{"title":"Beyond density: Improving European trade unions’ representativeness through gender quotas","authors":"Raquel Rego, Ana Espírito-Santo","doi":"10.1177/09596801231187270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231187270","url":null,"abstract":"Trade unions’ legitimacy is rooted in membership, since unions result from the organization of workers who found they were stronger through a collective voice. Accordingly, union representativeness has been assessed primarily through ‘density’ – the ratio of union members to the total workforce. We argue that density is crucial but insufficient. First, the decline in trade union membership jeopardizes internal legitimacy; second, unions have developed external legitimacy when acting beyond their members. Inspired by the multifaceted concept of ‘political representation’, we suggest a fairer approach which adds the composition of unions’ boards – beginning with gender – to density whenever unions act on behalf of all workers. Specifically, we contend that trade unions willing to take part in the European negotiations should adopt gender quotas on their boards. This approach is likely to stimulate equality in the labour market, while contributing to unions’ revitalization, thus fostering the quality of democratic institutions.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41751791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Same same but different? The Mediterranean growth regime and public sector wage-setting before and after the sovereign debt crisis","authors":"Donato Di Carlo, O. Molina","doi":"10.1177/09596801231183787","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231183787","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes the role of public sector wage-setting (PSWS) in Mediterranean countries before and after the Eurozone crisis. Extant literature suggests public sector wage inflation to be the norm in these countries due to the lack of institutional preconditions for wage restraint and the role of PSWS in shoring up the publicly financed domestic demand-led growth regime. Yet, the cases of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain do not to neatly fit these predictions, showing instead notable cross-country and intra-country diachronic variation. We provide an alternative account by treating PSWS as fiscal policy under EMU. Variation in PSWS outcomes before the Eurozone crisis is best explained in terms of the institutions governing PSWS. In France and Portugal, PSWS is highly centralized at the national level, and a strong Finance Ministry plays a central role in the oversight of PSWS to ensure budgetary discipline. To the contrary, Italy and Spain underwent processes of disorganized decentralization of PSWS through the 1990s and 2000s, leading to fragmented – and often clientelist – practices resulting in disorderly inflationary wage increases across the country. After the sovereign debt crisis, all countries relied on restrictive PSWS to support internal devaluation and fiscal adjustment, though with different intensity related to the country-specific problem load and external constraints.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47229423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is it all the same? Types of innovation and their relationship with direct control, technical control and algorithmic management","authors":"Marta Fana, Davide Villani","doi":"10.1177/09596801231180399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231180399","url":null,"abstract":"Using firm-level data from 28 European countries, this paper explores the relationship between two types of innovation (process and digital) and different forms of control (direct and indirect) at the workplace. We find that (1) digital innovation is more common than process innovation; (2) more innovative firms record higher levels of indirect control (especially related to algorithmic management) and lower levels of direct control; (3) the relationship between innovation and control is not uniform across European regions. These findings nurture the debate on the future of work as the process of digitalisation may promote a shift towards indirect forms of control and contribute to reducing the degree of direct control. Moreover, these changes may also affect the bargaining process and lead to a redefinition of managerial roles, though it should be acknowledged that social and institutional factors play an important role in shaping this process.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42985914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Janine Berg, F. Green, Laura Nurski, David A Spencer
{"title":"Risks to job quality from digital technologies: Are industrial relations in Europe ready for the challenge?","authors":"Janine Berg, F. Green, Laura Nurski, David A Spencer","doi":"10.1177/09596801231178904","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231178904","url":null,"abstract":"We examine job quality effects of new digital technologies, using the European frame of seven job quality domains: Pay, Working Time Quality, Prospects, Skills and Discretion, Work Intensity, Social Environment, and Physical Environment. Theoretical effects are ambivalent across all domains. The analysis of these effects confirms that digital technologies can both improve and harm job quality depending on how they are used. In light of this analysis and to think through the challenge of regulating digital technologies, we review emerging regulations across several European countries. Drawing on the principles of human-centred design, we argue that worker participation is important for securing good job quality outcomes, at both the innovation and adoption stages. We also consider the application of data protection legislation to the regulation of job quality. Overall, the paper extends debate about the future of work beyond employment and pay, on to a consideration of job quality more broadly.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49603693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ryan A Morgan, Ward van Zoonen, Claartje L. ter Hoeven
{"title":"Lost in the crowd? An investigation into where microwork is conducted and classifying worker types","authors":"Ryan A Morgan, Ward van Zoonen, Claartje L. ter Hoeven","doi":"10.1177/09596801231171997","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231171997","url":null,"abstract":"The global expansion of the platform economy raised questions about where and by whom different forms of platform work are performed in Europe. This study focuses on microworking – that is, where an anonymous ‘crowd’ completes piecemeal digital work. Specifically, we address two questions about microworking in the EU-27: Where is microworking performed? Who is performing it? Based on the geolocation of 5,239 workers active on six prominent microworking platforms, we identify variation in the relative prevalence of microworking across the EU. Furthermore, we build on existing research to provide a more granular understanding of different classes of microworkers, in terms of diversity and (income) dependency. Four distinct classes of microworkers emerge through statistical modelling of eight relevant diversity and dependency indicators: age, gender, education, citizenship, experience, hours per week, personal income earned, household income. We label these classes Explorers, Enthusiasts, Supplementers, and Dependents. The identification of these emergent classes and varied prevalence of microworking across the EU, suggest the importance of heterogeneity to both the future study and regulation of microwork.