European Industrial Relations Research Articles

‘You see similarities more than differences after a while’. Communities of Practice in European industrial relations. The case of the hospital European Sectoral Social Dialogue

AbstractThis article looks at the hospital European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC) through a Community of Practice (CoP) theoretical lens. Based on a 2‐year project, qualitative in‐depth interviews at the European level and in five Member states, and participant observation of the hospital SSDC, we propose a shift from traditional institutional and resource‐based accounts and provide a learning and knowledge‐focused understanding of this specific area of European industrial relations. Interpreting the SSDCs as a CoP sheds new light on the role of power relations, participation and informal activities among members and on how they work together; this, we find, can alert those interested in more effective functioning of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue on how to strengthen this supra‐national level of industrial relations.

Call for papers for a special issue of the EJIR: China’s influence on industrial relations in Europe and beyond

Call for papers for a special issue of the EJIR: China’s influence on industrial relations in Europe and beyond

Trajectories of liberalisation on the European industrial relations systems

The main hypothesis of this article is that labour liberalisation in the post-Fordist period has affected the three principal areas of collective bargaining coordination (coverage, dominance and control) in two different ways: by attacking the core (deregulation) and the margins (dualisation) of industrial relations. Due to differences in the institutional structures of European countries, these processes could have different effects in each country, resulting in differentiated and gradual path-dependent transformations. This hypothesis is tested by studying the institutional frameworks of industrial relations in several representative European economies: France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Finally, we conclude that there has been a substantial modification of the role, activity and weight of collective actors in the economic system of each country as a consequence of the effect of the different forms of liberalisation on the coordination of collective bargaining. As a corollary, a shift in European Union labour policies towards a further strengthening of collective bargaining spaces is needed to give social partners greater capacity to seek coordinated solutions to contemporary economic and social problems.

Book Review: Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s

Book Review: Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s

Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s. By Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 268p. $93.99 cloth, $29.99 paper.

Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s. By Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 268p. $93.99 cloth, $29.99 paper.

Dekompozycja stosunków przemysłowych w Europie jako preludium gospodarki 4.0

The article describes the features of the 4.0 economy which are linked to the so-called ‘cancer stage capitalism’, and which influence the directions of development of European industrial relations. This extensive research area has been reduced to those elements of transformations associated with the progress of the 4.0 economy that undermine or invalidate the existing ‘regimes’, developed so far in the framework of certain ‘matters’, including public affairs, industrial relations and social dialogue.

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

ABSTRACTThis 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.

Business Against Markets: Employer Resistance to Collective Bargaining Liberalization During the Eurozone Crisis

Employer organizations have been presented as strong promoters of the liberalization of industrial relations in Europe. This article, in contrast, argues that the preferences of employers vis-à-vis liberalization are heterogeneous and documents how employer organizations in Spain, Italy, and Portugal have resisted state-led reforms to liberalize collective bargaining during the Euro crisis. It shows that the dominance of small firms in the economies of these countries make employer organizations supportive of selective aspects of sectoral bargaining and state regulation. Encompassing sectoral bargaining is important for small firms for three reasons: it limits industrial conflict, reduces transaction costs related to wage-bargaining, and ensures that member firms are not undercut by rivals offering lower wages and employment conditions. Furthermore, the maintenance of sectoral bargaining and its extension to whole sectors by the state is a matter of survival for employer organizations. The article presents rationales for employer opposition to liberalization that differ from the varieties of capitalism approach.

The Neoliberal Convergence of European Industrial Relations: Economic Inevitability or Result of European Political Choices?

The central argument of Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell’s analysis of European industrial relations over the past four decades (with a statistical analysis of fifteen countries and detailed chapters on five) is that ‘employer discretion’ has increased everywhere, although this is evidenced more in some countries than in others. There can be little disagreement on this, nor with their using this general trend in their argument against the (now less strident) ‘varieties of capitalism’ denials of ‘convergence’ in employment relations. But the authors neglect the way capital manifests itself through the choices made by living capitalists and their managers. Nevertheless, they make an important contribution to understanding how far Western Europe’s capitalist classes and managers have, from the 1980s to the 2000s, acted in new political and industrial ways as a result of having embraced, or been taken over by, a ‘mass movement’ of managerialism in the US and Western Europe closely allied to the new free-market political right, and the much higher levels of interpenetration of US and Western European capital.

The Neoliberal Revolution in Industrial Relations

This essay provides an extended review of Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Baccaro and Howell's important book challenges Varieties of Capitalism and argues instead that a neoliberal convergence has taken place in European industrial relations. Across Europe, employers now have much more freedom to run their businesses and “manage” their employees than they had a few decades ago. I describe the class actors and pathways to neoliberal transformation that are at the core of this book. I also draw out its political implications. I suggest that this neoliberal revolution has had several effects, including the rise of the populist right. In addition, I discuss the problem ecological constraints pose for capitalist growth models.

Negotiated board-level employee representation in European Companies: Leverage for the institutional power of labour?

The European Company Directive anchored board-level employee representation in European law for the first time. Rules negotiated between management and worker representatives became the primary source for formulating and designing such representation as an institution of European industrial relations. However, I show that negotiated rules on board-level representation provide limited institutional leverage for European workers. I examine the fragmented and incomplete legal framework applicable, the diverse forms and patterns of negotiated rules and their potential and limitations for supporting workers’ power on boards.

Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell, Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s

Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell, <i>Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s</i>

After the Great Recession: Unions’ Views on Transnational Interests and Cooperation

The aim is to describe and explain the similarities and differences between European trade unions concerning their views on transnational union interests and cooperation in the wake of the Great Recession. We do this by analyzing 221 responses from a European-wide web/postal survey distributed in 2015–2016 to union officials representing staff in employment sectors such as transport, metal and mining, construction, health care, and banking and finance. We find only limited sectoral differences, despite the varied impact of the Great Recession. The main findings are that unions in crisis-ridden southern European countries express a stronger orientation toward transnational union interests and cooperation. Unions in the northern and western European center express a weaker transnational orientation, in line with a renationalization strategy typically expressed in the form of national competitive corporative arrangements. This shows the importance of different institutional resources for unions across the various European industrial relations regimes.

The establishing of a European industrial relations system

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine European Union (EU) industrial relations in their development over time. It describes and analyzes their main constituent parts, which are deployed along four interlinked institutional dimensions: tripartite concertation; cross-industry social dialogue; sectoral social dialogue; and employee representation and negotiation at the transnational company level. The focus lies strictly on the emerging EU layer of industrial relations, which is common to the different Member States and not on comparative European industrial relations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual in nature. It considers the differences and mutually interdependent legal and political processes, policies and institutions between EU industrial relations and national industrial relations.FindingsThe findings substantiate that EU industrial relations constitute an incomplete but perfectly traceable transnational reality distinct from industrial relations in the Member States. EU industrial relations are not to supersede but to supplement national industrial relations. Neither the EU institutional framework nor the European social partners have the mandate, legitimation or desire to perform a more ambitious role.Research limitations/implicationsMore empirically oriented research would further support the findings in the paper.Originality/valueThe paper presents a conceptual review based on a comprehensive and critical reading of the literature on EU industrial relations. It also puts labor strategies at the forefront of the analysis in corporate relocation.

What future for industrial relations in Europe?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to perform a systematic cross-country comparison of key features of industrial relations in Europe in a context where consolidated post-war institutions are under attack on many fronts. The author discusses a number of key similarities and differences across the countries of Europe, and end by considering whether progressive alternatives still exist.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws upon academic literature and compares the contributions to this special issue in the light of common problems and challenges.FindingsThe trend towards the erosion of nationally based employment protection and collective bargaining institutions is widely confirmed. In most of Central and Eastern Europe, where systems of organised industrial relations were at best only partially established after the collapse of the Soviet regime, the scope for unilateral dominance by (in particular foreign-owned) employers has been further enlarged. It is also clear that the European Union, far from acting as a force for harmonisation of regulatory standards and a strengthening of the “social dimension” of employment regulation, is encouraging the erosion of nationally based employment protections and provoking a growing divergence of outcomes. However, the trends are contradictory and uneven.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to an updated cross-country comparative analysis of the ongoing transformations in European industrial relations and discusses still existing progressive alternatives.

A problem of embeddedness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a general micro-theoretical framework that helps to understand the embeddedness of trade unions within the European system of industrial relations, and the consequences of this embeddedness for industrial relations outcomes. First, starting from the paradoxical observation of a trend towards homogeneity within a complex, multi-layered European industrial relations system consisting of heterogeneous and autonomous agents, the paper aims to explicate the mechanisms which produce these similarities. Second, the paper seeks to analyse potential mechanisms for transnational trade union cooperation and, third, it concludes by outlining its applicability as the basis for methodological approaches which enable realistic and policy relevant analyses.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is conceptual and focusses on the development of a general micro-theoretical framework which captures European industrial relations actors’ behaviour and outcomes. It integrates theoretical and empirical accounts from differing social science disciplines and from various methodological starting points on trade union action and interaction into one general micro-theoretical framework.FindingsStarting from a typology of trade union goals, the authors show how various social mechanisms lead to interdependencies between trade unions and review empirical evidence for their consequences. The authors, then, identify a set of motives for transnational cooperation that would allow outcomes that are in line with trade union objectives.Originality/valueAgainst the background that previous studies on trade union action and cross-national interaction have paid less attention to the puzzling stylised fact that industrial relations outcomes are mimicked by heterogeneous and autonomous agents actors in different countries, the authors address this research gap by developing a novel general micro-theoretical framework for the analysis of transnational trade union action and interaction in order to better understand the underlying causal mechanisms for the common behaviour and outcomes of autonomous actors.

Economic Integration and State Responses: Change in European Industrial Relations since Maastricht

AbstractThe article analyses industrial relations change in the six largest EU countries since 1992 in relation to increased internationalization pressures. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis, it distinguishes between associational and state governance, and detects that despite a predominant, but not universal, trend of weakening trade unions and collective bargaining, no overall liberalization has occurred in the political regulation of employment (employment policies, welfare state, labour law, state support to collective bargaining, public sector). Rather than converging towards neoliberalism, industrial relations emerge as more politically contingent and dependent on multiple forms of power, which are affected by internationalization in different ways.

Book Review: Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell

Book Review: <i>Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s</i> by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell

Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell

Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell

100 years of Whitleyism: a comparative overview of a century of public service industrial relations in Europe and the US

100 years of Whitleyism: a comparative overview of a century of public service industrial relations in Europe and the US