Publications by subject - Industrial relations - 2011

This case report - ITpreneurs - forms part of a study conducted by the Danish Technological Institute for Eurofound. The purpose of the study is to provide empirical evidence about the state of the education and training sector in Europe within the overall context of lifelong learning, to identify and illustrate trends and practices that can function as a source of inspiration. The aim is to produce original scenarios for the sector in the European Union (EU27) in order to provide Eurofound and its stakeholders with a sound and pragmatic knowledge base to improve the understanding and anticipation of change in the sector up to 2020 in the EU. An overview report and an executive summary are available.

This reports analyses data from Eurofound’s European Company Survey of 2009 to examine the incidence of performance-related pay (PRP) in European establishments and what determines it, with a specific focus on the role of employment relations. Larger establishments, those in foreign ownership, in the financial intermediation and commerce sectors, and those located in some central and eastern European countries are more likely to have a PRP scheme based on the performance of individuals. Across Europe, PRP schemes are more likely to be in place in companies that have employee representation in place. An executive summary is available.

In companies across Europe several different channels of employee representation are prevalent: these include works councils, trade unions, special committees, health and safety representatives and workers’ delegates. This report explores the main employee representation structures at workplace level in the 27 Member States and three candidate countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey). It is based on two sources of information: the findings of the 2009 European Company Survey (ECS); and country fact sheets produced by the national correspondents of the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). Read more in the report.

Increased competition, and economic crisis, has resulted in greater demands for wage flexibility. Greater decentralisation of pay regulation has also enabled employers to seek and attain concessions on more flexibility in pay. The European Company Survey (ECS) 2009 found that a third of European establishments with more than 10 employees use forms of pay dependent on individuals’ performance; somewhat less than a fifth use pay elements dependent on the performance of a group. Read more in the report.

Across Europe, diverse forms of employee representation structures have developed, providing workers with differing opportunities to voice their interests and to be consulted by their employers directly, at their workplaces, on matters such as economic and human resources developments, working conditions and health and safety measures. This report focuses on the workplace dimension of institutionalised representation of employees. At this level, representation involves only workers of a single undertaking or establishment, and the counterpart on the employers’ side is one single employer rather than an employers’ organisation or group of employers at higher levels of the industrial relations system, such as the sectoral level. The report is based on two sources of information: The findings of the 2009 European Company Survey (ECS); and country fact sheets produced by the national correspondents of the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). An executive summary is available.

Most countries give employee representatives the opportunity to fulfil their tasks. Time off is generally provided, although the number of hours varies from one country to another. This report combines an overview on the time-off provided in the legal frameworks of the different EU Member States with an analysis of what this means in practice for the employee representatives. Eurofound collected data on time off for employee representatives in its European Company Survey (ECS) in 2009.

This report gives an overview of the extension mechanisms of collective bargaining agreements, deriving its data from the Eurofound industrial relations country profiles (2009). In principle, collective agreements are only legally enforceable against contracting parties. National and sectoral collective bargaining agreements can, however, be extended so that they also apply to employees and employers who were not represented by the social partners signing the agreement. Such cases of extension mechanisms, in which rights are owed towards all parties, exist in almost all EU Member States (Sciarra, 2005).

With a particular focus on the crisis and responses to it, this annual review highlights developments in working conditions and industrial relations in the EU Member States and Norway in 2010, both at national and EU level. At national level, the report examines key issues covered by collective bargaining (pay and working time) and looks at developments in social partner activity and industrial action. It also looks at company restructuring, the impact of the crisis and approaches to pension reform in light of demographic change. At European level, it reviews the year’s main events and trends in employment legislation and policy (in areas like paternity/maternity leave and working time), as well as in the European social dialogue at crosssectoral, sectoral and company levels. The final chapter focuses on training initiatives provided or supported by enterprises for their employees during the recession.

