Structure Of Collective Bargaining Research Articles

The Future of Unions and Worker Representation: The Digital Picket Line

The Future of Unions and Worker Representation, written by Professor Anthony Forsyth, thoroughly examines four countries and industrial relations systems—Australia, the UK, the USA, and Italy—to assess and contrast their similarities and differences. The choice of these systems is not accidental. The author compares three industrial relations systems that are rooted in the common law and currently share a very fragmented collective bargaining structure with that of a civil law-based system that, despite recent attempts at decentralization, still maintains a more centralized structure. The interest of Anglophone scholars towards industrialized non-English speaking countries is relatively uncommon, making this element of the study original and valuable in itself in recent labour and industrial relations scholarship. In the book, Professor Forsyth offers a detailed and insightful description of the trends and developments in unionization and labour regulation in all four countries. His comparative analysis shows a deep understanding of the structures of their systems, their recent historical evolution, and the challenges they currently face, both shared and unique.

Facts and Fantasies about Wage Setting and Collective Bargaining

In this article, we document and discuss salient features of collective bargaining systems in the OECD countries, with the goal of debunking some misconceptions and myths and revitalizing the general interest in wage setting and collective bargaining. We hope that such an interest may help close the gap between how economists tend to model wage setting and how wages are actually set. Canonical models of competitive labor markets, monopsony, and search and matching all assume a decentralized wage setting where individual firms and workers determine wages. In most advanced economies, however, it is common that firms or employer associations bargain with unions over wages, producing collective bargaining systems. We show that the characteristics of these systems vary in important ways across advanced economies, with regards to both the scope and the structure of collective bargaining.

A CRITIQUE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING POLICY IN NIGERIA FROM COLONIAL ERA TILL DATE

This study focused on a critical evaluation of collective bargaining policy in Nigeria from the historical perspective. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the structure and system of collective bargaining in Nigeria since the colonial period. The study adopted a conceptual analysis and theoretical explanation of the origin, development, weakness, and state involvement in collective bargaining policy in Nigeria through a critical review of extant literatures. The study revealed that collective bargaining as machinery for wage determination in the public sector is supposed to prevent the unilateral imposition of wages on the union by the government and vice versa as the case may be. However, it is not often used by the Nigerian government to determine wages rather government relied more on wage commissions, wage tribunals, and civil services administrative rules to determine wages in the public sector. Therefore, collective bargaining appears to be ineffective as a potent tool for wage determination in Nigeria’s public sector. The study also discovered that collective bargaining machinery in Nigeria is weak because of government’s direct involvement in collectivebargaining process to review, amend, even absolutely reject the collective agreement reached between unions and the government representative at the bargaining table. The study, therefore, concluded that collective bargaining is not an effective institution within the context of employment relations in Nigeria.

Last trends on collective bargaining decentralization

Decentralisation of collective bargaining has been one of the key trends concerning labour market regulation of the last decades. Most of European countries have developed – with different breath and scope – procedures and reforms to strengthen the company level of bargaining. The Great Recession has stressed this orientation, particularly in those countries which were under financial pressure. This paper focuses on the cases of four Mediterranean countries – France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal – in order to assess how decentralisation has been carried out and, most importantly, what kind of practical results have been achieved. On the base of these outcomes, it highlights how the debate concerning the structure ofcollective bargaining is changing from a black or white perspective to a new one in which mixed models are possible if the whole system is coordinated, taking into consideration the type of collective bargaining model set in the country.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2020

The sudden and dramatic lockdowns in Australia resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic brought great uncertainty and much change during 2020. This review concentrates on the impacts of these contextual changes on Australian unions and collective bargaining. Union efforts to cooperate with governments in policy-making and with employers at a workplace level were greeted with applause. But other arenas, as the crisis moderated, saw more traditional adversarialism. In particular, the failure of the parties to agree on legislative change meant that the government’s ‘omnibus’ bill, presented to parliament in December, would prove controversial and strongly contested in the new year. The structure and process of collective bargaining seemed to change remarkably little in 2020. A closer examination of the practice and outcomes of collective bargaining, however, suggests continued difficult times for workers and unions.

