The ETUC carries out internal coordination of collective bargaining and wage policies, and supports the coordination of collective bargaining and wage negotiations in the sectoral federations.

The key criterion for wage claims is to offset inflation and ensure that workers’ incomes reflect productivity gains. Other principles include preserving collective bargaining rights, including the right to strike and the autonomy of social partners, and opposing forced decentralisation of collective bargaining.

Union wage policy also aims to close the gender pay gap, tackle gender inequalities and remove all forms of discrimination, through collective bargaining and industrial relations, and to combat sub-minimum wages for specific groups of the working population, for example young people.