Strabag is a multinational building and construction company. It operates in three areas: building construction and civil engineering; road construction; and tunnelling and services, in more than 500 locations worldwide. In 2009, Strabag SE had 75,500 employees, of which more than 80% worked in Europe. The Strabag SE was officially registered in the company register of Klagenfurt in Austria on 12 October 2004 as one of the first European Companies and was the first one based in Austria. However, the conversion of the Strabag AG Holding into a SE only came into force in May 2006 due to legal problems and procedures.

Fresenius was one of the first German companies with a two-tier corporate governance structure to become a European company in July 2007. The actors involved in the negotiation process worked under the impression to accomplish pioneer work. Both the management and the employee side representatives have assessed the Fresenius SE agreement as very positive and have personally earned positive feedback for the outcome. The example of Fresenius’ conversion into an SE shows a multilayer process of Europeanisation.

Elcoteq is a global contract manufacturer of electronic equipment headquartered in Luxembourg. While the origins of the company are in Finland where Elcoteq was founded in 1984, the established production sites in European as well as non-European countries. Until 2008 the European centre of the company was based in Pecs/Hungary before it was relocated to Luxembourg in 2008. The conversion of the company into an SE was announced already in 2004 and came into effect in 2005.

The Hager Group is a family-run company based in the German Saarland with approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. The company offers a complete range of systems, solutions and services for energy distribution in buildings, including security solutions as well as electrical installations supplies for larger-scale projects in the field of industry and infrastructure. The Hager company is characterised by a strong German-French corporate identity with equally strong production facilities on both sides of the border. This cross-border corporate culture was also a major driving force for the establishment of the Hager SE in 2007.

There is consistent evidence across all the results that use of HPWPs are associated with improved performance outcomes for both employees and the workplace. This report is based on secondary data analysis of Eurofound’s recent European Company Survey (ECS) 2009. It explores the links between a broad range of workplace practices and sustainable organisational performance, building on the survey report. Read the full report.

There is consistent evidence across all the results that use of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) are associated with improved performance outcomes for both employees and the workplace. This report is based on secondary data analysis of Eurofound’s recent European Company Survey (ECS) 2009. It explores the links between a broad range of workplace practices and sustainable organisational performance, building on the survey report. An executive summary is available.

Financial activities are at the origin of the current global crisis but have also been affected by the economic downturn. This report analyses the impact of the financial crisis on the banking sector in the following countries: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Estonia, UK, US, Japan, Brazil and China. There is also an executive summary.

An increasingly important aspect of EU policy making is that of ‘greening’ the economy, in the face of an urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Greening the economy means producing products and services with less energy, fewer raw materials and with reduced carbon emissions. It applies to all economic activities in all sectors and includes workers and consumers in its scope.

This study examined best practice examples of social partner involvement in greening the economy in different Member States. It analysed the role of the trade unions and employers’ associations as well as employees, their direct representatives and company management in selected projects at national or local level. The report demonstrates what a successful contribution of the social partners to greening the economy can look like and identifies factors that need to be taken into consideration.

This background paper provides an overview of recent developments in wage setting in the EU Member States by providing: - a brief overview of wage setting mechanisms currently in place within the Member States and Norway; - an overview of 'average' collectively agreed pay in 2009 and 2010 for those countries where databases of collective agreements are available, and; - recent information available from the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) on wage-related collective bargaining in 2011 as well as discussions on the reforms of wage setting mechanisms.

This report looks at the situation of SMEs, with a specific focus on the impact of the recent crisis. It examines the actions of governments and the social partners to help SMEs to weather the crisis and the extent of social dialogue in SMEs, including trends and new initiatives. It examines in detail the role of local partnerships in helping SMEs to maintain employment levels during the crisis, and also presents the views and positions of the social partners on the situation of SMEs. Read more in the report.

