European industrial relations in 1999: chronicle of events

This article chronicles industrial relations developments throughout the European Union (EU) during 1999. The information is gleaned from articles published by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). The text therefore contains numerical references to records contained in the EIRO database in order to allow the reader easy access to the relevant records. The article is divided into five sections. The first contains an overview of political, economic and legislative events at EU‐level, the second looks at EU‐level developments in employee representation, the third looks at the impact of European economic and monetary union (EMU) on industrial relations and collective bargaining and the fourth and fifth give a more detailed country‐by‐country analysis of main trends in key industrial relations areas—collective bargaining and industrial action; and employment creation, working time and new forms of work.     

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.     

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.     

The transformation of the German vocational training regime: evidence from firms’ training behaviour

The German system of industrial relations has undergone significant changes in the last decade. This article reflects on and provides empirical evidence for how these changes have affected the training behaviour of firms. Conventional perspectives would predict a general decline in training investment when the constraints of collective wage bargaining are loosened. Relying on a large data set on the costs and benefits of apprenticeship training for the years 2000 and 2007, we do find evidence for this hypothesis but would add that the strength of the effect varies strongly across different types of firms. Large firms have benefited much more from participating in training than have small firms and have therefore maintained their investment in training because they are able to reduce net costs by expanding the productive contributions of apprentices. This finding may help to explain the apparent resilience of the German training system in the recent economic and financial crisis.     

The advent of pattern bargaining in Irish industrial relations

Drawing on the international literature on pattern bargaining in Europe and other countries, the article examines the recent advent of pattern bargaining in Irish industrial relations. Qualitative and quantitative data are deployed to explore the genesis, features, institutional and economic context and future of pattern bargaining in Ireland.     

Wage claims in the British private sector: 1979–2003

Wage claims have been an important feature of British industrial relations during the postwar period. They help set the boundaries within which wage negotiations take place and provide an insight into the conduct of negotiations, especially during periods of change in industrial relations. Despite this, claims remain an underinvestigated area. This article provides a unique investigation of the dimensions of wage claims over a period of free collective bargaining. The number of wage claims declined along with unionisation but, over a period of economic turbulence, the conduct of British wage setting began to change. We examine data on claims and investigate the influences on changes in those claims over time. We find that external factors (inflation, unemployment and legislative control of unions) were more prominent in shaping the development of claims than changes in the composition of groups who continued to post claims.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Shaping the bargaining agenda. The Audit Commission and public service reform in British local government

This article examines the role of the Audit Commission (AC) in local government collective bargaining. While the AC has no official role in such bargaining, it has a role in monitoring the performance of local government services. In this role the AC has a clear potential, in the context of the government's ‘modernization’ agenda – as manifested in its ‘Best Value’ regime, for influencing both the content of collective agreements, and the process of collective bargaining, where these are seen to conflict with other Best Value objectives – particularly in relation to external competition. The research conducted involved a content analysis of AC inspection reports on human resource services and longitudinal case studies of two local authority union branches' experiences of Best Value and the role of the AC. The findings from the inspection reports indicate that, while the AC is actually acting to promote activities that could be seen as supportive of union bargaining agendas, notably in relation to equality type issues, they are also supporting service externalisation and thereby acting to limit the scope of their impact. The reports also indicate that, despite there being prescribed ‘best practice’ for local government employment relations (‘social partnership’ with unions), the AC is not promoting any such engagement with unions. Evidence from the case studies add weight to these observations: the AC, in one case, was deeply suspicious of an attempted union management agreement on procurement, while in the other, the AC made no criticism of the costly effects that externalization had on union-management relations.     

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     

Decentralised bargaining of working time in the German automotive industry

The article addresses the question whether or not the trend towards the decentralisation of collective bargaining on working time in Germany entails a loss in the binding power of industry‐level agreements. To this end, both working‐time agreements and practices are examined at the firm or establishment level in the automotive industry. Additionally, the article examines the extent to which workplace micro‐level changes are reflected in official statistics. The findings indicate that unions and works councils have taken on new roles preventing a widespread erosion of collective regulations.     

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.     

Recent trends in collective bargaining in Nigeria

During the 1970s Nigerian industrial relations moved away from the voluntarist tradition into much greater formalisation of processes and practices. This article describes the present structure and scope of collective bargaining in Nigeria in the light of this development.     

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.     

Ownership,corporate governance and industrial relations in the banking and telecommunications sectors: the case of Greece

The article examines how changes in ownership and corporate governance have affected industrial relations systems by drawing on the recent experience of Greece in two sectors: banking and telecommunications. The findings show that despite the seeming institutional stability in industrial relations arrangements, substantive change has taken place in the aforementioned sectors, which has resulted in the decentralisation of bargaining procedures.     

Pursuing centralised bargaining in an era of decentralisation? A progressive union goal in Korea from a comparative perspective

During the last decade, progressive Korean unions have attempted to transform the organisation and bargaining of enterprise unionism into an industrial unionism. This vitalised development in collective bargaining contrasts with trends prevailing in many advanced nations. This paper, on the basis of case studies, examines factors shaping bargaining structures in the context of Korean industrial relations. A theoretical framework regarding factors shaping bargaining structures, one formed in comparative industrial relations studies of advanced nations, proves useful in examining the subject. This finding implies that the attempt of progressive unions will face formidable obstacles.     

‘Unbound’ employers' associations and derogations: erosion and renewal of collective bargaining in the German metalworking industry

Declining union density, the reduction in coverage or informal derogations from collective agreements are signs of erosion of the corporatist German system of collective bargaining. However, new developments can be observed like ‘unbound’ employers' associations or derogations from collective agreements. These new developments make it necessary to reassess the prospects of collective bargaining. At the first sight they seem to be little more than indicators of erosion or exhaustion, but the in‐depth analysis reveals that these developments can be starting points of renewal because they give stimuli to increase the associational power of employers' associations and, even more important for collective bargaining, unions. As a result, however, collective bargaining will become less corporatist in style.     

The under-utilization of human resources in industrial relations theory and practice

Industrial relations, as a theoretical and practical system of work arrangements between employees, unions, management and governments, have come under substantial pressure in recent decades, but neither theory nor practice has fully adjusted to the new circumstances. The article describes the changing conditions in relation to one aspect of the industrial relations (IR) system, namely influence and power sharing outside the sphere of collective bargaining. The analysis is based on two theoretical models derived from an accumulation of social science research evidence since the 1960s and further supported by recent comparative studies of countries with significant different IR philosophies.

The application of the human resources and motivated competence models to IR leads to the conclusion that long-term interests of employees and management as well as governments are best served by having a dual system of influence and power sharing, only one of which is adversarial.     

Understanding continuity in public sector HRM through neo‐institutional theory: why national collective bargaining has survived in English local government

Most HRM research over recent decades has concentrated on ‘change’, charting ever more fragmented, individualised and unitarist employment relationships. This is equally true of public sector HRM, where the emphasis has been on neo‐liberalism and marketisation. However, in many countries and sectors, collective, pluralist approaches to HRM and industrial relations have proved remarkably resilient. This article uses Neo‐Institutional theory to explain the ‘continuity’ of one such HRM system: national collective bargaining in English local government (1979–2007). We argue that this survives because it manages the political and managerial processes that link central government and central–local relations and acts as a conduit between institutional stakeholders to deliver services to the public. By understanding the ‘passive consensus’ that holds the collectivist HRM system together, we can anticipate the forces that might pull it apart.