Toplu Pazarlık Kapsamını Etkileyen Faktörler: Karşılaştırmalı Endüstri İlişkileri Temelinde Türk Endüstri İlişkileri Sisteminin Modernizasyonu

As it is in Scandinavian countries, a high union density ensures the enhancement of collective bargaining coverage rates and also, the collective bargaining coverage can be boosted by the extension mechanism in countries with a high employer organisation density, as it is in France. Additionally, the role of collective bargaining levels, coordination degrees among bargains and the extension mechanism should be examined to fully understand the disparities in collective bargaining coverage rates across countries, and the differences of union density and collective bargaining coverage within the country. However, in the case of Turkey, it has been seen that there is a limited number of empirical studies related to the coverage and changes in the structure of collective bargaining and the factors affecting the collective bargaining coverage. To address this gap and to contribute to the literature, this research, using Amsterdam University database on Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts and OECD’s data, mainly aims to analyse the relationship between collective bargaining coverage and the factors affecting collective bargaining coverage based on the comparative industrial relations. Additionally, in the conclusion section, the model proposals for the modernisation of the Turkish industrial relations system are discussed. This study originally concluded that there is a significantly moderate size of correlation relationship between collective bargaining coverage rates and coordination degrees of collective bargaining and the usage frequency of the extension mechanism while having a significantly large size of correlation relationship between collective bargaining coverage rates and the employer organisation density, and a predominant collective bargaining level.

The Institutional Adjustment Margin to Import Competition: Evidence from Italian Minimum Wages

A growing body of research has contributed to understanding the labor market and political effects of globalization. This paper explores an overlooked aspect of trade-induced adjustments in the labor market: the institutional aspect. We take advantage of the two-tier collective bargaining structure of the Italian labor market, whereby the first tier entails setting minimum wages at the contract level. Using an instrumental variable strategy and exploiting variations in contract-level exposure to trade, we find for the 1995-2003 period that on average, the surge in imports decreased contractual minimum wages by 1.5%. This impact increased with the increase in the share of unskilled workers employed under this contract. This negative institutional effect contrasts with a nonsignificant effect of trade on total wages, with the latter becoming positive and large only for highly skilled workers.

8 good reasons why adult social care needs sectoral collective bargaining

In this booklet, Dr Lydia Hayes sets out the lessons learned from her interdisciplinary research into the social care sector, and builds upon the recommendations made in the Institute of Employment Rights' Manifesto for Labour Law: a comprehensive revision of worker’s rights to propose a sectoral collective bargaining structure for the negotiation of wages and conditions.

Non-standard Employment in Sweden

In Sweden, as in many other countries, marginal groups tend to be overrepresented in non-standard employment. A decomposition of the employment rate of full-time workers on permanent contracts reveals that non-standard employment contributes to a substantially weaker labour market attachment for females and the foreign born than suggested by conventional employment figures alone. Our econometric analysis shows that the negative wage premia associated with fixed-term employment are considerably smaller in Sweden, both for natives and foreign born, than those that have been found for other countries. This may be due to a highly compressed wage structure and extensive coverage of collective bargaining in Sweden. On the whole, the type of fixed-term contract seems not to matter for the estimated wage premia.

Non-standard Employment in Sweden

In Sweden, as in many other countries, marginal groups tend to be overrepresented in non-standard employment. A decomposition of the employment rate of full-time workers on permanent contracts reveals that non-standard employment contributes to a substantially weaker labour market attachment for females and the foreign born than suggested by conventional employment figures alone. Our econometric analysis shows that the negative wage premia associated with fixed-term employment are considerably smaller in Sweden, both for natives and foreign born, than those that have been found for other countries. This may be due to a highly compressed wage structure and extensive coverage of collective bargaining in Sweden. On the whole, the type of fixed-term contract seems not to matter for the estimated wage premia.

