bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Who bears the burden of flexibility? Working conditions and labour markets in the European retail trade
Authors: Jany-Catrice Florence , Lehndorff Steffen
Published: January 2010

The retail trade is currently undergoing fundamental changes in terms of employment, working time, and working conditions, all of which deserve detailed analysis. The present study is focussed on the interaction between efforts of large retail firms at ‘flexibilising’ their workforces on the one hand, and on the existing structures of labour supply on the other. The main result of the study is a sceptical assessment of the current development: work in the retail trade is becoming more stressful and less attractive, and the share of those to whom it serves as the basis for an independent livelihood is decreasing. The labour market in this industry is undergoing major changes in Europe. This state of affairs presents trade unions with extremely intricate challenges, the form of which varies considerably from one country to another.
Transnational primary and secondary collective action: an overview of international, European and national legislation
Authors: Clauwaert Stefan
Published: January 2010

This article reviews international, European and national regulation of transnational primary and secondary collective action. There is no explicit provision mentioning the right to international primary or secondary collective action in the relevant international instruments. Within the European Union, several legally binding instruments refer to the right to collective action but none explicitly refers to transnational secondary action. An overview of national regulation of international secondary action shows that at least some countries require or will require that transnational action be subject to the same limitations as those laid down for national secondary action. The possibility for legitimate transnational collective action needs to be clarified.
European Employment Strategy: the right answer for candidate countries?
Authors: Celin Mira
Published: January 2010

It is not easy to gauge the extent to which the European Employment Strategy (EES) has influenced the EU labour market over the last five years but it has surely contributed to the creation of more than 10 million new jobs and 4 million fewer unemployed. However, is this common strategy the right answer for the labour markets of the future member states? This article examines how the candidate countries are adapting to the EES and where they stand as compared to the current EU countries in achieving the Lisbon targets. The article assesses whether the EES is appropriate for the labour markets of the future member states by analysing both the deficiencies and the positive elements of this strategy for these countries, taking into account proposals for a new revised EES adapted to the needs of changing labour markets, globalisation and enlargement.
European social dialogue: an instrument in the Europeanisation of industrial relations
Authors: Kirton-Darling Judith , Clauwaert Stefan
Published: January 2010

This article offers a historical and analytical overview of the development of the European social dialogue at the cross-sectoral and sectoral levels, and examines the potential of European social dialogue. In spite of the substantial institutional and cultural differences between the national industrial relations systems, the national social partners are increasingly facing the common challenges of globalisation and European integration. The European social dialogue has emerged as one of the potential instruments at the disposal of the social partners and European institutions for facing these common challenges. This article presents an evaluation of the development of European social dialogue to date and raises questions about future developments.
The Employers: the hidden face of European industrial relations
Authors: Arcq Etienne , Dufresne Anne , Pochet Philippe
Published: January 2010

The first section of this article recalls the most important organisational features of the cross-industry players in the European social dialogue (UNICE, UEAPME, CEEP). Four sectoral employer federations (WEM, Euratex, FIEC, EuroCommerce), selected on grounds of the specific nature of their profile, are also analysed here in view of the increasing importance currently taken on by the sectoral social dialogue. The second part of the article reports on the achievements of the social dialogue as seen by the employers. This dialogue has seen at least two salient events: in 1991, when the cross-industry social partners signed an agreement laying down collective bargaining practices; and more recently when a first voluntary agreement on telework was concluded. This agreement represents for the European employers, as for the trade unions, a radical change in terms of affirming their autonomy in drawing up their work programme and in the way that negotiated solutions are implemented. This has also been a period of consolidation for UNICE as a body representing Europe's employers, while CEEP has embarked on new – territorial – forms of representation. As for UEAPME, a peripheral body in the early 1990s, it has gradually asserted itself as a fully-fledged protagonist in the social dialogue.
Labour migration, social incorporation and transmigration in the New Europe. The case of Germany in a comparative perspective
Authors: Pries Ludger
Published: January 2010

This article examines the challenges and opportunities of labour migration for Europe and the European social model in the 21st century. The social incorporation and labour market insertion of labour migrants in Germany is considered in a comparative perspective which highlights the increasing importance of transnational migration and transnational social spaces as a feature of migration in Europe. It is transmigration, it is argued, that could constitute one crucial ingredient of the ‘cement’ for a sustainable social Europe.
Migration and democracy in central and eastern Europe
Authors: Tonelli Simon James
Published: January 2010

