When a collective agreement expires without a new one being concluded, for how long does the former agreement keep its effect, and on what terms may it be brought to an end?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we read the collective agreement for its term clause and for any separate agreement on what happens after expiry, then the bargaining records and correspondence showing whether both parties kept negotiating around the expiry date, and any notice of termination with the date it was given.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading follows the main sentence: where the parties on both sides continued collective bargaining around the time the term was expiring, aiming at a new collective agreement, and no new agreement was concluded, the former agreement keeps its effect for the period the provision sets from the date its effect would otherwise have ended, unless a separate agreement provides otherwise.
Another reading follows the proviso: where a separate agreement says the former agreement's effect continues until a new collective agreement is concluded, that agreement governs instead, and either party may terminate the former agreement by giving notice to the other before the period the provision sets before the day it intends to terminate.
Your judgment
If bargaining continued but reached deadlock, what in the file would show whether that amounts to the continued collective bargaining the provision describes?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the survival period, the separate-agreement route or the notice period, or if a court decision explains when bargaining counts as continued within the meaning of this provision.