New European Economic Governance and Decentralisation of the Collective Bargaining Structure in Italy: Did It Work Out?

New European Economic Governance and Decentralisation of the Collective Bargaining Structure in Italy: Did It Work Out?

The structure of collective contracting in China

ABSTRACTThe use of ‘collective contracts’, established through the process of ‘collective consultation’, to set the wages and working conditions of employees in China has increased dramatically over recent years. This paper offers an analysis of this important trend that is distinctive in three ways. First, we reflect on the meaning of collective contracting and collective consultation and distinguish them more conventional Western concepts of collective agreements and bargaining. Second, we suggest a framework – drawn from the well-established literature on the structure of collective bargaining – for analysing collective contracting in China. Third, by applying this framework to the existing empirical evidence – derived from publicly available data and published scholarly research – we provide an account of collective contracting in China that is more comprehensive than the existing literature and which clearly identifies the role of the state as central.

Continuity and change in joint regulation in Europe: Structural reforms and collective bargaining in manufacturing

This article introduces seven national studies which examine the impact of austerity measures on collective bargaining in manufacturing in the European Union (EU) countries most affected by the crisis. We explore the changing dynamics in the relationships between domestic actors in the period leading up to the crisis and the influence of supranational actors thereafter. Austerity measures have undermined the structure, process, content and outcomes of collective bargaining, though the nature and degree of changes are conditioned by path-dependent factors of each national system.

Unionizing Subcontracted Labor

Subcontracting — the practice of using intermediaries to contract workers, whether through temp agencies, manpower agencies, franchise, or other multilayered contracting — is an increasingly popular pattern of employment worldwide. Whether justified from a business perspective or not, subcontracting has dire implications for workers’ rights: it insulates the beneficiary of their labor from direct legal obligations to the workers’ wages and working conditions and drastically reduces their ability to effectively unionize. This Article explores the impact of subcontracting on unionization of subcontracted labor. It argues that labor law in most postindustrial developing economies is structured around the Fordist model of production and employment and therefore provides insufficient protections to workers whose employment arrangements deviate from that model.The Article maps the various hurdles subcontracting poses to unionization. It identifies three main challenges to the basic assumptions that animate traditional labor law: first, that a union has leverage and significant bargaining power vis-à-vis an employer; second, that the union and the employer are repeat players in negotiations, and that accordingly the labor contract is a relational contract in which both parties consider the short and the long term in their calculations; and third, that the bargaining unit represented by the union is relatively easily discernable and relatively stable. The Article argues that subcontracting disrupts all of these assumptions. Accordingly, in order to remain relevant to subcontracted workers, labor law requires adaptations. The Article sketches a preliminary list of existing and potential legal responses to subcontracting that better guarantee subcontracted workers’ rights to unionize. Its main suggestion is to move away from a bilateral towards a multilateral structure of collective agreement bargaining in subcontracting situations. Finally, the Article questions whether law can provide a once-and-for-all solution to the problems posed by subcontracting, and explores the dynamic role of law and unionizing in this context.

The Multilateral Structure of Local Government and Public Sector Collective Bargaining

The Multilateral Structure of Local Government and Public Sector Collective Bargaining

In Praise of Collective Bargaining: The Enduring Significance of Hugh Clegg’s Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining

Hugh Clegg’s Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining was published nearly forty years ago. It is far from being just a work of antiquarian interest, however. Its core argument, that the main influence on trade-union behaviour is the structure of collective bargaining, which depends on the role of employers and their organizations, remains as challenging as it ever was. Its approach, comparative and historical, is a watershed in the theoretical development of industrial relations, paving the way for an emphasis on theory ‘in’ rather than theory ‘of’. It also implicitly raises two questions of enduring significance. The first is the wider contribution of collective bargaining and what its decline means not just for trade-union members but also society as a whole. The other is the conditions necessary for the survival of collective bargaining. The policy implication is that, if society wants to have the benefits of collective bargaining, there will be a need for legislation to boost collective bargaining’...

