National Industrial Relations Systems Research Articles

Recasting Greek Industrial Relations: Internal Devaluation in Light of the Economic Crisis and European Integration

In the current financial and debt crisis, the joint EC-ECB-IMF Programmes for Greece directly impact on national industrial relations. They are an in vivo feasibility test for a process of internal devaluation in the Eurozone. They test attitudes towards the EU response to the crisis through European Union (EU)/ International Monetary Fund (IMF)-sanctioned deregulation of employment and collective bargaining rights at national level. This paper analyses how the joint EC-ECB-IMF Programmes for Greece recast the system towards highly decentralized collective bargaining, in what may initially appear to be 'a unique and exceptional' case. The paper examines how the radical changes introduced by the joint EC-ECB-IMF Programmes for Greece since 2010, that find their legal basis in the Excessive Deficit Procedures of the Treaty, denote future directions of European integration for national systems of industrial relations under the Euro Plus Pact (EPP). An assessment is made of the impact of European integration on national industrial relations, considering whether the long and painful process of internal devaluation in Greece will reshape societal attitudes towards the EU and the Eurozone, resulting in profound Euroscepticism.

Sectoral social dialogue at EU level - recent results and implementation challenges

This article deals with recent developments in EU social dialogue, namely so-called ‘new generation texts’, which are non-binding legally, but ‘implementation-oriented’. Aspects of their follow-up, implementation and multi-level characteristics are therefore discussed. Findings from two sectoral dialogues indicate that follow-up procedures can vary considerably. Furthermore, the implementation or impact of such ‘new generation texts’ seem hard to prove. It is argued that characteristics of national industrial relations systems are insufficient to explain implementation results, since both the interests and attitudes of the actors involved and the specific topic of a given ‘new generation text’ must be taken into account. The main difficulty is found to be the lack of adequate implementation structures due to missing inter- and intraorganizational ‘level linkage’.

Dissonant cognitions in European works councils: A ‘comparative ethnomethodological’ approach

Drawing from case study research conducted at a UK-based European works council, this article explores the dynamics of cross-national labour relations using a theoretical framework that the author calls ‘comparative ethnomethodology’. The merging of qualitatively distinct national industrial relations systems into one geographical space is identified as a key social psychological obstacle to labour internationalism. When brought together in a transnational context, workers’ representatives frequently suffer from ‘dissonant cognitions’ in consequence of the absence of commonly constituted ‘background assumptions’. This dynamic is exemplified by the interpersonal relations between the British and Dutch delegations in the case study European works council.The study has implications with respect to the debates on the problems, prospects and possibilities of labour internationalism.

Employer and Employer Association Matters in 2009

For employers 2009 was a year of major regulatory change in industrial relations, requiring them to position themselves in response to these changes. The first part of the Fair Work Act commenced on 1 July and details of the modern awards continued to be released throughout the year. The drive towards a unified national industrial relations system was consolidated legislatively; amendments to the building industry inspectorate’s powers were debated but not concluded; a promise to introduce paid parental leave was put on the table; and regulatory changes occurred in relation to the 457 visa programme, employee share schemes and executive remuneration. These changes were occurring in the context of the global financial crisis, which itself required employers to determine appropriate strategic actions to reduce labour costs and yet retain their workforce for the future. Not surprisingly, concerns about labour shortages abated although there was ongoing recognition that long term labour supply issues were still very real.

Reflexive law and the reformulation of EC-level employee consultation norms in the British systems of labour law and industrial relations

The 2002/14/EC Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community allowed considerable flexibility in transposition and implementation. Viewing – in line with reflexive law theory – the Directive as a key tool in allowing EC law to become embedded in the national legal and industrial relations systems, the paper assesses its transposition and impact in Britain. The very flexibility of the Directive made it possible for the British social systems to respond in an innovative way to the changing forms of employee representation. But the relative weakness of the regulatory design of the transposing legislation with regard to the nature of the legal obligations, the enforcement mechanism and the degree to which legal resources could be utilised by trade unions constrained the re-configuration of labour law and its coupling to employee representation arrangements traditionally associated with the British industrial relations system.

