More voice after more exit? Unstable industrial relations in Central Eastern Europe

The article examines the industrial relations developments in the post‐communist countries that entered the EU in 2004. Rather than introducing the ‘European Social Model’, EU accession has led to some social tensions, in spite of relatively strong economic growth, because of deregulation, European Monetary Union conditions and the enduring need to compete for foreign investment. EU institutional promotion of social dialogue through the Directive on Information and Consultation of Workers, sector social dialogue committees and the European Employment Strategy has only had limited effects in increasing the ‘voice’ of employees in employment relations. National‐level social dialogue has produced poor results and has even been weakened in Slovenia (where it was originally strong) and, initially, in Slovakia. The lack of ‘voice’ for employees has led to increased ‘exit’ through political populism/abstention and migration. A double paradox emerges. Pro‐labour policies are being developed not by the EU, but rather by its opposite, Euro‐sceptical governments (in Poland and Slovakia), while in the workplaces, employers are forced to concessions not by their employees, but by those who leave and cause labour shortages. However, there is also some evidence of a resurgent ‘voice’ from below, through strikes, organising campaigns, informal collective protests and collective bargaining innovations. Drawing on both theory and history of industrial relations, it is concluded that some preconditions for more stable social compromises including more ‘voice’ are emerging.     

Organised decentralisation,uneven outcomes: employment relations in the Italian public health sector

This article looks at the difficulties of adapting a very centralised employment relations system in a country characterised by a deep regional economic divide. In particular, by looking at the Italian public health sector, it is contended that organised decentralisation of employment relations implemented against wide regional differences led to uneven outcomes in second‐level (organisation) collective bargaining.     

Collective bargaining in Portugal in the aftermath of the crisis: trends and prospects

This article examines the decline of collective bargaining in Portugal during the recent economic crisis and why, following significant improvements in the economic and political contexts, the number of collective agreements published each year remains lower than before. Drawing on theoretical work on institutional change by Streeck and Thelen (2005) and Baccaro and Howell (2017), it argues that industrial relations institutions in Portugal have been subject to an incremental but transformative process of liberalisation. The analysis of national data and in‐depth interviews with key informants reveals that serial legal amendments since the 1990's weakened unions, converted bargaining into a mechanism to introduce flexibility and wage austerity and reduced incentives for the parties to conclude agreements. While these changes were gradual, their consequences became clear during the crisis. By improving understanding of recent developments in Portuguese collective bargaining, the article enriches knowledge of processes of liberalisation of industrial relations in Europe.     

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This article notes some patterns of diversity as well as some moves towards harmonization of industrial relations arrangements and that there are certain parallel trends in European countries. It examines developments affecting unions, employers and the state as well as the changing approaches to collective bargaining. It goes on to discuss the increasing impact of the European Union (formerly European Community) and it concludes that, rather than finding much convergence, there are continuing and significant differences between European countries.     

Change in contemporary Italy's social concertation

This article examines the crisis of social concertation in Italy since 2000. We argue that this crisis is not due exclusively to the political shift from a centre‐left to a centre‐right government led by Silvio Berlusconi, or the end of the European integration phase. It reflects the continued failure of Italian social concertation to address problems of economic growth and work productivity was apparent by the second half of the 1990s. We argue that this is due mainly to the stagnation of the decentralisation process at the company and territorial levels and, in particular, the limited development of second‐level collective bargaining introduced by the 1993 July Ciampi Protocol. This reflects a weakness in the Italian institutional context as well as the difficulties associated with the altering of industrial relations in global market economies more generally. The prospects for the future of concertative policy making in the Italian context are also discussed.     

Britain in a social Europe: industrial relations and 1992

This article suggests that European Community social policy is now moving into a third stage that is having an increasing impact on the UK. However, continuing differences in European labour markets, collective bargaining and trade union organisation make it impossible to identify a common European pattern of industrial relations     

Coordinated employer bargaining and globalisation: a study of the men's clothing industry in Quebec, 1974–2012

This article looks at the political economy of employer coordination of collective bargaining in the clothing or apparel manufacturing industry in Canada over three phases of globalisation: from the Multi‐Fiber Agreement in 1974 to the impact of the entry of China in the WTO. Although prevailing accounts emphasise the force of exogenous change and the likely decentralisation of bargaining structures and demise of bargaining coordination by employers, this case highlights how unions and employers sought to preserve their institutional model. We find that actor strategies and their interrelations are a central part of the explanation of this apparent institutional stability, despite the real force of economic, organisational and public policy factors. However, it is a dynamic stability in which change processes, reflecting shifting power relations, are leading to important shifts in the nature of employer coordination.     

