Documents labour relations 5 914 results

"Cet article a pour objet de mettre au jour les processus d'ajustement des établissements face à la crise, les caractériser et, conjointement, analyser la manière dont ils ont été discutés, négociés ou au contraire imposés par les directions. Sur le plan méthodologique, il s'appuie sur 15 monographies d'établissements réalisées dans le cadre des post-enquêtes à l'enquête Relations professionnelles et négociations d'entreprises (REPONSE) 2010-2011. Il montre que les établissements ne subissent pas une crise mais des crises : la dégradation de la conjoncture économique n'est pas la seule cause aux ajustements observés, même si elle peut servir de justification. Il rend également compte de la pluralité des ajustements, de leur séquençage et de leur polarisation. Entre négociation défensive et concession, la crise apparaît comme un contexte propice à imposer des compromis aux salariés."

"This article analyses the impact of new public management on employment relations in public healthcare in Hungary and Slovakia. We argue that hospital corporatization – a process which changed the ownership structure and management of public hospitals without privatization – created an opportunity for institutional change in collective bargaining. However, the interaction between hospital owners and managements, the state and trade unions accounts for the absence of major institutional change. Instead, corporatization helped maintain bargaining coordination in Slovakia and bargaining fragmentation in Hungary."

"A l'heure des réseaux sociaux, du travail à distance, des horaires flexibles et de la numérisation de l'économie, a-t-on encore vraiment besoin de syndicats de salariés et d'organisations patronales ? Ils seraient dépassés, peu représentatifs et sourds aux besoins des personnes qu'ils sont censés représenter. Pourquoi, dans ce cas, salariés et chefs d'entreprise leur feraient-ils confiance ? Ce livre répond avec précision à plus de soixante idées fausses sur le dialogue social et les syndicats. En contrecarrant point par point ces préjugés, il montre que, parmi le bon million de salariés et de chefs d'entreprise qui détiennent aujourd'hui un mandat, la très grande majorité sont proches de leurs collègues, assument leurs responsabilités, concluent des accords collectifs et prennent en compte les réalités économiques et sociales. Il montre également combien, loin d'être une perte de temps, le dialogue social dans les entreprises et administrations est utile aux salariés et aux dirigeants. Il explique que les divergences et les conflits d'intérêts n'empêchent pas de discuter de stratégie économique ou des nécessaires évolutions de l'action publique. Il montre aussi comment les représentants des organisations nationales s'engagent dans les branches, aux plans territorial et national, pour améliorer la formation professionnelle, la protection sociale, l'assurance chômage et lutter contre la précarité. Cet ouvrage ne nie pas les difficultés, voire certaines dérives, mais présente des éléments factuels pour mieux faire connaître la réalité et l'utilité de l'engagement d'un grand nombre de nos concitoyens dans le dialogue social au niveau de l'entreprise, de la branche, du territoire et au plan national. Sous la responsabilité de l'auteur et de RDS, il a bénéficié de la participation de la CFDT, la CFE-CGC, la CFTC, la CGT, FO, la FSU, le Medef, l'UNSA et l'UPA."

"In the current context of economic and social crisis, our study aims to determine whether labour law protection should be granted only to employees or whether other categories of workers should also be protected. As a part of the research project, ‘Which securities for (which) workers in time of crisis?', we introduce some clarifications in relation to the second part of the question (‘which workers'?), considering, in particular, the intermediate category of economically dependent workers in different European States. However, there is a certain degree of uncertainty surrounding the definition of economically dependent work and confusion as regards the designation of the phenomenon and its overlap with the problem of false self-employed workers. Some States have legal concepts of an economically dependent worker, while in many others it is a phenomenon that remains under discussion."

