Collective bargaining in the age of demographic transition: regulating an ageing workforce in Italy and the Netherlands

Discussant: 

• Prof. Paolo Barbieri – Università degli Studi di Trento

Chair: 

• Britta Matthes - IAB  Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung

Abstract:

One of the consequences of the demographic transition is the sharp growth in the number of older workers, a group with specific needs, characteristics, and interests. Paradoxically, the industrial relations scholarship has paid limited attention to how collective bargaining represents the interests of an ageing workforce. This article addresses the gap by comparing how sectoral agreements in Italy and the Netherlands regulate work for those aged 55 and over. It first develops an analytical typology distinguishing five representation logics — defensive, transformative, symbolic, adaptive, and exit-oriented — then applies it through a content analysis of the most representative industry-wide agreements in each country. The results show that Dutch agreements contain far more clauses targeting older workers, and these are predominantly adaptive in character, while Italian bargaining remains largely symbolic. These findings are counterintuitive, since Italy faces more advanced workforce ageing and a higher share of older union members. The paper explains this difference through three theoretical lenses — Varieties of Capitalism, the Power Resource Approach, and ideational institutionalism — showing that the ideational dimension accounts for the observed divergence more than the other two