GfK, the German-based market research company, transformed itself into an SE in 2009. Management saw the change as reflecting GfK’s international perspectives and structure, although it also had the side effect of avoiding a major change in the composition of the supervisory board. The transformation has strengthened the European character of social dialogue in GfK, as there are now two non-German members on the supervisory board, and SE works council brings together members from almost all European countries, where GfK operates – the threshold is five employees. The SE works council has already agreed joint European guidelines on one issue, and both management and employee representatives have a generally positive view of the change.

How does social dialogue influence working conditions? What is the nature of the links between social dialogue and working conditions? This report is based on continuing research carried out by Eurofound during the past years on the links between social dialogue and working conditions, and aims to deepen the knowledge on the nature of this link. Read more in the report.

Creating better jobs and working conditions are key elements of the European social model. Improving the quality of work and working conditions is, however, a new dimension within the European Employment Strategy which previously concentrated on quantitative measures such as increasing employment and reducing unemployment. The Lisbon Agenda implies that improving the quality and productivity of work could lead to more as well as better jobs. This study is based on 23 case studies in four sectors (electromechanical engineering, food, financial activities and insurance services, and wholesale and retail) in six countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden). This report is a continuation of an earlier report. An executive summary is available.

This report examines the views and the actions taken by social partners aimed at (re)integrating or maintaining younger workers in the labour market, with a particular focus on relevant measures devised and put in place during the crisis. An EIRO comparative anaytical report is available.

MAN was the first German company to create a SE, by the conversion of its subsidiary MAN B&W Diesel into MAN Diesel SE in August 2006. This was followed in 2009 by the conversion of MAN itself into MAN SE. Both management and the employee representatives were well prepared for negotiating an agreement on employee involvement. Management’s overall assessment is that the agreement is an acceptable compromise and will contribute to the internationalisation of the company. The employee representatives are also satisfied because codetermination rights have been secured and important rights have been obtained for the SE works council.

During recent decades, various new forms of interfirm relationships have been emerging across national contexts. This study seeks to fill a gap in the research carried out to date on the impact of these relationships on working conditions and employment practices, including human resources management policies. This report draws on 20 case studies and a review of literature to investigate the varied effects of five types of interfirm relationships on employment. These are joint ventures, clusters, public-private partnerships, strategic alliances/networks and virtual company networks. In the current economic climate, developing interfirm relationships is linked with company survival and competitiveness. An executive summary is also available.

Headquartered in Utrecht/The Netherlands with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Finland, Equens is a full-service payment processing company offering services in payment and card processing and a European leader in this business segment. The transformation of Equens N.V. into an SE was concluded in July 2008 by a merger with the German subsidiary. This also reflects the strong European vision of the company. As a financial payment processor in an increasingly European market, the company follows its aims to become a truly European service provider. The case of Equens reflects the search of transnational operating companies for options to harmonise and simplify their governance structures including the practice of employee involvement and participation.

This study, focusing on industrial relations in nine sectors across the 27 EU Member States, aims to highlight the potential for comparing sectoral industrial relations, and to show that it tends to develop similar characteristics across national borders. It pinpoints factors that may explain different degrees of international convergence in different sectors, and therefore the potential for EU-level coordination in each sector. Read more in the report.

Industrial relations have been studied at a national level for more than 100 years. This study, however, shows for the first time that industrial relations vary more by sector than by country. The authors also argue that this sector-focused research can provide a far more detailed picture of European industrial relations than purely national definitions allow. An executive summary is available.

The reinsurance group SCOR was the first French listed company to create a European Company (SE) with employee participation. Three parallel agreements secure employee involvement through a common SE works council for the SCOR SE and its two subsidiaries. This was an important progress, since with only 800 employees in Europe, the former SCOR group did not fall under the scope of the EWC Directive. With regard to participation, an employee representative who is elected by the employees worldwide was maintained on the group’s board of directors. In addition, a second employee director without voting rights was introduced who is appointed by the SE works council. This was an acceptable compromise for both sides of industry which was reached in the course of the negotiations.

