scholarly journals Combatting exploitation of migrant temporary agency workers through sectoral self-regulation in the UK and the Netherlands

2022 ◽  
pp. 095968012110525
Author(s):  
Wike Been ◽  
Paul de Beer
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
European Union Enlargement ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

The recent growth of precarious work has sparked a vivid debate on whether this tendency can be reversed by the social partners through sectoral self-regulation. In this sectoral case study of the temporary work agencies sector in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the views, approaches, power and interaction between trade unions and employers’ organizations are studied in the context of increasing labour migration in the decade following European Union enlargement. The results show that the employers’ organizations have been leading actors in self-regulation, seeking collaboration with trade unions in the Netherlands. In both countries, trade unions have taken an inclusive approach but had little power to affect the deterioration of employment conditions. It has proven difficult to the social partners to reverse the process of increasing precarious work and exploitation. Strict regulatory frameworks imposed by the government are needed to turn a vicious circle into a virtuous one.

Vakbonden en sociaal overleg in het laatste kwart van de XX° eeuw

Res Publica ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-117
Author(s):  
Willy Peirens
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
The Government ◽  
Role Of The Government

The unique character of the socio-economic negociations in Belgium has lost much of its glamour and prestige during the last quarter of the 20th century.  While before 1975, there was more or less agreement among the social partners to redistribute welfare to the whole society, after the first oil crisis employers tended to see themselves in competition with other employers, with the trade unions and with the state. Both employers' organisations as trade unions wanted to safeguard their own priorities, respectively the competitiveness of the enterprises and the system of indexation. As a consequence, it became very difficult to reach agreements and hence, there have been no or only very small interprofessional agreements signed since 1975.The role of the government in this period evolved from the role of host for the negociations to that of co-actor and finally to director. When no agreement was possible between the social partners, the govenrment itself took the initiative and both trade unions and employers' organisations tried to lobby the government rather than being partners in negociations. The measures of the government, especially those taken with extra-ordinary powers, were often beneficial for the employers. Despite the emphasis by the trade unions on employment, their efforts beared not much fruit. The first priority of both the government and the employers was the enhancement of the financial and the economic situation of the country. Since the interprofessional agreement of 1999-2000, a new period bas begun. Trade unions and employers' organisations are constrained by what happens in the rest of Europe. Between these constaints, they can negociate and conclude agreements on the basis of freedom and responsibility.The level of negociations shifted in this period from the interprofessional level to the level of the sector or even to the level of the enterprise. Another trend is the creation of an institutional framework for social talks on the Flemish level.The challenges for the future are the installation of a European or even an international world-wide institutional framework for social negociations and the development of themes as permanent education, quality of life and work and the enhancement of the socio-economic democracy.

Schwäche der Tarifautonomie und Legitimitätsfragen im Arbeitsrecht und im Sozialrecht

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-236
Author(s):  
Stephan Seiwerth
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
System Change ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

AbstractSocial partners have played a privileged role in German social security administration since Bismarckian times. In 2014, a new legislation empowered the social partners to set the level of the statutory minimum wage and to demand the extension of collective agreements. This article examines the interdependence of the trade unions’ and employer organisations’ membership numbers and their involvement in state regulation of labour and social security law. In case the interest in autonomous regulations is not going to increase, the state will have to step in with more heteronomous regulation. This would incrementally lead to a system change.

Social partnership as an approach to CSR: ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ actors, their roles and relations

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Mailand
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Transfer ◽  
Business Networks ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

This article reports on research into social partnerships aiming at labour market inclusion that developed during the 1990s in Denmark, the UK and Spain. Some of these partnerships are directly related to corporate social responsibility (CSR initiatives in individual firms), whereas others are only indirectly related (for instance, active labour market policy initiatives at local, regional and national level). Developments such as new target groups for such policies, the weakening of the social partners, ideological change, policy transfer and budget constraints of the state have led to more partnerships taking a multipartite form, meaning that not only the public authorities and the social partners, but also new actors such as business networks, commercial operators and NGOs, participate. The involvement of new actors poses a challenge for the traditional actors – among them the trade unions. Whether the relations between traditional and new actors are best described by conflict or by cooperation cannot be explained by regime theories. The decisive factor seems to be the extent to which the new actors challenge the privileged positions of the traditional actors.

Digital collaborative platforms: A challenge for both the legislator and the social partners in the Nordic model

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annamaria Westregård
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Security Regulations

This paper focuses on the specific problems in the labour and social security legislation as it relates to crowdworkers in the digitalised new economy, analysing their place in labour market, and especially in the collective agreements which are the standard means of regulating working conditions in the Nordic model. Sweden has a binary system where a performing party is as either an employee or self-employed. The law on working and employment conditions offers only limited protection to those on short, fixed-term contracts; instead, it is social partners that have improved crowdworkers’ conditions in some industries by using collective bargaining. However, there are no collective agreements in the digital economy, or indeed for platform entrepreneurs. The complications of the parties’ positions will be analysed, especially as platforms do not consider themselves to be employers, but rather coordinators of the self-employed. It is not only labour law regulations that are important to prevent precariat among crowdworkers. It is also very important that the social security regulations adapt to the new labour market as the social security legislation is an important part of the Nordic model.

