The European Union and industrial relations - New procedures, new context

This is the first book to provide a clear overview and innovative analysis of the multiple ways the European Union affects industrial relations. It frames the EU as the provider of both a new institutional framework and policy context for industrial relations. It first examines the European level institutional framework for industrial relations, namely the European social dialogue at cross-sectoral, sectoral and company level, as well as interactions between these and transnational developments. It then focuses on the EU’s role as a driver for institutional change in industrial relations at the national level, and subsequently analyses how the EU’s policy framework, such as the common market freedoms, economic governance and Agenda 2020, influences industrial relations. The book will be of great interest particularly to all those involved in industrial relations and EU studies and more generally to anyone interested in the EU’s debated and contested role in socio-economic governance in the face of an economic crisis that puts into question existing national and transnational governance structures.

Introduction 1. The European Union: Institution-builder, arena, and policy context for industrial relations Stijn Smismans PART I: The EU and institutional change in the European social dialogue 2. The European cross-sectoral social dialogue between autonomous action and regulatory involvement Tobias Müllensiefen 3. The EU and formalisation of sectoral social dialogue: lessons from the sector of central public administrations Michael Kaeding and Lukas Obholzer 4. The European sectoral social dialogue as a tool for coordination across Europe? Evelyne Léonard, Emmanuelle Perin and Philippe Pochet 5. European social dialogue and transnational company agreements Evelyne Léonard and André Sobczak Part II. The EU as driver of institutional change in industrial relations at the national level 6. The European dimension of employee involvement: articulating between local practices and supra-national structures Valeria Pulignano and Norbert Kluge 7. The EU and institutional change in industrial relations in the new Member States Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán and Stijn Smismans 8. The European Union as institutional model and policy context for industrial relations in France: New power games between the social partners and the State Nicole Kerschen Part III: The European Union as Policy Context for Industrial Relations 9. Labour and liberalisation: organised opposition to an ‘open market’ on the European waterfront. Peter Turnbull 10. The European Union and posted workers: industrial relation disputes framed by European policy. Nick Parsons 11. The Lisbon Strategy, industrial relations and Social Europe: an assessment of theoretical frameworks and policy developments Janine Goetschy 12. Flexicurity: a new impulse for social dialogue in Europe? Maarten Keune Epilogue 13. European Industrial Relations after the Crisis. A Postscript Roland Erne