Amidst the political changes that swept through central and eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the right to migrate was synonymous in the minds of many with the establishment of democracy. Although the political transition of the 1990s was preceded in some countries by a relaxation of their strict exit regimes, these were only minor measures in comparison with the profound changes to the system of population control ushered in by the political transition to democracy. A mosaic of migration patterns (ethnically based migrations, return migration, labour migration, transit migration) gathered pace during the 1990s throughout the vast region of the former Soviet bloc. As conflict and war broke out in different areas, notably in the Caucasus and south-east Europe, these migratory movements were inflated by huge numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons. The newly independent states underpinned their political transition towards democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights through membership of the Council of Europe and ratification of international conventions which included important guarantees for the rights and protection of migrants and their families. In May 2004, eight of these countries will join the European Union and after a transitional period become integral parts of the internal labour market with their populations enjoying the full freedom of movement rights of EC law. This article outlines the major migration trends in central and eastern Europe since the extension of democracy across the continent, highlights different aspects of labour migration in the region, including the impact of EU enlargement, and refers to some integration issues. This description is preceded by a series of brief historical, political and legal perspectives.
EMU and public service trade unionism: between states and markets
Authors: Foster Deborah , Scott Peter
Published: January 2010

This article considers the attitudes to the single currency of public service trade unions, illustrating this through a number of nationally based case studies. We examine claims about the impact of EMU on welfare states and public expenditure, and particularly the extent to which the governance of EMU attests a ‘neoliberal', marketising approach towards the public sphere. We find that any such tendency has been offset by the recent resurgence of forms of national-level bipartite or tripartite economic and social coordination, managing the effects of EMU through social dialogue. The subsequent section of the paper develops a categorisation of four main trends evident in European public service trade unions'response to the single currency: enthusiasm, altruism, scepticism and resistance. The dominant attitude to date has been acceptance. We highlight dangers for democratic legitimacy within public sector unions in cases where leadership support for EMU has exceeded that of the membership, and indicate some potential areas for future public service union influence in the EMU.
The relative generosity of the EU countries’ childcare systems
Authors: Henau Jérôme de , Meulders Danièle , O'Dorchai Síle , Périvier Hélène
Published: January 2010

This article reports on a research project examining how childcare provision affects parents’ employment patterns and fertility choices. Based on criteria such as the level of public funding, the real coverage rate of the childcare system, its cost and the number of carers available to relieve parents’ caring tasks, European countries are ranked by the degree of family-friendliness and supportiveness of their childcare provision for the dual-earner model and for women combining professional responsibilities with motherhood.
Flexible work and flexicurity policies in the Netherlands. Trends and experiences
Authors: Oorschot Wim van
Published: January 2010

Increasing the flexibility of work and working life has been high on the agenda of Dutch public debate for at least 15 years. Resulting policies have been guided by the aspiration of combining flexibility and security, or of achieving adequate ‘flexicurity’, as the combination of these goals has come to be known. This article describes and analyses Dutch flexicurity policies of recent years, as they have been adopted in the fields of part-time work, social security, labour law and the work-care combination. It shows that the government has made it easier for employers and employees to choose part-time work as a strategy for increasing flexibility. In the field of social security there are numerous problems, especially for ‘flex’ -workers (not for part-time workers as such), but little substantial improvements have been implemented. In labour law important flexibility and security measures have been adopted, but here government has been rather slow in taking the lead. As regards the work-care combination, new policies have improved conditions, but the Netherlands still lags behind other European countries.
Corporate social responsibility, what's in a name? A critical appraisal of the Green Paper
Authors: Dorssemont Filip
Published: January 2010

In July 2001 the European Commission issued a Green Paper entitled Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility. The paper was elaborated by the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs. It focused on companies’ responsibilities in the social field. The term ‘corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged from discourses and statements delivered by companies reflecting upon, even praising, their own functioning. The European Union's concern with the topic is rooted in the expressed conviction that CSR can be a positive contribution to the strategic goal set in Lisbon ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Commission 2001: 4).

