IndustriAll European Trade Union and COTANCE, the association representing the European leather industry, have embarked on an EU-sponsored project that will allow them to examine and compare collective agreements concluded at national level in the leather sector.

With their new project, ERICA (European Repository of the Industry’s Collective Agreements), the social partners will create an online database to gather the national collective agreements of the European leather sector. The database will be open to the project partners and will facilitate a comparative analysis of key elements that are agreed on by the social partners.

In addition to the repository of collective agreements, the social partners are planning to organise national social dialogue workshops. These workshops will give both sides of industry the opportunity to discuss pivotal topics concerning national collective bargaining at European level, thereby providing an opportunity for learning and spreading best practice.

The kick-off meeting for the project took place on 2nd February 2021 and will last 15 months, until April 2022. The project has been developed by national affiliates from 7 Member States: ACEXPIEL (Spain), AHLI (Hungary), APIC (Portugal), FFTM (France), SG (Sweden), UNIC- Concerie Italiane (Italy), VDL (Germany) and with Leather UK (UK) as an observer.

A final event will be organised at the end of the project to present the online database and the findings of the national discussions to the industry’s stakeholders.

The first meeting of the Steering Committee is scheduled for later on in February.

This project is funded by the European Commission (DG Employment budget line ‘Industrial relations and social dialogue’, Project reference VS/2021/0013)

Contact: Andrea Husen-Bradley (press and communication), Patrizia Pitronaci (policy adviser)