Privatisation,trade union strength and bargaining power in Nigeria's finance and petroleum sectors

This article compares the consequences of privatisation for collective bargaining, trade union membership size and bargaining power within two economic sectors. The results indicate that privatisation has significant impact on industrial relations, and that this impact is mediated by other factors, with variations within and between sectors.     

Trade unions,collective bargaining and macroeconomic performance: a review

Coordination through collective bargaining is recognised as an influential determinant of labour market outcomes and macroeconomic performance. This article provides a systematic review of the empirical literature on the subject. What emerges from the review is that it is different types and coverage of bargaining coordination, rather than cross‐country variation in trade union density, that matter for economic performance. High levels of bargaining coverage tend to be associated with relatively poor economic performance, but this adverse relationship can be at least mitigated by high levels of bargaining coordination. In the absence of formal bargaining arrangements, economies often develop informal bargaining mechanisms whose effects are similar to those arising from formal bargaining provided they both operate at similar levels of coordination. The consequences of labour market coordination or absence thereof depend on the monetary policy regime as non‐accommodating monetary policy can eliminate some of the adverse unemployment consequences otherwise associated with industry‐level collective bargaining. Finally, bargaining coordination seems to matter most in times of rapid economic change rather than under more stable conditions. Overall, we conclude that it is the total ‘package’ of (formal and informal) labour market institutions that matters for the performance of the economy rather than unionisation as such or individual aspects of unionism.     

The collective bargaining of flexicurity: A case for sector‐level analysis? The Italian chemical and metalworking sectors compared

Although employment relations in Europe have long been seen as a factor of rigidity, limiting managerial discretion and adaptability, in the last 30 years, they have witnessed a trend towards decentralisation of collective bargaining and negotiations increasingly centred on flexibility–security trade‐offs between employers and employees. Research on the contribution of collective bargaining to the so‐called flexicurity has mostly focused on national‐level institutional arrangements. In this article, we contend that meso‐level differences need to feature more prominently in the debate. Our comparison of two sectors in the same country (chemicals and metalworking in Italy) shows that decentralisation has divergent effects on flexicurity issues depending in particular on differences in market structures and on depth of bargaining. The interplay between these two factors affects what we refer to as procedural security, which we view as important in ensuring sustainable trade‐offs between flexibility and security.     

The determinants of pay settlements: the influence of the national context

This article studies the influence of national context and collective bargaining on the factors taken into account when adjusting wages. Using data from Spanish and British manufacturing establishments, we examine the relative importance of the cost of living, the ability to recruit or retain employees, the financial performance of the organisation and the industrial relations climate on wage adjustments of manual workers at the establishment level. Our findings show that there are significant differences on the importance given to these factors in both countries. In part, these are related to differences in the incidence of collective bargaining.     

Towards more disorganised decentralisation? Collective bargaining in the public sector under pay restraint

While sector‐level collective bargaining can provide the institutional leverage to sustain and improve employment standards, a proliferation of disorganised local settlements may reduce its effectiveness. This article examines this proposition for local government in the UK, highlights the risks of a ‘destructive’ disorganisation of employment relations and calls for a renewal of articulation mechanisms between sector and local levels of collective bargaining.     

Flexible collective bargaining agreements: Still a moderating effect on works council behaviour?

We analyse the interaction between different labour market institutions in Germany, namely, industry‐level bargaining and firm‐level codetermination by works councils. In particular, we are interested in the moderating effect of flexibility measures on the link between the existence works councils and collective agreements on wages and productivity. In presence of institutional changes, the question is whether works councils in covered plants still generate rather than redistribute rents, given recent decentralisation processes in the German system of industrial relations. We augment a theoretical model to provide hypotheses, which are then tested using empirical analysis of representative German plant level data. We find that the existence of flexibility provisions in collective bargaining agreements does not alter the effect of works council on firms' wages. We find, however, that with flexibility provisions works council presence is associated with higher productivity levels than without such provisions. These findings, however, depend on the level of collective bargaining: they can only be observed in plants covered by industry‐level contracts, but do not hold in plants covered by firm‐level contracts.     