This article seeks to examine the Green Paper's ‘new speech’ from the conceptual angle of collective labour law. It assesses the legal nature of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well as its implications, in particular for human and fundamental workers’ rights, and for the trade union movement. It also addresses the question of whether CSR amounts to a new understanding of the freedom of enterprise.
Corporate social responsibility between public policy and enterprise policy
Authors: Bredgaard Thomas
Published: January 2010

In spite of – or maybe precisely because of – its inherent vagueness, ambiguity and multidimensionality, CSR has increasingly come into vogue with the EU institutions, national governments and numerous European companies. This article identifies four types of CSR approaches: (1) CSR between business and society (e.g. the US approach); (2) CSR in business (e.g. HRM within firms); (3) CSR between business and government (e.g. the European Commission's approach) and (4) CSR between employment policy and business (e.g. the Danish approach). Denmark, which provides the case study of the article, typifies an approach to CSR in which the government and social partners have played an active role in promoting CSR and where initiatives have focused narrowly on employers’ responsibilities for the recruitment, training, development and dismissal of labour. The Danish case thus allows for a discussion of the role of public authorities and social partners in CSR, a discussion often neglected in mainstream CSR literature. The main question addressed in the article is how links can be created between policy instruments and business interests in order to reduce workplace exclusion and promote the labour market integration of the unemployed and inactive. We propose a framework that transcends the dichotomy between voluntarism and coercion that characterises much of the CSR discussion by suggesting different, but complementary, roles of public authorities and social partners in CSR.
Social partnership as an approach to CSR: ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ actors, their roles and relations
Authors: Mailand Mikkel
Published: January 2010

This article reports on research into social partnerships aiming at labour market inclusion that developed during the 1990s in Denmark, the UK and Spain. Some of these partnerships are directly related to corporate social responsibility (CSR initiatives in individual firms), whereas others are only indirectly related (for instance, active labour market policy initiatives at local, regional and national level). Developments such as new target groups for such policies, the weakening of the social partners, ideological change, policy transfer and budget constraints of the state have led to more partnerships taking a multipartite form, meaning that not only the public authorities and the social partners, but also new actors such as business networks, commercial operators and NGOs, participate. The involvement of new actors poses a challenge for the traditional actors – among them the trade unions. Whether the relations between traditional and new actors are best described by conflict or by cooperation cannot be explained by regime theories. The decisive factor seems to be the extent to which the new actors challenge the privileged positions of the traditional actors.
‘Jobs, jobs, jobs’, ambivalence of concerted change for employment in Europe
Authors: Leonard Evelyne , Reman Pierre
Published: January 2010

Unions’ and employers’ organisations are broadly considered as significant actors in the regulation of labour markets in Europe. And since its formal launch in 1997, the European Employment Strategy has insisted on their active participation in the implementation of the guidelines within Member States. From an industrial relations point of view, such participation seems natural, and even desirable. However, bipartite and tripartite processes for employment and the nature of current labour market change are not without challenges for unions and employers’ associations. Adopting a slightly provocative position, this article questions the ambivalences of concertation in the search for full employment.
Activation and trade unions: confronting the dilemma
Authors: Valkenburg Ben
Published: January 2010

Active employment strategies raise complex questions and considerations for trade unions. This is especially true for activation. If unions oppose activation it will be hard for them to play a relevant role in the contemporary debate. If they agree with current activation policies they will share responsibility for the risks attached to them. This article tries to find a way out of this dilemma. It explores the central issue of what constitutes an adequate stance for trade unions with regard to activation, in a situation where full employment is not a realistic aim. A possible way out of the dilemma is formulated from two perspectives. The first is a reciprocal, client-oriented approach to benefit claimants elaborated in terms of rights and duties that are defendable from a trade union point of view. The second is a broader concept of social participation, in which participation is not limited to paid employment on the regular labour market. Formulating these ideas only makes sense if the unions are also prepared and able to back them up with union power. The final section of the article addresses the question of how unions can back up their position on activation with union power.
Income security: why unions should campaign for a basic income
Authors: Standing Guy
Published: January 2010

This article argues that because of the changing character of work and labour in the context of globalisation, progressives and particularly trade unionists could make a basic income a key part of their agenda. It considers the standard objections and then reviews the various advantages of moving in that direction, towards the realisation of a republican or claim right.
Europeanisation at sectoral level. Empirical results and missing perspectives
Authors: Keller Berndt
Published: January 2010

