scholarly journals Free collective bargaining and incomes policy: learning from Barbara Wootton and Hugh Clegg on post-war British Industrial Relations and wage inequality

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 434-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ackers
2021 ◽  
pp. 102425892199500
Author(s):  
Maria da Paz Campos Lima ◽  
Diogo Martins ◽  
Ana Cristina Costa ◽  
António Velez

Internal devaluation policies imposed in southern European countries since 2010 have weakened labour market institutions and intensified wage inequality and the falling wage share. The debate in the wake of the financial and economic crisis raised concerns about slow wage growth and persistent economic inequality. This article attempts to shed light on this debate, scrutinising the case of Portugal in the period 2010–2017. Mapping the broad developments at the national level, the article examines four sectors, looking in particular at the impact of minimum wages and collective bargaining on wage trends vis-à-vis wage inequality and wage share trajectories. We conclude that both minimum wage increases and the slight recovery of collective bargaining had a positive effect on wage outcomes and were important in reducing wage inequality. The extent of this reduction was limited, however, by uneven sectoral recovery dynamics and the persistent effects of precarious work, combined with critical liberalisation reforms.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 642-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Banks

In the 1960's Britain’s traditional industry-wide collective bargaining system was modified significantly by the growth of local bargaining, the introduction of an incomes policy and government recommendations for the general reform of industrial relations. Other important innovations were long term agreements, status agreements and productivity bargaining. The Conservative Governments new Industrial Relations Act will have a significant impact on the industrial relations system, particularly with regard to union recognition, internal unions affairs and the protection of the rights of individual employees. However, the Acts restrictions on the right to strike are likely to have only a minimal impact on established bargaining relationships. As Great Britain enters the 1970's the industrial relations system's main challenge is for unions and management to voluntarily respond to the problems which continue to be posed by the uncoordinated growth of plant bargaining.


1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Schroeder ◽  
Rainer Weinert

The approach of the new millennium appears to signal the demiseof traditional models of social organization. The political core ofthis process of change—the restructuring of the welfare state—andthe related crisis of the industrywide collective bargaining agreementhave been subjects of much debate. For some years now inspecialist literature, this debate has been conducted between theproponents of a neo-liberal (minimally regulated) welfare state andthe supporters of a social democratic model (highly regulated). Thealternatives are variously expressed as “exit vs. voice,” “comparativeausterity vs. progressive competitiveness,” or “deregulation vs.cooperative re-regulation.”


Author(s):  
Cécile Guillaume

Abstract Based on in-depth qualitative research conducted in one of the major French trade unions (the CFDT), this article explores to what extent and under what conditions trade unions adopt different legal practices to further their members’ interests. In particular, it investigates how ‘legal framing’ has taken an increasingly pervasive place in trade union work, in increasingly decentralised industrial relations contexts, such as France. This article therefore argues that the use of the law has become a multifaceted and embedded repertoire of action for the CFDT in its attempt to consolidate its institutional power through various strategies, including collective redress and the use of legal expertise in collective bargaining and representation work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Maarten Keune

In the context of rising inequality between capital and labour and among wage-earners in Europe, this state-of-the-art article reviews the literature concerning the relationship between collective bargaining and inequality. It focuses on two main questions: (i) what is the relationship between collective bargaining, union bargaining power and inequality between capital and labour? and (ii) what is the relationship between collective bargaining, union bargaining power and wage inequality among wage-earners? Both questions are discussed in general terms and for single- and multi-employer bargaining systems. It is argued that collective bargaining coverage and union density are negatively related to both types of inequality. These relationships are however qualified by four additional factors: who unions represent, the weight of union objectives other than wages, the statutory minimum wage, and extensions of collective agreements by governments.


2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Barkin

The swing to political conservatism in the eighties encouraged anti-union groups to weaken and dismantle both the unionmovement and the labor parties. The author, in his analysis, illustrates the developments and contents of the new policies in the field of industrial relations noting that another equally dramatic account may be set forth in the fields of wage policy and social welfare programs.


2003 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braham Dabscheck

AbstractGlobalization and neo-liberalism have been associated with a decline in unions. In seeking to respond to these problems, unions could cooperate internationally. The orthodoxy among industrial relations scholars is that the European Treaty is antithetical to international unionism because of various provisions which promote competition. The experience of the International Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations (FIFPro) contradicts this orthodoxy. In August 2001, FIFPro entered into a framework collective bargaining agreement with Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) on a new set of rules to govern the worldwide employment of professional footballers. Football’s transfer and compensation system violated competitive provisions, in particular the freedom of movement of workers, contained in the European Treaty. Following the 1995 decision of the European Court of Justice in Bosman, and strategic interventions by the European Commission, FIFA sought an accommodation with FIFPro, to protect its new employment rules from further legal attack.


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