Intra‐European labour migration and low‐wage competition—comparing the Danish and Swedish experiences across three sectors

The article compares how low‐wage competition and labour migration from EU11 Member States affect industrial relations and working conditions for natives and migrants in three sectors (transport, cleaning and agriculture) in Denmark and Sweden. The analysis shows how already vulnerable sectors with below‐average union density and collective agreements—especially geographical dispersed sectors—are strongly affected.     

The rise of professional unions in Germany. Challenge and threat for established industrial relations?

The author analyses the rise of professional unions, one of the most remarkable developments in German labour movement since the early 2000s. By means of strikes, they managed to get officially accepted as autonomous partners for collective bargaining. The author asks whether their emergence challenges or even threats the established systems of industrial relations.     

Fading attraction: Turkey's shifting relationship with the European Union

In this paper, we examine Turkey's changing economic relations with the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world during the past few decades. We argue that a combination of the EU's reluctance to accept Turkey as a member, internal economic and political developments, and the rise of economic and political opportunities elsewhere have shifted the country to diversify its economic relations around the world and reduced its reliance on the ties with Europe. This shift, which had started long before the 2008 global financial crisis and accelerated in its aftermath, seems to have helped Turkey weather relatively well the recent economic storms in Europe.     

Employer organisations transformed

Employer organisations and the literature examining them have transformed since their inception in the 19th century. We systematically review this literature and the evolving role of employer organisations by focusing on the most cited publications of this body of academic work. This article provides a synopsis of our current understanding of employer organisations, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and develops the following argument. Employer organisations adapted to changing socio‐economic contexts by evolving within and across three roles—as industrial relations actor, political actor, and service provider. Historically, employer organisations were predominantly understood as an industrial relations actor with collective bargaining as their defining activity. However, employer organisations also influenced the political process through lobbying and participating in corporatist arrangements, although more recently their provision of member services has grown in scope and importance.     

Learning from past mistakes? recent reforms in Italian industrial relations

Since the early 1990s, major reform efforts aimed at reducing industrial conflict, rationalising public sector labour relations, restructuring collective bargaining arrangements, and re-establishing tripartite ‘con-certation’ have transformed Italian industrial relations. This article argues that because these new reforms have been accompanied by significant shifts in both Italy's political system and the unions’ own organisation, they stand a better chance of succeeding than previous reform projects.     

Liberalising the German model: institutional change,organisational restructuring and workplace effects

Institutional change at supranational, European Union level affects national and firm level institutions in various ways. This article traces effects of liberalisation measures in the airport industry enacted in two airport firms in Germany. The study, based on qualitative empirical research, found that EU liberalisation facilitated company creation of subsidiaries (subsidiarisation) and elevated shareholder interest in corporate governance. These factors affected institutional practices and cultural norms within the German industrial context that in turn influenced significant alterations in employment and workplace relations. Considerable disruption of the German social partnership model of corporate governance and industrial relations was observed. However, in addition to patterns of convergence towards neoliberal practices and outcomes frequently observed in Anglo‐Saxon systems, the study found some elements of effective retention of cultural institutional resources of the German model. Both ‘path departure’ and social embeddedness appear to coexist.     

What has been happening to collective bargaining under New Labour? Interpreting WERS 2004

The late 20th century saw the rapid decline of collective bargaining, which had hitherto been the dominant means of regulation of employment in Britain. The article uses a comparison of the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys for 1998 and 2004 to assess how far this changed during the later period of economic growth and sympathetic labour legislation. Contrary to expectations, the data show that collective bargaining coverage has continued to fall, although much of this decline is concentrated in small firms in the private sector. The article goes on to analyse the recent change at sectoral level and examines evidence on the extent to which the character, as well as the extent, of collective bargaining had changed. The locus of management decision making has continued to move down organisations, both where collective bargaining occurs and also where unions are absent. Finally, the article evaluates how the perceptions of those involved in the bargaining process have shifted at a time of greatly diminished trade union influence.