This article considers some of the results published in the reports on social dialogue in individual sectors in this issue of Transfer and highlights some of the less mentioned perspectives and unresolved problems. The major topics from an empirical perspective are: the distribution of sectoral social dialogue across sectors, topics and outcomes of the dialogues, consequences and non-consequences of the major institutional reform of the sectoral social dialogue in the late 1990s, problems of transposition and implementation of results, the so-called eastern enlargement of the EU and its lasting difficulties for sectoral dialogue, as well as some unsolved questions for future practice and research.
Opportunities and challenges for flexicurity - The Danish example
Authors: Bredgaard Thomas , Larsen Flemming , Madsen Per Kongshøj
Published: January 2010

The contraction of two previously opposed concepts, ‘flexibility’ and ‘security’, into that of flexicurity has become one of the most popular labour market concepts in recent years, and one that seems to cross European borders relatively easily. Seen in an international perspective, Denmark is characterised by a relatively flexible labour market and an extensive social security system. It is widely assumed that these favourable results are due to the special Danish combination of flexible employment regulations, an active labour market policy including rights and duties of education and placement, and relatively high unemployment benefits. In recent years the concept flexicurity has come to be used to describe the particular Danish mix of labour market flexibility and social security. Against this background, this article outlines the economic and political characteristics of the Danish ‘flexicurity model’, and the current challenges facing this model. Finally, the lessons that other European countries can learn from this Danish model will be presented.
Free movement of services and equal treatment of workers: the case of construction
Authors: Cremers Jan
Published: January 2010

Directive 96/71/EC (the Posted Workers Directive) is the legal framework in Europe for bona fide cross-border work by posted workers. Following fierce debates at the beginning of the 1990s the European institutions adopted this Directive in 1996. The basic purpose of the Directive was to guarantee equal rights to posted workers combined with fair competition for transnational operations, relying on the ‘host country’ principle. A study by the author has shown that national implementation of the Directive after 1996 has been poor. Following enlargement on 1 May 2004 the debate about decent regulation of labour migration and posted and temporary work abroad returned to the agenda. The current discussions on the Services Directive have brought the ‘country of origin’ principle into the spotlight. The political struggle between supporters of decent regulation (and legal application) of labour migration issues and advocates of the free market has entered a new phase.
Laboratories of the new Europe: trade unions, employee interest representation and participation in foreign investment enterprises in central and eastern Europe
Authors: Voss Eckhard
Published: January 2010

This article examines a number of aspects of the industrial relations practices of foreign investors in central and eastern Europe, focusing on trade union structures, employee interest representation, and consultation and social dialogue at the company level. Based on evidence from selected companies in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the paper argues that the experiences of multinational companies with regard to employee interest representation and shop-floor trade unionism should be regarded as ‘laboratories of learning processes' which are not only having an impact on the ongoing transformation of industrial relations and corporate cultures in the new Member States but also on the whole of Europe, most notably the future shape of institutionalised employee participation.
The competitiveness and diverse performance of national economies
Authors: Petit Pascal
Published: January 2010

Currently, developed economies, with their different institutional settings and capabilities, are having to adjust to a similar set of structural changes. This article examines these major structural changes affecting developed economies and analyses how they are altering forms of competition for the various types of capitalism. It refutes the thesis according to which these changes will lead to a full convergence of countries' institutional settings. Consequently, countries have to draw on their own specific characteristics to adapt to the challenges of internationalisation and the new competitive state of affairs.
How can trade unions act strategically?
Authors: Hyman Richard
Published: January 2010

It is generally agreed that trade unions require new strategies to respond to external and internal challenges. Economic internationalisation makes it easier for employers to escape national structures of employment regulation, and appears to weaken the ability of governments to defend nationally-based social models; sectoral and occupational shifts in employment erode traditional union strongholds, while social and ideological changes undermine workers' traditional orientation to collectivism. Yet what do we mean by trade union strategy, and how can it be modernised? This article addresses in particular the literatures on organisational learning, social capital and vocabularies of motive to explore how the twin principles of leadership and democracy can be harnessed to meet the challenges of the ‘new’ capitalism.
Why do unions find fighting workplace racism difficult?
Authors: Jefferys Steve
Published: January 2010

Trade unions are committed to anti-racism. However, with the growth of job insecurity in the increasingly inegalitarian but global economies that are sucking in new generations of international migrants, racism and xenophobia have re-emerged as major threats to European social cohesion. This article examines the problems unions have in fighting racism within the workplace. It documents different ways in which these problems present themselves, and suggests that they offer trade unions two structural-ideological challenges: the need to defend broader, societal trade union objectives, alongside bread and butter ones; and the need to strengthen the legitimacy of trade union activists acting within ‘representative democratic’ rather than ‘delegate democratic’ traditions.
Trade union responses to racism in Italy's shipbuilding and metalworking industries
Authors: Basso Pietro
Published: January 2010

