the world