Journalistic Organizations: Arenas for Professional and Symbolic Struggles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Le Cam
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The 19Th Century

From the end of the 19th century until the present, journalists have created associations, trade unions, clubs, and major international networks to organize workers, defend their rights, set out their duties, establish rules of good conduct, and structure their professional journalistic skills. These journalistic organizations are central actors in the history of the professionalization of journalistic groups around the world. They have enabled journalists to make their demands public, exchange views with journalists from other countries, and sometimes even promote and achieve legal recognition of their profession. In general terms, they have provided journalists with fora to discuss their working conditions, their profession, and the social role of the media and journalism. In this way, they have helped to structure not only discourses and practices, but also networks of solidarity at both national and international levels. These organizations can exist in different arenas: within media companies, at the national level, or internationally. And, despite their variety over time, they have often pursued similar objectives: protect journalists’ pay and employment conditions and status; conceive strategies to maintain a certain form of autonomy in authoritarian political contexts; nourish international networking ambitions that have made it possible to disseminate ways of doing and thinking journalism; and finally generate a set of actions that aims to defend the ethics of journalism, the quality of news, and the lives of journalists.

3. The Finnish National Workplace Development Program as a New Approach in Public Policy

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
Tuomo Alasoini
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
The Government ◽  
Workplace Development

This paper presents the aims and main focus areas of the Finnish National Workplace Development Programme. The Government-initiated programme in which also the social partners are involved was launched in 1996, and it will continue until 2003. The author considers that, using wisely, the high legitimacy programme-based workplace development enjoys in Finland today may prove to be an important source of competitive advantage for the country.

LHBTI1-discriminatie en werk

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-279
Author(s):  
Michiel Odijk
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Climate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation

Abstract As a result of a changing mentality in the 1980s in the Netherlands, the dismissal of workers because of their sexual orientation started to raise public indignation and contributed to the creation of lesbian/gay (later: LGBTI) groups in trade unions. Since then, discriminatory dismissals have become outlawed. These union groups, however, had and still have a broader agenda: inclusiveness in collective labour agreements and improving the social climate at work are major issues. Issues that still need to be studied include discrimination and exclusion mechanisms faced by bisexual and by intersex workers and how unions can stand up against these.

Developments in Worker Participation in New Zealand

1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F. Smith
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Marked Effect ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Industrial Democracy ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Worker Participation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

Industrial democracy and worker participation have become important topics for international debate, with developments taking place in many countries. Despite its former reputation for advances in the social field, little has been heard about developments in worker participation in New Zealand. The aim of the present paper is to report and assess such developments whilst placing these within the context of developments in industrial relations in that country. The strong reliance upon legal arrangements and government intervention in industrial relations matters have had a marked effect upon the development of the industrial relations system in New Zealand. Yet, despite this tradition of legalism, successive governments remain singularly reluctant to legislate in the field of worker participation. Recent initiatives by employers have been strongly unitary in nature, whilst the trade unions appear to be concentrating their efforts upon extending the scope of collective bargaining, an opportunity afforded to them due to recent changes in the law. The present Government's wish that voluntary arrangements between employers and trade unions will eventuate to cover worker participation seems less than pragmatic, since employers, unions and the Government itself differ so fundamentally upon what constitutes worker participation, and the forms it might take.

scholarly journals Union struggle and the crisis of industrial relations in Italy

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Pulignano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Union Power ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
The Government

This paper argues that the Berlusconi government is seeking to replace the ‘social concertation’ arrangement between government and trade unions with ‘social dialogue’ in an effort to undermine trade union ‘power’. This endeavour by the government to impose a policy of ‘social dialogue’ would severely limit trade unions' influence in economic and social policy decision-making and leave Berlusconi free to introduce reforms favouring his friends in employer organisations. One likely outcome would be the deregulation of the Italian labour market strongly damaging workers' rights.

Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution

2010 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-153
Author(s):  
Alan Knight
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Social Program ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politics And Education ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractThis article examines Frank Tannenbaum's engagement with Mexico in the crucial years following the Revolution of 1910–1920 and his first visit to the country in 1922. Invited—and feted—by the government and its powerful labor allies, Tannenbaum soon expanded his initial interest in organized labor and produced a stream of work dealing with trade unions, peasants, Indians, politics, and education—work that described and often justified the social program of the Revolution, and that, rather surprisingly, continued long after the Revolution had lost its radical credentials in the 1940s. Tannenbaum's vision of Mexico was culturalist, even essentialist; more Veblenian than Marxist; at times downright folkloric. But he also captured important aspects of the process he witnessed: local and regional variations, the unquantifiable socio-psychological consequences of revolution, and the prevailing concern for order and stability. In sum, Tannenbaum helped establish the orthodox—agrarian, patriotic, and populist—vision of the Revolution for which he has been roundly, if sometimes excessively, criticized by recent “revisionist” historians; yet his culturalist approach, with its lapses into essentialism, oddly prefigures the “new cultural history” that many of these same historians espouse.

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