Since 1973 Italy has become a nation of growing immigration: its economy has come to rely on immigrants as low-cost workers with extremely limited rights. The diffusion of racism, both institutional and ‘popular’, has much to do with this. Immigrant workers and populations cannot accept this situation as their destiny. They are making egalitarian, anti-racist demands through their self-organisation and increasing unionisation. The response of Italian unions has been contradictory. They have been slow in recognising the very existence of discrimination, racism and xenophobia, and are not doing everything they should and could do to defend immigrant workers and to promote their participation in trade union activities. The cases of Fincantieri, FIAT and Electrolux are emblematic.
The revolution in the public services sector in Portugal: with or without the unions
Authors: Stoleroff Alan
Published: January 2010

Since the onset of the public deficit crisis in 2001–2002, three successive Portuguese governments have promoted a transformation of public sector employment relations with the aim of bringing them into line with the private sector. Given the importance both of employment in the public sector and of public sector unions to the overall labour movement, the outcome of these reforms will have a decisive impact upon industrial relations in Portugal. The Portuguese public sector unions have consistently claimed that the government has presented them with preconceived reform packages, has not bargained and has in fact imposed its concept of the reforms. This article analyses the relationship between the government and the unions in negotiating the reforms, focusing on the degree of conflict involved and the extent to which the reforms have proceeded within the framework of social dialogue.
The puzzles of union density in Norway
Authors: Nergaard Kristine , Stokke Torgeir Aarvaag
Published: January 2010

The level of union density in Norway is medium high, in contrast to the other Nordic countries where high density levels are supported by unemployment insurance funds. Developments in union density over time are stable in Norway, contrary to developments in most western European countries outside the Nordic region. This article traces the effects of unemployment insurance funds by comparing density levels in Norway with those in Finland and Sweden. In addition, the stability witnessed in union density in Norway over time is a particularly puzzling phenomenon, and the authors seek to explain it on the basis of specific institutional and labour market factors.
Ideology, the politburo of privatisation and the German water sector
Authors: Pflug Tanja
Published: January 2010

This article contrasts the realities of water sector privatisation in Germany with theories of drivers of privatisation. Although there is no European directive requiring privatisation or liberalisation of Member States' water sectors, and attempts to liberalise the German water sector failed at the federal level in 2001, a significant number of water companies supplying cities of more than 100 000 inhabitants have been partially privatised. This can be explained in terms of a multifaceted process involving ideological shifts, specific economic and political developments and the role of stakeholders in transforming these new ideas into policies.
Overstretching solidarity? Trade unions' national perspectives on the European economic and social model
Authors: Busemeyer Marius R. , Kellermann Christian , Petring Alexander , Stuchlík Andrej
Published: January 2010

The development of a European economic and social model poses serious challenges for European trade unions. On the one hand, demand for a strengthening of the social dimension of the European integration project is growing and it is realised that this cannot be achieved by unilateral action at the national level. On the other hand, the identities and organisational capacities of trade unions are deeply embedded in national welfare state institutions, limiting the leeway for a common European social model. This article presents empirical evidence from over 100 interviews with trade union leaders and politicians from 17 EU Member States on trade unions' positions in various policy fields (economic, social and competition policies). The conclusion is that unions should reflect more critically on their embeddedness in national welfare state arrangements in order to move forward together towards the realisation of a Social Europe.
Spain: large-scale regularisation and its impacts on labour market and social policy
Authors: Miguélez Fausto , Recio Albert
Published: January 2010

Regularisation measures in Spain have formed part of an overall immigration policy that until a few years ago was geared more towards border security than to meeting the demands of the labour market. However, the regularisation campaign in 2005 was different: it enjoyed widespread popular support and sought to combat the informal economy and grant employment rights to immigrants who were in fact working. As a result, the labour market is now better regulated, but efforts to combat segmentation have not been so successful. Furthermore, the regularisation campaigns were inadequately funded, and failed to bring about sufficient improvements in public policies.
TUI AG – a group under pressure from the capital market. A workforce fights successfully against the break-up of its company
Authors: Krieger Alexandra
Published: January 2010

