Documents Makó, Csaba 8 results

"Drawing upon the examples of Bulgaria and Hungary, this article explores employee representation and voice in SMEs in central and eastern Europe in the context of the spectacular development of the SME sector during the post-1990 transition and associated changes in labour relations and collective bargaining practices. The article examines the relationship between the regulation of employment relations and employee representation and voice. It suggests that the absence of formal channels of representation in SMEs hides the existence of a number of informal compromises between employers and employees over matters such as wages, working time, and health and safety conditions. The authors argue that future trade union strategies should be based on a clear understanding of these social realities. "

"The quality of the working lives of European citizens is strongly dependent upon the forms of work organisation within which they operate. This report examines the four main types of work organisation that exist in Europe, outlines the characteristics that distinguish them, and looks at their prevalence in terms of sector, occupation, company size and from a cross country perspective. The analysis is based on findings from the fourth European Working Conditions Survey carried out across 31 countries, including the 27 EU Member States."

"The paper consists of two parts, the first focusing on the institutional heritage of an innovative work organization (teamworking) that emerged in state-socialist firms in Hungary in the 1980s. The second part of the analysis concentrates on the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) on work organization, with special regard to the employees' role in task structuring in the post-socialist economy during the 1990s.The experience with the so-called 'Inside Contracting Groups' (Hungarian acronym: VGMK) in the 1980s actually meant an innovative attempt to mobilize human resources by letting employees establish their autonomous working groups after their regular working time. Almost a tenth of the industrial workforce participated in this nation-wide social experiment. The technical-professional and social-cultural learning processes in these autonomous working groups have produced the following 'spill-over effect': these 'proto-entrepreneurs' within the state-socialist firms became micro- or small business owners after the collapse of the state-socialist political and economic regime. During the 1990s, the first decade of the emerging market economy in Hungary, massive FDI arrived in the country and had a strong impact on the diffusion of organizational innovations in labour processes, too (e.g. teamworking, cost centres, TQM, IT use, ISO 9000, etc.). 'Leading-edge' management practices in foreign-owned firms play the role of 'external benchmarking' for Hungarian firms, but, beside the transfer of some organizational innovations in labour processes (e.g. increasing employee participation in the quality assurance), it is hard to identify in the indigenous firms innovative practices like that of the VGMK in the 1980s."

"Although the share of platform work is very small compared to conventional and traditional employment system, research shows that the use of platform work is increasingly growing all over the world. Trade unions have also paid special attention to the platform work because they know that the transfer of a percentage of human resources to the platforms is undeniable. To this end, the trade unions prepare themselves for the challenges and dynamics of this emerging phenomenon in the field of human resources. Using a qualitative research method and a case study of Hungary, the present study aimed to identify the strategies adopted by Trade Unions to manage the transition to platform works and provide suggestions for both practitioners and future research."

""This book reflects the diversity of platform workers and their strategies to improve their work and organize collectively. It offers an insight on the cultural and institutional frameworks of the gig economy and the varieties of platform work in different sectors, locals, skills and complexity level. At the same time, it provides a range of policy options to ensure labour rights and social protections for these workers. Although a common European policy is still missing, critical debates have been raised to foster socially acceptable platform work. It presents new pathways for exploiting the potential positive effects of platform economy and platform-based work." (from the Introduction)

“It is therefore not surprising that new initiatives are arising both among traditional trade unions and in new types of organisation and, in the process, innovative new demands are being raised and placed on the negotiating agenda. These are documented in this timely publication, which adds indispensably to our knowledge about labour responses to platformisation in Europe.” (from the Preface by Ursula Huws)"

"The extension of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic management mechanisms by companies has led to growing trade union demands to regulate their use. This article explores the role of collective bargaining and employee participation mechanisms in regulating the use by companies of AI and algorithms. This is done through a comparative analysis of institutional developments at EU level, as well as in four countries with different industrial relations models (Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Spain). The article shows that there are remarkable differences between countries in the roles of social partners and in the combination of protective and participative mechanisms used to respond to the challenges of AI and algorithmic management. However, the analysis also serves to highlight the limits of existing institutions and practices to cope with the complexity of challenges associated with AI and algorithmic management. This calls for institutional adaptation and additional regulatory efforts at EU and national levels to support collective bargaining.
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