The Effect of Globalization, Labor Fexibilization and National Industrial Relations Systems on Human Resource Management

This paper analyzes how changes to the global organization of capitalism have accompanied and intensified globalization as well as have affected the regulation of labor and employment relationship. One of the most significant of these changes has been the dramatic increase in the rate of cross-border merger and acquisition activity. Of equal significance, especially for the regulation of labor and the employment relationship, has been the pronounced tendency of global enterprises to transform themselves into coordinators and organizers of activities performed for them by contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers. Outsourcing and sub­contracting have allowed global enterprises to reduce and externalize the costs incurred from the direct employment of labor. This reorganization of the operations of global corporations has been greatly facilitated by the removal of barriers to trade and the global movement of capital, and labor market deregulation. Labor market deregulation has largely been brought about by the emasculation of national Industrial Relations Systems (IRSs) in developed and developing nations alike. As national IRSs have been emasculated, so has the regulation of labor and the employment relationship increasingly been internalized in the firm by the use of Human Resource Management (HRM).

Working at the interface: call-centre labour in a global economy

Introducing this volume, this paper describes the contradictory nature of many aspects of call-centre work, drawing on the results of the EC-funded STILE project to demonstrate the difficulties of classifying call-centre workers. The lack of a clear objective ‘place’ in the technical division of labour and the social order for this transient and poorly-defined workforce is mirrored by a subjective failure, on the part of call-centre workers, to identify themselves as such. This makes it difficult to develop stable collective occupational identities that could form a basis for organisation and representation. Such conflicts are exacerbated by call-centre workers' position ‘at the interface’ between companies and their customers and between the local and the global. Many are also having to deal with the difficult transition from other types of work to call-centre work as the process of ‘callcenterisation’ sweeps through the public sector as well as private companies. The paper concludes by noting that, despite many similarities between call centres across the globe, national industrial relations systems and other aspects of particular locations still make a significant difference to the working conditions of call-centre workers.

Pragmatism, Principles and Policy: Federalism and Industrial Relations Regulation in Australia

Traditionally, industrial relations in Australia have been governed by a dual system of federal and State regulation. In recent decades there have been two attempts to create a single national system of industrial relations regulation. In 1973, the Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) government proposed two constitutional alteration referendum questions to give the federal parliament plenary law making powers over `prices' and `incomes', and consequently industrial relations. In 2005, the Howard (Liberal—National parties coalition) government used the existing constitutional law making powers of the federal parliament, the corporations power, to widen the coverage of the federal industrial relations system with the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 (Cth) to capture about 85 percent of Australian employees. This article compares and contrasts these two efforts to create a national industrial relations system. The analysis shows that both efforts illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of federalism generally and suggests the political nature of industrial relations policy in Australia remain regardless of the regulatory jurisdiction.

Deploying the Classic ‘Community Method’ in the Social Policy Field: The Example of the Acquired Rights Directive

AbstractThe use of the Community method of legislation, in particular the deployment of directives, has for a long time been at the core of EC labour market policy. This article seeks to reflect on the lessons to be learned from the experience of the adoption and operation of one particularly significant directive, namely the Acquired Rights Directive, and on the experience of its transposition in one Member State, Ireland. Among features noted at the EU level are the watering down of the Commission's initial legislative ambitions; the substantial lacunae, failures to address issues and ambiguities incorporated in the text of the directive, the consequent enlarged role for the Court of Justice and the apparent difficulty in changing policy direction in the event of errors being made. As regards the Irish experience of transposing the directive, lessons learnt have included the importance of the means of implementation chosen by the Member State; the obstructive effect which national industrial relations systems may have on the evolution of a common European approach; the significance which attaches to national sanctions and enforcement mechanisms; the importance attaching to the degree of collective organisation in workplaces where the implementing legislation is sought to be relied upon; and the potential which the implementation of a directive has for disruption of the harmony of a national policy approach. Finally, the use of a form of social dialogue in the implementation of employment‐related directives in Ireland is also commented upon.

European Sectoral Social Dialogue: An Analytical Framework

The European sectoral social dialogue involves complex relationships between the players directly or indirectly involved, and between the European level and the member organizations in national industrial relations systems. This article proposes a synthetic analytical framework to highlight these relationships, showing that the sectoral social dialogue constitutes a very specific `system of action'.

Transnational Company Industrial Relations: The Role of European Works Councils and the Implications for International Human Resource Management

The general study of institutional arrangements that are designed to impact on managerial prerogatives is typically cast in the genre of forms of industrial democracy. While the last few decades have seen a decline in interest in this area of study, developments in the European Union have enabled an ongoing dialogue specifically on the topic of consultation. Although consultation is generally seen by scholars as a modest form of industrial democracy, formal European Directives have provided the opportunity to assess the representative strength or otherwise of initiatives such as European Works Councils that are explicitly designed to address social policy and inequality in the workplace. Drawing on 41 case studies, we examine the determinants of European Works Councils morphology, activities undertaken and general outcomes. We note that it is important to presumptively inquire as to what is being theorized rather than simply take the implicit position that European Works Councils are the prime institution of influence. This leads us to establish the primacy of management and in particular, the vector of management decision-making as the primary independent variable that predicts much about the operation and robustness of European Works Councils. Accordingly, we find that strong centralized management, rather than the usual suspects of differing national industrial relations systems and cultural differences, typically account for much of what we understand in terms of the role that European Works Councils play.