For years, TUI AG was pressured by active shareholders to concentrate on its core business - tourism - and break free from the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd AG. For five years, by constantly adopting new group restructuring measures, the Board managed to fend off the shareholders' demand. Then, in 2008, it finally opted to sell, triggering an unprecedented fight by the workforce to prevent the company from being sold to Asia. In the end, dogged persistence, strategic skill and sheer courage enabled the Board to pull off something that virtually everyone had written off as impossible: Hapag-Lloyd was sold to a Hamburg-based consortium and the associated jobs remained in Hamburg.
European and international framework agreements: new tools of transnational industrial relations
Authors: Telljohann Volker , Costa Isabel Da , Müller Torsten , Rehfeldt Udo , Zimmer Reingard
Published: January 2010

In recent years transnational framework agreements (TFAs) at global and European level have emerged as a new tool of regulation within transnational companies. Based on an outline of the origins of TFAs, a quantitative overview of TFAs and an analysis of the strategies pursued by global and European union federations in concluding TFAs, this article discusses whether and how these new tools advance the internationalisation of industrial relations. The article concludes that a whole range of sector- and company-specific conditions must exist for a TFA to be signed. Where they exist, TFAs give global and European union federations as well as European Works Councils a recognised place in the area of global social regulation, and there are cases in which they have successfully been used to solve local conflicts. Research carried out by the authors suggests that TFAs, if used strategically, have the potential to contribute to the development of international industrial relations at company level and even, in the long term, to facilitate the trade unions’ organising activities. However, because of the small number of TFAs, currently fewer than 150, their contribution to the internationalisation of industrial relations has so far remained limited.
Trade union reform in Germany: some analytical and critical remarks concerning the current debate
Authors: Hoffmann Jürgen
Published: January 2010

The German trade unions are under pressure to modernise. Structural changes in the economy (persistent unemployment, tertiarisation of salaried employment, new approaches to production), the economic and social consequences of reunification with the GDR, and the modernisation of society (dissolution of traditional communities, pluralisation and individualisation) mean that traditional forms of policy and organisation, based on Fordist production and on the political culture of the industrial workforce, are no longer in keeping with the times. The drop in trade union membership since 1990 - in some cases extremely sharp - is evidence of this. Alongside the discussion of a more streamlined, more efficient organisation, initially prompted by financial crisis, a range of policy concepts is now being discussed which are intended to respond to the new needs of workers and to accord with the new structures in the economy and society : a tendency can be observed to develop a more co-operative policy alongside the conflict-oriented collective bargaining policy ; the political culture of the trade unions is being rethought ; the role of trade union officials is being remoulded to make them into "moderators". European unification, on the other hand, remains a rather marginal issue in the debate, a fact attributable to the dominant role of the German economy in the European Union.
Meetings on European multinationals: the experience so far
Authors: Fulton Lionel
Published: January 2010

This article looks at the experience to date of meetings on European multinational companies, precursors to European works councils, using information from the main organisers, the European Industry Committees, and the participants.

It finds that: there are now at least 290 European multinationals where employee representatives have met to talk about the prospect of a European works council.

Overwhelmingly it is the national unions who decide who participates in the European level meetings and that, while non-UK unions draw on the statutory representative structures, such as works councils, to select their participants, in the UK the situation is more fluid. Overall around two-thirds of those attending are lay representatives.

There are three issues which most meetings cover: the financial structure and plans of the company; a comparison of working conditions and trade union representation in the company's European locations; and the prospects of establishing a European works council.

The meetings are about both exchanging information and building a European Works Council, although some Industry Committees focus more clearly on establishing a European Works Council than others. Participants report progress towards works councils, although they also welcome the links made and information shared at meetings. There are difficulties in maintaining links outside the meetings.

The biggest single problem is language; people cannot communicate outside the formal sessions. There is also a general feeling among participants that they would like more information and among the organisers that they would like more resources.

