Workers without Borders

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Regulatory Enforcement ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Key Topics ◽  
National Models ◽  
Management Power ◽  
Exit Options ◽  
Two Sectors

This book addresses the complexities of transnational posted work through three key topics. First, it examines how the de-territorialization of national models and employment relations systems opens up exit options for management, enabling them to use the regulatory framework creatively and at a disadvantage for workers. Second, it discusses how re-territorialization, or resistance, is possible within these spaces. Third, the book analyzes the contours of the new structure for employment relations that emerges within the pan-European labor market and its implications for worker voice, regulatory enforcement, and management power. The research presented in this book is based on a qualitative and multilevel case study approach. It examines how posted workers and actors involved in the posting relationship actually utilize and experience the European posting framework by focusing on the experiences of transnational posted workers. This distinguishes the book from macro- and national-focused approaches in comparative political economy and industrial relations by zooming in on the workplace dynamics in a transnational setting. The window to how posted workers experience intra-EU mobility is Germany and the two sectors where posting is most prevalent: the construction and meat slaughtering industries.

Telefónica’s bargain with the unions

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 12-14 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategy ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Corporate Restructuring ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Industrial Conflict

Purpose – Analyzes the restructuring approach followed by the highly-profitable Telefónica in its 2011 redundancy plan. Explores unions’ response to management strategy. Design/methodology/approach – Follows a case-study approach, constructing a dataset with information from company reports, committee records, union documents, press releases and other available sources, such as specialized journals and newspapers. Findings – Tries to show how massive job cuts have been implemented through a labor-mediated downsizing strategy that mitigates disagreement and industrial conflict. Originality/value – Tackles the question of how unions respond to corporate restructuring (involving downsizing) in countries where industrial-relations institutions remain relatively strongly embedded.

Unions’ response to corporate restructuring in Telefónica: locked into collective bargaining?

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Óscar Rodríguez-Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Corporate Restructuring ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the restructuring approach followed by the highly profitable Telefónica in its 2011 redundancy plan, and explores unions’ response to management strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The research follows a case study approach constructing a dataset with information from company reports, committee records, union documents, press releases, and other available sources such as specialized journals and newspapers. Findings – Specifically this case study tries to show how massive job cuts have been implemented through a labour-mediated downsizing strategy that mitigates contestation and industrial conflict. Originality/value – The paper tackles the relevant question of how unions respond to corporate restructuring (involving downsizing) in countries where industrial relations institutions remain relatively strongly embedded and proactive.

scholarly journals Pluralisms? Social philosophy, social science and public policy in employment relations and human resource management

2021 ◽  
pp. 002218562098397
Author(s):  
Peter Ackers
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Liberal Democratic

Alan Fox's frames of reference has sparked over half a century of debate between employment relations/human resource management pluralists, radicals and unitarists. But the notion of industrial relations pluralism itself continues to be highly disputed. This commentary tracks the journey from classical pluralism to neo-pluralism, then addresses three articles that offer a variety of radical pluralist alternatives. A fourth paper discussed, suggests a quantitative approach to testing Fox's frames, but this article makes a case for retaining the qualitative, case study method. A fifth explores the revival of paternalism on the border between unitarism and pluralism. Overall, the article argues that classical pluralism, based on trade unions and collective bargaining, is now outdated, but that neo-pluralism is capable of carrying forward its pragmatic, institutional spirit to explore the empirical complexity of contemporary employment relationships around the world. Finally, the discussion of employment relations pluralisms needs to re-engage with the wider political pluralism debate about liberal democratic societies and market economies.

Going the Extra Mile: Managers and Supervisors as Moral Agents for Workers with Disability at Two Social Enterprises

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Bartram ◽  
Jillian Cavanagh ◽  
Stephen Sim ◽  
Patricia Pariona-Cabrera ◽  
Hannah Meacham
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Ethical Management ◽  
Study Approach

This study examines the ethical management of workers with disability (WWD) employed at two social enterprises in Australia. Viewed largely through the spectrum of institutionally-based conflict in the employment relationship, this research draws on a framework of situated moral agency (Wilcox, 2012) to establish the ways in which WWD are afforded opportunities to engage in work and how managers and supervisors practise situated moral agency at the workplace. A qualitative case study approach is used with 62 participants through semi-structured interviews and focus groups.Key findings demonstrate supervisors constantly have to reshape and reinterpret human resource management (HRM) policies and practices to exercise and extend moral agency. This phenomenon suggests contradictions between moral agency and ethical management practice within current HRM regimes. The key message of the paper is that HRM does not always support the ethical management of WWD.Consequently, we question the ethical nature of contemporary HRM policy and practice for WWD, and argue for further research to unpack ethical ways to more effectively support WWD in the workplace. For WWD to be included at work, achieve life skills and their goals, managers and supervisors need to engage with their moral agency. Finally, we draw implications for management and employment relations theory and practice.