Transnational Governance of Workers’ Rights: Outlining a Research Agenda

In twentieth century Europe and the USA, industrial relations, labour, and workers’ rights issues have been handled through collective bargaining and industrial agreements between firms and unions, with varying degrees of government intervention from country to country. This industrial relations landscape is currently undergoing fundamental change with the emergence of transnational industrial relations systems that complement existing national industrial relations systems. Despite the significance of this ongoing change, existing research has only started to explore the implications of this change for how workers’ rights are governed around the globe. This paper addresses this gap by outlining an agenda for future research into the transnational governance of workers’ rights. Fulfilling such a research agenda would be both challenging, as it requires combining the so far divergent industrial relations and business ethics research streams, and rewarding, as it provides ample scope for promising future research.

Remaking Industrial Relations in Australia

Following the 24 November 2007 Federal election, the Rudd Labor Government began work on its promises to re-shape Australia's industrial relations system. Industrial relations had been a central issue--many thought the central issue--in that electoral campaign. The Howard Liberal-National Coalition Government went to the polls some two years after enactment of its highly controversial Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Act 2005. Despite the Howard Government's best efforts--via legislative amendment, enormous public spending on pro-WorkChoices advertising and the corralling of employer associations into publicity campaigns in defence of WorkChoices--the clear anti-employee bias of the new industrial relations regime rendered WorkChoices increasingly unpopular. It cost the Coalition the government benches, Howard his electoral seat and the Coalition parties their ability to commit themselves--at least in the short term--to the sorts of employer-focused, individualised industrial relations that they had championed for the previous two decades. The most potent symbol of this trend was the introduction (in 1996) of individual statutory agreements--Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)--to override awards and collective agreements. The 2005 WorkChoices amendments further encouraged employers to use AWAs to erode collectively bargained conditions, by allowing the making of AWAs without any 'no-disadvantage' test, and with fewer procedural requirements. A particularly effective media and community organising campaign by the union movement against WorkChoices had harnessed voter support for Labor's wider policy agenda in support of 'working families'. So unpopular was WorkChoices and so central was its unpopularity to Labor's successful electoral campaign, that the new government appears to have had no option but to engage with industrial relations legislative reform as an important, early part of its legislative agenda. These particular circumstances have opened up a series of questions of fundamental significance for the future of Australia's industrial relations, its institutions, labour market and society. Whatever the Rudd government finally decides (and what the parliament with its 'hung' senate finally allows) is of potentially immense historic importance. This moment comes after nearly two decades of employer association activism that has successfully influenced governments of both persuasions in favour of a national industrial relations system far more decentralised and much more focused on the wants of individual employers. During the last 11 years too, unions have faced marginalisation and de-legitimation through policy, law and official discourse. The not unexpected outcomes include an industrial relations reality that is far more individualised, unprotected and insecure for large sections of the workforce. In broad terms, these are some of the experiences and trends that the Australian electorate voted against. So, where will the legislative process go now? The Rudd Government's first step in dismantling aspects of the WorkChoices framework was the enactment of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 (Transition Act). The Transition Act delivered on a promise to prohibit the making of new AWAs, however it did not deal with many other contentious matters, including unfair dismissal laws. Through the government's policy statements and other media releases, we know something--but by no means all--of what further changes the new government plans to make. Some aspects of WorkChoices, such as reliance on a legislated safety net of minimum employment conditions, will clearly stay; however, other matters are still open to consultation and debate among newly-formed consultative bodies as well as among traditional employer associations, trade unions and other lobby groups. In that context, it is timely to review the state of industrial relations law and policy in Australia. …

Free Movement of Services versus National Labour Law and Industrial Relations Systems: Understanding the Laval Case from a Swedish and Nordic Perspective

European integration, the internal market and free movement of persons and services are important aspects of EC labour law and EU industrial relations. As a result of EU enlargement and the emphasis on free movement within the EU, the problems of posting of workers, low-wage competition and social dumping are high on the agenda. This is illustrated by the epochal and much-debated Laval and Viking cases from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Industrial Relations, Migration, and Neoliberal Politics: The Case of the European Construction Sector

Transnational politics and labor markets are undermining national industrial relations systems in Europe. This article examines the construction industry, where the internationalization of the labor market has gone especially far. To test hypotheses about di ferences between “national systems,” the authors examine the United Kingdom, Finland, and Germany, alongside European-level policy making. Regardless of overall national institutional framework, employers seek to avoid industrial relations rules, while unions attempt to relocalize labor relations. Both use shop-floor, national, and European power resources. The authors argue that comparative industrial relations should take seriously the connection between action at the national and transnational levels.