The key training needs are identified as language training followed by more training on the industrial relations systems in other countries.
Training European works councils
Authors: Gohde Hellmut
Published: January 2010

In the past there has been a tendency for the subject of European Works Councils to be discussed at the macro-political level. The dominant topics of this debate were the various interpretations of the EU Directive and its transposition into national legislation, as well as the demand for comprehensive company agreements regarding the establishment of a European information and consultation procedure. Meanwhile, the question of whether and how the newly acquired room for manoeuvre for the representation of workers' interests at company level might be conceptually and efficiently fulfilled was left unanswered. Given the vast number of companies involved and empirical data collected by European works councils already in existence, it is uncertain whether all the bodies to be set up can be adequately monitored and co-ordinated. This article argues in favour of a strategy for the provision for trade union education for European works councils and sketches out the main areas of a corresponding concept. From a methodological point of view, preference is given to a mixture of cognitive, affective and action-oriented elements of training designed to enable workforce representatives to play an active role in shaping transnational contacts. Taking examples from past work undertaken by the European Trade Union College in conjunction with various European Industry Committees, it is shown that a strategy of this kind based on continuous co-operation between national trade unions, trainers and European Industry Committees can be directly translated into a successful trade union policy within multinational companies.
Rapprochement based on common interests between the ETUC and the trade unions in Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Seideneck Peter
Published: January 2010

Many people in Eastern Europe found that their living conditions actually worsened during the transition from one old régime to another old-established - but pretty sound and adaptable- system. For the most part, the anticipated and in some cases publicised direct benefits of the free market economy failed to materialise.

The governments of the Eastern European countries are all faced with inescapable dilemmas in the short term. Even those governments which claim to have close links with trade unions are implementing an economic and monetary policy that will inevitably lead to confrontations with the unions.

Some governments regard the tripartite system as an instrument for appeasement, but not as a starting point for autonomous social relations. Their interest lies more with short-term conflict management and less with the development of independent interest-oriented structures.

The ideal path that could be taken by the trade unions will have no other milestones than representativeness, the strength embodied in high numbers of members, the ability to mobilise them, and high acceptance among the public.

The process of integration has not yet been concluded. The fundamental changes in Europe demand that the states in Central and Eastern Europe be involved in this process.

The enlargement of the ETUC to include trade unions from Eastern Europe is no act of charity; it is in the direct interests of the ETUC and its affiliates. No longer can the developments in Eastern Europe be regarded as external affairs - they must now be integrated into the ETUC's policy.
European Monetary Union - a quantum leap
Authors: Jacobi Otto
Published: January 2010

The main statements contained in this paper can be summed up as follows:

1. The single market created a supranational economic area. It is only logical from an economic point of view that the single market should also give rise to a single currency.

2. In order to improve Europe's competitive position vis-à-vis Japan and the USA, the dollar must be rivalled by a European currency having equivalent clout.

3. The convergence criteria are economically justified. Stable prices, low interest rates, the reduction of dramatically inflated national debts and the elimination of competitive devaluations stimulate investment, jobs and growth.

4. The European Central Bank will assume the status of a European monetary government. If an equal effort is to be made to achieve employment and social policy objectives, then an economic government and a social government are also required.

5. The task of an economic government, in the form of a harmonised economic policy for the EU Member States, is to promote job-creating investment in new technologies and modern infrastructure projects.

6. The task of a social government, in the form of Union-wide coordinated trade union representation, is to safeguard social standards, participation rights and wage claims.

7. Only the trio of Monetary, Employment and Social Union make sense and entail genuine legitimacy.

8. In the light of the ongoing trend towards globalisation, the cost of failure and the associated re-establishment of putatively wholly sovereign nation states would be counter-productive for all countries in Europe.
Trade unions in Greece: change and continuity1
Authors: Ioannou Christos A.
Published: January 2010

Trade unions in the Greek system of industrial relations (the system of wage and employment regulation, the bargaining structure and behaviour) have shown signs of change and modernisation since the late 80s and the early 90s. The question is whether the model of industrial relations that was dominant in the 70s and 80s, (state-controlled compulsory arbitration, conflict-oriented collective bargaining, political-party-dominated trade-unionism) has given way to a modem model of industrial relations (development of bipartite regulation, consensus-oriented collective bargaining, more union independence vs. the state and the party rivalries).

To explore the prospects of modernisation of Greek trade unions we will discuss changes in the bargaining behaviour (content of collective agreements, strike activity, performance etc.) and the bargaining structure at the national, branch and company level. The role of new labour legislation in modernisation is also discussed. The influence of the Delors initiative for European social dialogue is taken into account as a factor that shaped the behaviour of the major social partners in Greece. The prospects for modernisation are finally evaluated in the context of the restructuring of the Greek labour market and the difficult convergence criteria for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The process of modernisation is taking place in conditions of rising unemployment, increasing labour market segmentation, real wage cuts and deindustrialisation, which may buttress elements of continuity in Greek industrial relations.
Atypical work in the European experience
Authors: Meulders Danièle , Plasman Olivier , Plasman Robert
Published: January 2010

The persistent employment crisis that dogged all of the countries of the European Community, with the exception of Luxembourg, throughout the 1980s has led to the spread of all sorts of jobs which cannot be compared with full-time, life-time work: part-time employment; temporary employment; jobs created by the public authorities; and work experience schemes for young people, as well as jobs with varied or unusual schedules.

