What does collective bargaining coverage mean in disclosure B10 of the European Union (EU) voluntary standard for small companies (VSME)?
It counts employees to whom you must apply a collective bargaining agreement, whether or not they belong to a union. It is not the share of staff in a union or works council. If none are covered, the figure is zero. VSME is the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group's Voluntary standard for non-listed micro-, small- and medium-sized undertakings.
The question in plain words
A collective bargaining agreement is a written deal on pay and terms between an employer, or employers, and workers' representatives. Think of a price list that applies to a whole shop floor, not to each worker's own deal.
The standard says the employees covered are those to whom you are obliged to apply the agreement. An employee under more than one agreement counts once.
What it is not
The standard says this is not aimed at the percentage of employees represented by a works council or belonging to a trade union, which can be different. Coverage can be higher than union membership when an agreement applies to union and non-union members alike.
The formula and the bands
- Employees covered by collective bargaining agreements / number of employees x 100.
- If no employees are covered, the percentage is zero.
- The standard lets you give coverage as a band: 0 to 19%, 20 to 39%, 40 to 59%, 60 to 79% or 80 to 100%.
Records that answer it
The signed settlement or wage agreement and the list of workers it applies to. Our reading: a settlement signed with a union that applies to all workers in a plant counts for all of them, but check the agreement's own scope. If you have none, write zero.
Example: one settlement
- Employees: 120. A wage settlement applies to 30 workers
- Coverage: 30 / 120 x 100 = 25%, which sits in the 20 to 39% band
- Union members: 18. Not used in this figure
Numbers are an example.
What Senseible does here
Senseible fills the energy and emissions disclosure from fuel invoices and electricity bills. This disclosure is not part of it today; it comes from your own registers and papers.
- What is the VSME standard?
- Pay gap line for firms under 150 employees
- Headcount or full-time equivalent employees
Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Facts are from the standard's own text, with the paragraph numbers named in the source line. The European Commission adopted its own standard for voluntary use in a Delegated Regulation of 3 July 2026, which is not in force until it is published in the Official Journal and may differ from this text, so ask your buyer which one it means. Our own readings are marked as such.