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":"301 - 322"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43852157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manufacturing informality. Global production networks and the reproduction of informalized labour regimes in Europe’s peripheries","authors":"Francesco Bagnardi","doi":"10.1177/09596801231167160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231167160","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the drivers of informal employment persistence in Global Production Networks. Building on a structuralist perspective, it reframes informalization as a tool of labour control and argues that informalization – while influenced by structural economic pressures and local socio-institutional contexts – is ultimately shaped by the employer-employee relations at the workplace. Drawing on Global Production Networks analysis and Labour Process Theory, the paper builds a novel extended structuralist approach to investigate the reproduction of informalization in the garment-footwear production networks in Italy and Albania. Through a multi-sited qualitative fieldwork, the paper shows that informalization dynamics persist as a response to competitive structural pressures only as long as workers are unable or unwilling to resist them. Yet, the situated bargaining power relations at each node of the chain crucially determine the predominant forms of informalization leading to either coercive and despotic, or hegemonic and negotiated, informalized workplace regimes.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":"271 - 299"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43511139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Keizer, Matt Johnson, T. Larsen, Bjarke Refslund, D. Grimshaw
{"title":"Unions and precarious work: How power resources shape diverse strategies and outcomes","authors":"A. Keizer, Matt Johnson, T. Larsen, Bjarke Refslund, D. Grimshaw","doi":"10.1177/09596801231162517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231162517","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the ability of unions to tackle precarious work by analysing three illustrative case-studies from Denmark, Germany and the UK. It draws on the power resource theory to analyse how different dimensions of power interact with union strategies towards workers in precarious employment, shaping outcomes in both collective representation and labour market conditions. The analysis stresses how unions need multiple forms of power, with important interactions among and across different levels of power resources and important differences between countries, sectors and workplaces. The paper discusses these interactions with a specific focus on the need to develop new resources, in particular ideational resources that are inclusive to those in precarious work, and the interaction between power resources and union strategies as the availability or absence of resources affects the strategies that unions can develop.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47214080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The social policy preferences of EU employers’ organizations: An exploratory analysis","authors":"Igor Guardiancich, Andrea Terlizzi, D. Natali","doi":"10.1177/09596801231153928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231153928","url":null,"abstract":"Despite decades of European social dialogue, little is known about the social policy preferences of EU employers’ organizations (EEOs). Building on the literature on industrial relations and the role of business in welfare state development, this article explores the preferences of key EEOs (BusinessEurope, SGI Europe and SMEunited) in vocational education and training (VET), active and passive labour market policies, pensions and work–family reconciliation. Software-based qualitative content analysis of 75 position papers and 19 joint declarations, triangulated with four elite semi-structured interviews, is employed to assess employers’ preferences along four national and two European dimensions. Largely in line with the power resources theory, EEOs favour cost containment and social investment, by strengthening labour market flexicurity and reducing skills mismatches through VET. Conflicting logics of membership and influence guide the actions of EEOs: members are wary of legislation impinging on national social policy traditions; yet, greater European assertiveness makes lobbying efforts unavoidable.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":"243 - 269"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42380599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Making and breaking coalitions for a more ‘Social Europe’: The path towards the revision of the posted workers directive","authors":"Anna Kyriazi","doi":"10.1177/09596801221148853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801221148853","url":null,"abstract":"The article traces the passage of the legislative amendment that changed the rules of the intra-EU posting of workers, proposed by the Juncker Commission in 2016. Using data gathered from the news media and 11 interviews, it reconstructs the policy-making process, finding that this was shaped by means of intergovernmental interactions between executives of (groups of) member states. A key turning point occurred in August 2017, when the then newly elected French President, Emmanuel Macron, embarked on a highly publicized tour in a select group of eastern European states, with the stated aim of building support for the amending Directive. Eventually, the coalition of Eastern European member states that had initially challenged the Commission’s proposal was dismantled, clearing the way for its adoption. Extra-institutional intergovernmental negotiations propel contested policy initiatives forward by limiting the range of actors involved in the policy process, by relaxing the complex decision-making rules characteristic of the EU, and by providing opportunities to instrumentalize media attention.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":"221 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42089338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trade union revitalization in hard times: a mission impossible?","authors":"Aurora Trif, Magdalena Bernaciak, M. Kahancová","doi":"10.1177/09596801221148860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801221148860","url":null,"abstract":"The relation between trade unions’ power resources and their ability to revitalize is contentious. One strand of literature claims that weak power resources prevent unions from undertaking efforts to restore their strength and influence, while another research strand argues that the depletion of power resources may stimulate unions to take such actions. This Special Issue tests these conflicting expectations with evidence from eight Central-Eastern European (CEE) countries. It focuses on the drivers and outcomes of different types of revitalization strategies that CEE unions employ to respond to challenges. By examining the link between union power resources and their revitalization strategies, it expands the scholarly knowledge on the preconditions and limits of union revitalization in adverse contexts.","PeriodicalId":47034,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":"3 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44469312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}