The present study follows the evolution of the principal forms of atypical employment during three periods (1983–1985, 1985–1990 and 1990–1994), revealing the constants and the variations, as well as the national divergences in the development of the methods of flexibility and of organisation of working time. The first part looks at divergences and convergences, whilst a second highlights the localisation of the types of atypical employment in certain segments of the labour market
The presence of occupational pension schemes within the overall pension scene
Authors: Bruni Raffaele
Published: January 2010

Normally the studies concerning the development of pension funds focus on the quantitative dimensions of the phenomenon. Supplementary pensions include a plurality of instruments and various types of pensions. Thus to modify this situation, we need redirect reflection towards a more qualitative approach. Quantitative approach is the consequence of the existence of an ideological clash between a liberal and a social view of welfare problems.

Social and economic framework has been modified in the last decades and so there is no reason for keeping the terms of the conflict unaltered. It suggests the need to develop an empirical and flexible approach to the matter. Pension funds will be one of the pivot of a mixed pension system. involving both public and private players with capitalisation and pay-as-you-go system.

Defining this process requires a major planning effort by the social partners. Pension funds offer opportunities for shifting relations between social parties onto a level which has never been achieved, but at the same time they require a long-term strategy which also presupposes that different national situations will move towards convergence. The experience of the European Union may perhaps offer a suitable occasion for achieving this objective.
Multi-track approach to public-sector restructuring in Europe: impact on employment relations; role of the trade unions
Authors: Andersen Søren Kaj , Due Jesper , Madsen Jørgen Steen
Published: January 2010

The article discusses a) restructuring trends in Europe's public sector (in an employment relations perspective), b) the response of the trade unions to this process, and c) the overall impact of these developments on employment relations in the sector.

We present an analysis emphasising the differences in the regulatory systems applied to public-sector restructuring processes in the EU Member States, arguing that there are significant variations in the development dynamics in employment relations, and, further, that these dynamics can be traced to at least three different regulatory regimes.

The first regime of the three posited regimes emerged from the unique pattern of development observed in the UK's public sector, featuring large-scale privatisation schemes, the introduction of elements of competition and new forms of management. The second type of regime is evident in the Nordic countries, in the Netherlands and - albeit in modified form - in Italy, characterised by a certain measure of restructuring of the public-sector labour market, and based largely on co-operation between public-sector employers and the trade unions. The third type of regime is represented by Germany and France, with their independent regulatory systems in which centralism and sets of rules are paramount, with very few changes in the general pattern of employment relations.

While identifying the significant variations listed above, we also argue that a common trend is evident in the EU Member States: a trend towards centralised decentralisation of relations on the public-sector labour market. Our study suggests that, viewed in a broad West European perspective, decentralisation - despite the many attempts to achieve it and despite its adoption, in principle at least, by politicians and the social partners - has been on a modest scale. This is clearly evident if decentralisation is considered in relation to wage-development.

The tight budgetary constraints felt by West European governments may well be the single deter mining factor in what can be regarded as rather rigid control, at centralised level, of the framework for wage development in Western Europe. Admittedly, collective agreements can be nego tiated and concluded at decentralised level - but preferably within the framework determined at centralised level.
Public service pay reforms in European countries
Authors: Marsden David
Published: January 2010

Public service pay systems are undergoing radical change in many countries as a result of a severe squeeze on public spending and increased demands from citizens for increased services and more flexible provision. This article reviews the starting point for reforms in a number of European countries, highlighting the great diversity of organisation, and the priority given to central financial control over greater local management autonomy. A number of recent pay reforms are discussed in some detail, notably, measures to control the pay bill, comparability with private sector workers, greater responsiveness to local labour market pressures, and the spread of new management systems and performance-related pay. The diversity of reforms can be understood in relation to the organisational diversity of national public services but is also connected with differences in the perceptions of the need for reforms.