Performance-Related Pay and Firm Productivity

The authors investigate the causal effect on firm productivity of a switch from fixed wages to collective performance-related pay, exploiting a reform in the structure of collective bargaining triggered by a social pact. They find that an increase in the adoption of collective performance-related pay leads to a 3 to 5% productivity gain but that such effect declines over time. They show that the effect on productivity varies substantially by firm size, industry affiliation, and union density. Both the size of the bonus and the design of the scheme—in terms of number and types of parameters used—are also important features for a firm’s productivity.

Reforma de la negociación colectiva en España y sistema de Relaciones Laborales

The article discusses the recent reforms of the collective bargaining’s legal framework of general efficiency, collective bargaining representative of the Spanish legal system, introduced in the years 2010 to 2014, coinciding with the global economic and financial crisis, which began in 2008, the European political and monetary crisis and the and political-economic crisis en Spain. The reforms, and especially the recent legal reforms of 2012-2014, have had a qualitative impact on the bargaining system, shifting the regulation’s orientation from the constitutional right to collective bargaining, and to the binding force of conventions, closely connected with the freedom of association, to the constitutional right to free enterprise and constitutional duty of the authorities to ensure the safeguarding of productivity. The legislative reforms of 2012 aimed at ensuring that collective bargaining is a tool, not an obstacle, to adapt working conditions to the specific circumstances of the company. For it they have postponed the traditional role of the collective agreement to compensate the fundamental inequality of labor relations by limiting individual autonomy and the power of corporate decision, as well as emphasizing the management function of the collective agreement through different techniques with convergent results: applicative priority of the company’s collective agreement as a mandatory rule for higher-level collective bargaining, modification and unique company inapplicability of the collective agreement through binding arbitration public, ante tempus modification of the collective agreement, and the temporal limitation of the ultraactive effectiveness of collective agreements within agreement renewal processes. To achieve its reformation goals, and yet there is some exception in a non-minor matter (ultra-activity of collective agreements) in which reformation goals are achieved through the transfert of competencies by the law to the collective bargaining, labor law flexibilization tends to self-sufficiency and rigidness. These reforms project their effects on labor relations system as a whole, drawing lines of transformation of undeniable legal significance, among which stands the promotion, using imperative techniques, of collective bargaining at company level, which, beyond their impact on the structure of collective bargaining, is offered as a guarantee of the higher flexibility and corporate competitiveness, affects the functions of the right to collective bargaining channeled a principle of differentiation that old attempts to individualize working conditions failed, and displaces the powers of trade unions and business confederations to representations of companies and businessmen.

The continuation of early austerity measures: the special case of Germany

The article deals with the consequences of austerity measures at municipal level in Germany. The first part describes the institutional framework, looking at the development and structure of employment, legal peculiarities, financial conditions and their more recent developments. The second part analyses employment relations, including employers’ organizations and unions, the collective bargaining structure and recent changes to it as well as measures of privatization. Finally, some preliminary conclusions are listed. From a comparative perspective, Germany constitutes a special case, with austerity measures having been initiated and causing lasting job losses long before the financial and debt crisis.

A proposito dell'articolo 8 della legge n. 148/2011: le deroghe si fanno, ma non si dicono

The essay deals with the more recent agreements and legal norms about trade union law; more specifically with the article 8 of Law no. 148/2011. This rule of law might have strong effects on the structure of collective bargaining and the mandatory nature in the pejorative sense of the rules of labour law by the company or territorial collective agreements. In this regard, the main trade unions have declared they are unwilling to conclude decentralized agreements in derogation with the law. However, a practical analysis, carried out on a series of company collective agreements found by the Author, shows that we could assert that exceptions to the law (or national collective agreement) are made, but are not openly declared.