Abstract
The articles in this issue of Economic and Industrial Democracy relate to various aspects of current working life issues in Europe. Issues of job insecurity, restructuring, downsizing, part-time work and new conditions affecting industrial relations in various ways are explored in the articles.
The first article, ‘How important is security in the choice of employment? Evidence from European countries’, by Frédéric Salladarré, CREM-CNRS & LEMNA, University/IUT of Rennes, France, Boubaker Hlaimi, LEST CNRS and University of Rennes, France, and Francois Charles Wolff, LEMNA, University of Nantes and CNAV and INED, Paris, France, discusses the importance of job insecurity in a comparative study of 18 European countries. The findings show large differences between the investigated countries. Temporary workers seem to be less influenced in terms of job insecurity when choosing employment. Also, individual and job characteristics seem to have an impact on job security. In addition, economic and institutional factors are also important in this respect.
The second article, ‘Transitions from part-time unemployment: Is part-time work a dead end or a stepping stone to the labour market?’ by Jonas Månsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden, and Jan Ottosson, Uppsala University, Sweden, suggests that part-time work in Sweden to a large extent can be considered as a dead end to the labour market.
Monica Rolfsen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, discusses labour–management partnerships in her article ‘How close can we dance? Labour–management partnership on a borderline’. Based on an in-depth study, the author illuminates how various partnerships with management can affect unions in relation to their members. The findings suggest that long-term development issues can benefit the unions, while other forms of partnership with management might compromise such union activities.
The article ‘Is there a buffering effect of flexibility for job attitudes and work-related strain under conditions of high job insecurity and regional unemployment rate?’, by Kathleen Otto, University of Leipzig, Germany, Anja Hoffmann-Biencourt, School Psychological Service, Speyer, Germany, and Gisela Mohr, University of Leipzig, Germany, explores job insecurity, regional unemployment in relation to work-related strain and job attitudes. The personality trait flexibility was studied in relation to, for example, job insecurity. The results suggest that this attribute can be an important buffer in some respects.
Elisabeth Sundin, Linköping University, Sweden, addresses the reorganization of the Swedish public sector in the article ‘Entrepreneurship and the reorganization of the public sector: A gendered story’. The study was conducted over a period of 10 years, and looked at the process of cleaning activities in terms of entrepreneurship and gender. The author concludes that it is important to include also a dimension of class identity in the analysis of the effects of New Public Management, but also as a tool to interpret entrepreneurship.
The article ‘Bringing labour markets “back in”: Restructuring international businesses in Europe’, by Valeria Pulignano, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, discusses the social partners’ responses to restructuring processes in 12 multinational firms in Europe. The results from the in-depth case-study suggest large variations within national labour market systems. The importance of various institutional settings is emphasized in order to further understand the differences between and within various labour market systems. In the concluding remarks, the author points to the importance of combining industrial relations systems with how national labour market systems interact.
Thomas Haipeter, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, discusses the role of works councils in the article ‘Works councils as actors in collective bargaining: Derogations and the development of codetermination in the German chemical and metalworking industries’. The author discusses the dual role of the German works council and its development at the plant level. The findings suggest that works councils have been able to take advantage of a new situation, where the local, plant-level dimension is becoming more important in local collective bargaining in Germany.
In the article ‘Saving companies worth saving: Spain pioneers a sustainable model of democratic corporate governance’, by Anthony Edward Jensen, University of Sydney, Australia, the author has studied seven Spanish insolvent companies rescued by workers. The balance between market efficiency and democratic participation is examined in the article. The role of the specific Spanish legislation is discussed against the companies studied in the article.
In the final article in this issue, by Carsten Ströby Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, ‘The flexibility of flexicurity: The Danish model reconsidered’, the author discusses the Danish concept of flexicurity. Ströby Jensen suggests that there are two versions of the flexicurity model, which combines active labour market policies, a flexible labour market and social security. These two versions differ in terms of blue-collar and white-collar workers. Especially during the recent crisis, a low level of protection for blue-collar workers has resulted in high unemployment figures. The individual flexicurity model is based on individual agreements between white-collar labour and management.