"Trade unions in most of Europe are on the defensive: in recent decades they have lost membership, sometimes drastically; their collective bargaining power has declined, as has their influence on government; and in many countries, their public respect is much diminished.
This book explores the challenges facing trade unions and their responses in ten west European countries: Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Italy. Based on a substantial number of interviews with key union representatives and academic experts in each country, together with the collection of a large amount of union documentation and background material, the book gives an account of how trade unionism has evolved in each country, the main recent challenges that unions have faced, and their responses. The book engages with the debates of the past two decades on union modernization and revitalization, and more generally with theories of institutional change and the literature on varieties of capitalism.
Some observers ask whether unions remain relevant socio-economic actors, but challenging times can stimulate new thinking, and hence provide new opportunities. This book aims to show why trade unions are (still) important subjects for scientific analysis: first, as a means of collective 'voice' allowing employees to challenge management control and bringing a measure of balance to the employment relationship; second, as a form of 'countervailing power' to the socio-economic dominance of capital; and third, their potential as a 'sword of justice' to defend the weak, vulnerable and disadvantaged, express a set of values in opposition to the dominant political economy, and offer aspirations for a different—and better—form of society."

"Transnational collective bargaining (TCB) has become a ‘hot' topic of European industrial relations. As well as collective bargaining between workers and employers conducted at the sectoral or national level, negotiations on employee rights and working conditions now also take place at the supranational level, within multinational companies. It is a development that poses major challenges for trade unions, as well as for employers and lawmakers. This book takes stock of the particular challenges faced by trade union representatives, works councils and employer organisations; it reviews the existing literature on this topic and examines contrasting views of the prospects for subsequent development of this new practice; it also offers some practical suggestions for policymakers who find themselves having to deal with this new component of the Europeanisation of industrial relations.
One of the key questions tackled in the book is whether a regulatory framework for TCB is feasible, necessary and/or useful. Perhaps even more importantly: can we, given the proliferation of instances of TCB, actually manage without such a legal system, and what should be the main elements of such a framework? By providing a better understanding and a critical analysis of the emergence and development of transnational collective bargaining, the authors of this book offer valuable help to trade unionists and practitioners in preparing for – and being prepared for – this next stage in the internationalisation of industrial relations."

"Is the EU enlargement the success EU institutions proclaim? Based on fifteen years of fieldwork research across Central and Eastern Europe and on migrants in the UK and Germany, this book provides a less glittering answer. The EU has betrayed hopes of social cohesion: social regulations have been forgotten, multinationals use threats of relocations, and workers, left without institutional channels to voice their concerns, have reacted by leaving their countries en masse. Yet migration, for many, increases social vulnerability.

Drawing on Hirschman's concepts of ‘Exit' and ‘Voice', the book traces the origins of such failures in the management of EU enlargement as a pure economic and market-creating exercise, neglecting the inherently political nature of labour relations. The reinforcement of market mechanisms without political counterbalances has resulted in an increase in opportunistic ‘exit' behaviour by both employers and employees, and thereby in a worsening quality of democracy, at workplace, national and European levels. As a result of this process, the EU has become more similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement between USA, Canada and Mexico, where social rights are marginalized and economic integration does not translate into better development. "

"The continuing advance of globalization, together with deepening European integration, has increased the significance of the transnational level of trade union organization and action. This study offers a comprehensive overview of the development, structure, and policies of global and European trade union federations to serve as a reference work on all the key trade union movements operating globally and in Europe. It presents an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing these organizations and their strategic and policy responses. As a handbook, this volume provides extensive and systematically presented data on transnational sectoral trade union federations. Applying an analogous structure in the presentation of both global and European levels, the study features extensive organizational profiles, portraits, and overviews. This empirical material serves to reveal recent innovations in cross-border policy instruments and strategic approaches since the 1990s. The changing profiles of international trade unions - as measured against a set of functional criteria drawn from political science - and key developments in transnational trade union activity since the start of the new century are also investigated."

"This article deals with the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Our specific interest is in the effects of FDI on the organisation of work and labour relations at the enterprise level; in a more general sense we are concerned with the contribution of FDI to the creation of the microeconomic foundation essential to functioning market economies. We hold that there is a discernible process of selective harmonisation taking place between outside influences and existing domestic factors. In this context we postulate that the importance of FDI is further enhanced by influencing a broad array of societal transformation processes beyond the enterprise itself, thus contributing to a process which could develop into what we have labelled a European-style environment. Admittedly, the outcome can as yet only be rudimentarily defined, especially since a European-style environment, as a point of reference, is itself currently undergoing continuous change. But we hypothesise that it will be a process which reflects to varying degrees both the endogenous and exogenous sources of its making."