Do Industrial Relations Institutions Influence Foreign Direct Investment? Evidence from OECD Nations

The potential impact of industrial relations institutions on economic outcomes has been a key element in analyzing the governing of the global workplace. We present case information and analysis that show that there are trade‐offs between higher levels of economic outcomes and greater equity and employee voice associated with more and deeper labor market institutions. The estimates from the model show the impact of industrial relations system policies within a nation on a country's foreign direct investment (FDI) from other nations for the period 1985 through 2000 using data from nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). Examples of the impact of major transformations in national industrial relations systems on FDI for UK and New Zealand also are presented. Our results show that higher levels of industrial relations institutions from the firms’ perspective are usually associated with lower levels of FDI.

Europeanization and Convergence in Industrial Relations

The possibility of convergence of national industrial relations systems has been debated for a long time. However, the predominant approach is to stress the persistence of national variation. This article draws on a number of comparative studies in order to consider whether globalization and European policy developments are important drivers towards increasing convergence. Consequently, the article concludes that a critical review of the prevalent research methods is necessary.

National Industrial Relations Systems and Cross-border Restructuring: Evidence from a Merger in the Pharmaceuticals Sector

This article examines the restructuring process following a cross-border merger in the pharmaceuticals sector. We show how national industrial relations systems account for some aspects of cross-national differences in the process and outcomes of restructuring. However, we also argue that institutionalist approaches to comparative analysis must be complemented by a focus on the material interests of organizational actors and the resources that they can deploy.

Participation in European Companies: views from social partners in three Member States

The decision to establish a European Company (SE) is determined not only by the company but also by institutional factors outside the company. Employers' organisations and trade unions, with their long history of interaction within national systems of industrial relations, influence basic attitudes towards European integration, international business and related issues, such as board-level participation. This paper looks at the attitudes of social partners towards the SE and employee participation in three EU Member States: Germany, the UK and Spain. While Germany has a well-established system of co-determination, Spain and the UK had, until recently, hardly any form of employee participation. These two countries, and certainly their employers' organisations, were at least hesitant towards, and sometimes opposed to, all forms of regulation on employee participation. This attitude has long hampered policymaking on the SE and employee participation and may also determine future prospects for legislation. The authors conclude that employee participation in an SE will need to be the subject of the same learning process as has been the case with respect to European Works Councils.

Diffusion of HRM to Europe and the Role of US MNCs: Introduction to the Special Issue

There has been considerable debate both among scholars and policy makers concerning the extent to which national systems of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM) systems are converging. In Europe this debate has concerned both convergence within Europe and convergence between European systems and those of non-European states, most notably the USA. The convergence thesis rests essentially on the notion of competitive isomorphism: that is as firms are increasingly faced with similar competitive environments globally, they will adopt similar (optimally efficient) management practices. For example, a significant part of the European convergence debate concerns whether, in Europe, collective employee relations, mediated by representative institutions are being replaced by HRM management systems designed to establish a direct and individualised relationship between organization and employee. Some commentators have attributed this trend to the influence of a model of HRM derived from practices in the USA and increasingly adopted in Europe. Multinational companies (MNCs) have become of particular importance to this thesis. First, they are often seen as an important channel for the transmission of management practices from one country to another, in particular from the USA to Europe. Second, the transferability of management practices from one national context to another is a matter of considerable practical importance for managers in MNCs. Third, the economic importance of large MNCs and their border spanning nature means that their activities have particular salience to legislators and regulators. This special issue addresses these concerns in three ways. First reviews of the development of HRM in the USA and in Germany and evidence on convergence of HRM practices in Europe help us consider both what may be being transmitted from the USA and the evidence for its transmission. Second three papers, provide different kinds of evidence on the convergence or barriers to convergence of HRM practices between Europe and the USA and the role of MNCs in that transmission. Finally, the special issue concludes with three reviews of in all six books each of which are relevant to the concerns of this special issue.