A search for new paths in Chinese industrial relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-37
Author(s):  
John Wheatcroft
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Way

Purpose Collective bargaining (CB) in China is perceived as inadequate, thanks to the lack of trade union independence and representation. However, there are interesting developments in some parts of the country, including Wenling, a massive manufacturing center examined here. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative case study covers all stakeholders, including the government, trade unions, sweater association, workers and employers. Findings This paper examines initially the way that trade unions are constrained by corporatism in China. Increased industrial conflicts could push employers to become the engine of change. It finds that employers endeavor to use CB as a tool to stabilize employment relations and neutralize workers resistance. A gradual transition in labor relations system is on the way. The “Wenling Way” described here could become more widely used and is seen in some quarters as a possible model. Originality/value This paper offers new insights into the under-reported area of Chinese industrial relations.

scholarly journals AZAS-AZAS KEBIJAKAN SISTEM PENYELENGGARAAN KETENAGAKERJAAN DI KABUPATEN PASURUAN

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-302
Author(s):  
Hambali
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Business People ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Government ◽  
Independent Work

Government efforts in overcoming the global economic crisis are carried out jointly with the community, especially business people, one of the main reasons for stabilizing the economy and maintaining monetary balance and avoiding the bankruptcy of most companies that have an impact on the majority of workers and ends in termination of relations work. So the role of the actors in implementing local regulations is expected to be overcome, and can realize the capability that exists so that they can run local regulations and can improve their respective roles which ultimately can create a balance between the government, companies and workers who are disadvantaged but with the high school to get good welfare company workers and the government so that they can improve performance with a work ethic, then show human resources that can encourage economic growth and development and realize advanced regions, independent work competitiveness and no more problems for implementing actors Implementation of the Perda. This study was designed with a qualitative research method that uses a case study approach to determine the role of actors in implementing Regional Regulation No. 22 of 2012 concerning the Employment Management System (Study of Industrial Relations in Pasuruan Regency. The data analysis uses interactive model data analysis developed by Miles, Huberman and Saldana, while data collection was conducted through literature studies, field observations, and indept interviews, all data were simulated in depth, comprehensively, and corrected each other in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD).

Posted Work and Transnational Workspaces in Germany

2018 ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
Ines Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
State System ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Informal Work ◽  
Works Councils ◽  
Exit Options

Chapter 2 shows how transnational regulation and de-territorialization impact employment relations in the German construction and the meat slaughtering industries. The aim of this chapter is to examine how this opened up exit options for capital and constrained the rights of unions, works councils, and mobile workers, thereby creating a space that allows for the importation of informal work practices. It relates the literature on labor market dualization to the changes in the nature and organization of the Westphalian state system. Findings of the chapter show that declining territorial boundedness allows firms to circumvent key German industrial relations institutions.

scholarly journals How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying

ILR Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 001979392094491
Author(s):  
Chiara Benassi ◽  
Andreas Kornelakis
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Plant ◽  
Control Constraints ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Contingent Work ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Contractual Arrangements ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
And Control ◽  
Exit Options

The increasing variety of contingent work raises the question of how employers choose between various types of contractual arrangements. The authors review relevant Employment Relations and Strategic HRM literature and distinguish four types of contingent contracts along the dimensions of costs and control. They argue that employers are making choices based on cost and control constraints but are able to reshape these constraints through “institutional toying.” Their case study of a German manufacturing plant and R&D center illustrates the mechanisms of institutional toying, which are consistent with the literature on institutional loopholes and exit options. The article develops propositions that explain the diversity of contingent work arrangements and show how toying strategies enlarge the range of options available to employers.

Employer-initiated collective bargaining: a case study of the Chinese sweater industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyi Wen
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Government

Purpose – Collective bargaining (CB) in China is perceived as inadequate, thanks to the lack of trade union independence and representation. However, CB of the sweater industry in Wenling, one of the world’s largest manufacturing centre, shows another tendency. Using Wenling as the case, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether a new form of CB is emerging in China. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a qualitative case study approach, and covers stakeholders, including the government, trade union, sweater association, workers and employers. Findings – In China, trade unions are constrained by corporatism and therefore cannot become the effective agents of CB. However, the increased industrial conflicts could in effect push employers to become the engine of change. This paper finds that employers endeavour to use CB as a tool to stabilise employment relations and neutralise workers resistance. Consequently, a gradual transition in labour relations system is on the way, characterised by “disorderly resistance” to “orderly compliance” in the working class. Research limitations/implications – The case industry may not be sufficient in drawing the details of CB in China, while it provides the trend of change. Originality/value – Conventional wisdom on the Chinese labour relations and CB tends to ignore the employer’s perspective. This paper partially fills in the gap by offering CB and change of employment relations from the aspect of employers.

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