Allianz SE is an integrated financial services provider with more than 150,000 employees. The company serves approximately 75 million customers in about 70 countries. Allianz SE operates and manages its activities primarily through four operating segments: property-casualty, life/health, asset management, and corporate and other. Allianz adopted the legal form of a European company (Societas Europea (SE)) by merging with its Italian subsidiary RAS. The process of integrating the two companies started in September 2005. On 13 October 2006, the Allianz-RAS merger was registered and Allianz became recognised as an SE under the 2001 Statute for a European company as set out in Council Regulation 2157/2001.

The European Company Statute (SE) is based on the Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Company (2157/2001/EC) and on the Directive supplementing the Statute for a European Company with regard to the involvement of employees (2001/86/EC). It is one of the most important pieces of company legislation published so far by the European Union. Adopted in 2001, it has since October 2004 made it possible for companies operating in more than one EU Member State to reorganise their cross-border business under a single European label. This enables them to work under the umbrella of a single legal framework, thereby reducing the internal costs of operating in several countries. Employee involvement, including participation rights at board level, is the focus of this research report. An executive summary is available.

An EU-based company may become an SE in four ways (the first three involve more than one company): merger; creation of a joint holding company; creation of a subsidiary; or when a single EU-based company is transformed into an SE, provided it has had a subsidiary governed by the law of another Member State for at least two years. Employee involvement is defined by the directive as ‘any mechanism, including information, consultation and participation, through which employees’ representatives may exercise an influence on decisions to be taken within the company’. Employee involvement, including participation rights at board level, is the focus of the report.

The 2nd European Company Survey (ECS) was carried out in early 2009 by TNS Infratest for Eurofound. It was implemented in 30 countries, i.e. the 27 EU Member States and the three Candidate countries (Croatia, FYROM and Turkey). The aim of this survey was to collect statistical information on company structures and practices on flexibility, as well as the development of social dialogue in companies. The present document is the quality report on the 2nd ECS. It assesses the quality of the survey in all its stages, starting from the sampling design to the final dissemination of data. It aims at providing a useful insight into the data quality of the current survey and making recommendations for the forthcoming rounds.

The legal basis of collective bargaining in Germany is laid down by the Collective Agreements Act, 1949. Collective agreements can be concluded between employer associations (or individual employers) and trade unions. In contrast, works councils – statutory employee representation bodies elected at workplace and company level – may only conclude works agreements. Under the Works Constitution Act, these ‘shall not deal with remuneration and other conditions of employment that have been fixed, or are normally fixed, by collective agreement’. An overview report is available.

Italian industrial relations are characterised by a low degree of ‘legal institutionalisation’. Legislation and the state have a limited role in the regulation of collective bargaining, conflict and union representation. In fact, it is possible to say that there is almost a complete abstention of the law. However, the Protocol of 23 July 1993, a tripartite agreement, represents a kind of ‘constitutional charter for industrial relations’, ‘the basic agreement’ that formed the basis for subsequent accords. An overview report is available.

The right to collective bargaining and the binding character of collective agreements is enshrined in the Spanish Constitution (Section 37.1). The system of collective bargaining is thoroughly regulated in Title III of the Workers’ Statute. In particular, Section 82.3 establishes the legally binding character of collective agreements negotiated in conformity with the rules of the Workers’ Statute. However, the same provision stipulates (as an exception to the general rule) that company agreements may deviate from the wages set by a statutory collective agreement negotiated at a higher level, provided certain requirements are fulfilled. An overview report is available.

The legal basis of collective bargaining in Austria is laid down by the Labour Constitution Act (ArbVG). According to the ArbVG, collective agreements can be concluded only between collective organisations of employers and employees. Therefore, the Austrian labour law systematically benefits multi-employer bargaining. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of collective agreements are concluded at sectoral level. An overview report is available.

The Belgian collective bargaining system is highly institutionalised and coordinated. Over 90% of employees are covered by a collective agreement, placing Belgium among the countries with the highest coverage in Europe. Also, the Belgian trade unions have a relatively high level of membership compared with the European average, with over 50% of employees belonging to a union. The same applies to the organisation rate of employers, as over 70% of employees work for an employer that is organised. An overview report is available.

