Documents Tros, Frank 8 results

"Dutch public procurement practices have led to problems with high workloads, low wages, low job autonomy and job insecurity. With reference to four sectors – construction, home care, cleaning and regional bus transport – we discuss two main explanatory dimensions: (i) the financial and institutional context; and (ii) the ideas shaping the normative and cognitive frames of actors that influence their policy-making. Procurers (a) prioritise the cheapest procurement contracts; (b) accept no, or only limited, responsibility for workers' job quality; and (c) show limited knowledge of or at best uncertainty about how public procurement rules allow more attention to be paid to job quality and social aspects. Providers focus mainly on cost competitiveness. Finally, even dominant ideas are not shared by all, and there is (still limited) re-politicisation of job quality issues. This sometimes results in experiments that run counter to the dominant cost-efficiency objective and pay attention to job quality."

"This article deals with the new policy concept of 'flexicurity' in view of the emerging flexibility-security nexus currently faced by the European Union, national governments, sectors of industry, individual companies and workers. On the one hand there is a strong demand to make labour markets, employment and work organisation more flexible. At same time, an equally strong demand exists for providing security to employees - especially vulnerable groups - and for preserving social cohesion in our societies. Policy-makers, legislators, trade unions and employers' organisations have a strong need for new theory-inspired policy models and concepts that promise to reconcile these goals of enhancing both flexibility and security that at first sight seem incompatible. This article discusses the origins, conditions and potential of 'flexicurity' as policy or strategy at various levels of industrial relations. It also outlines a research agenda"

"This Policy Department A study prepared at request of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee examines precarious employment, its patterns, trends and policy strategies in Europe. It explores the risk of precariousness of different types of contract, using information from EU data analysis and literature review, as well as case studies It finds that there are a range and degrees of risks of precariousness associated with all types of contract, based on key indicators of precariousness. A second note presents country case studies of eight EU Member States."

"In this article, thirteen case studies are analysed which study the innovation processes renewing structures and forms of employee participation in companies in private and public sectors of industry in the Netherlands. In the majority of the case studies, new hybrid forms between representative and direct participation have been launched, in which elected members of works councils co-operate with non-member employees, mostly in temporary projects. These initiatives show successful results in mobilizing employee involvement in representative as well as in direct workers' participation, and in improving efficiency and effectiveness in consultations with management in the workplace, as well as with company directors. At the same time, however, works councils have compromised on lowering the number of seats on their councils, leading to dilemmas around questions of democracy, formal powers and coordination. Furthermore, these experiments show limitations in their scope. Firstly, they hardly address more effective inclusion of the many (younger) workers with flexible contracts in employee participation schemes, nor the broader potential impacts on companies' strategic decision-making. It can be concluded that practices aimed at renewing employee participation develop within the confines of the traditional characteristics of Dutch industrial relations, such as cooperative relationships between works councils and management, a low level of interventions from trade unions and a focus on the field of operational management (rather than on conflictual workers interests and strategic issues)."

"One of the main challenges in labour relations in Europe is the ongoing decentralisation of collective bargaining from national and sectoral levels to company levels. Decentralisation might be an answer to business needs in competitiveness and organisational flexibility. However, it risks erosion of collective bargaining structures, more inequality in employment conditions and fragmentation in trade unions' powers. Based on recent qualitative research, this book shows high varieties across European countries and economic sectors in degrees, forms and impacts of decentralisation. The authors explore, in interdisciplinary and multi-level perspectives, continuity and change in regulating and practicing collective bargaining in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden. In cross-country comparisons, company case studies in manufacturing and retail show the divergent effects of national regimes and social partners' power resources on trade unions' strategies and influence in company bargaining."