The right to collective bargaining is set out in the 1972 French Labour Code. In the last decades, collective bargaining has expanded, partly as a result of government initiatives. The importance of sectoral bargaining increased with the adoption of the 1982 Auroux laws, which obliged the bargaining parties already bound by a sectoral agreement to negotiate pay annually and to discuss the sector’s job classification system and its economic development every five years. The Auroux laws also stimulated company-level bargaining by making annual negotiations on pay and working time obligatory in companies with union representation. An overview report is available.

In Ireland, collective bargaining is organised as a three-tier system, with a dominance of bargaining and complementary bargaining at sectoral and company level. For over two decades collective bargaining, covering the unionised private and public sectors, has been regulated by national tripartite ‘social partnership’ agreements, drawing up guidelines on minimum and maximum wage increases. There have been seven successive triennial Social Partnership Agreements, or national wage agreements, since 1987. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in Romania in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in the United Kingdom in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in Spain in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in the Netherlands in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in Hungary in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in Germany in the last three years. An overview report is available.

This report aims to describe and analyse recent developments in industrial relations in the commerce sector in Denmark in the last three years. An overview report is available.

The health care sector is of increasing socio-economic significance in the context of Europe’s ageing population. Demand for care workers and staff shortages are expected to grow, partly due to difficult working conditions and relatively low pay. This situation has already led to significant workforce mobility within and outside the EU, and could serve to exacerbate skills shortages in the future. Social partner organisations have an important role to play in shaping the attractiveness of the health care sector. Read more in the report.

In the summer of 2007, the deepest world financial crisis since the stock market crash in 1929 surfaced in the US. It spread globally and spilled over the real economies, leading to the most acute global economic downturn in the last decades. The financial crisis has been heavily concentrated in the US and Europe, while the banking sectors in Japan, Brazil and China have not been significantly affected. As a consequence, between 2008 and 2010, employment levels declined in the banking sectors of the US and many European economies, while employment trends remained relatively unchanged in Japan, China and Brazil. Read more in the report.

The financial global crisis, the deepest the world has experienced since the 1930s, originated in the US mortgage market and led to a liquidity shortfall in the US banking system, the full effect of which started to be felt in August 2007. One of the first victims was the UK bank Northern Rock, which requested security from the Bank of England, leading to investor panic and finally to the nationalisation of the bank in February 2008. This was an early indication of the problems to be faced soon by other financial institutions.

An estimated 14 million workers across Europe rely on the automotive sector for work. When the current economic downturn began to affect vehicle production, profound changes were already underway in the sector, triggered by the emergence of new markets and the search for lower production and labour costs. This report seeks to illuminate the effects of recession and restructuring on social dialogue within the automotive sector in eight EU countries. A report focusing on emerging markets (Brazil, China, India) is also available.

This report provides an overview of the extent, practice and impact of employee information and consultation (I&C) in 26 European countries five years after the implementation date of Directive 2002/14/EC. Procedures for establishing I&C arrangements and the scope for organisation- or sector-specific I&C models via collective agreement vary considerably between countries. An executive summary is available.

This study provides an overview of employee information and consultation (I&C) practice in 26 European countries (EU27 excluding Finland and Latvia, plus Norway) five years after the implementation date of Directive 2002/14/EC. An earlier report by Eurofound, Impact of the information and consultation directive on industrial relations, reviewed the directive’s national transposition. Read more in the comparative report.

This report examines whether investment funds – in particular, private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds – help to revive underperforming companies and thereby contribute to employment growth or whether, on the contrary, they strive to maximise financial returns at the expense of labour. Overall, the report concludes that investment funds are neither wholly ‘bad’ nor wholly ‘good’ with regard to the impact on labour in their invested firms. A report and an executive summary are available.