The green transformation and Industry 4.0 are associated with considerable risks for workers in countries with dual labour markets such as Germany. The biggest risks are wage losses due to the ...involuntary transition into the precarious secondary labour market and insufficient education and training for the new ‘green’ jobs. Institutional reforms are necessary for a ‘just transition’. The ongoing reforms in Germany in education and training and wage setting show that the transition is a critical juncture in which new stakeholder constellations have the opportunity for non-path-dependent changes from a dual to an inclusive employment system with better work. The approaches adopted in recent German reforms are of overarching interest. Featuring the strongest manufacturing base in Europe, Germany is under particularly high pressure to fully embrace the green transformation and digitalisation. The country has learned from other countries and, conversely, can perhaps also help trigger a just transition in other countries.
Le modèle allemand de partenariat social s’est fissuré en raison de la dualisation du marché du travail, mais la « transformation » pourrait permettre sa revitalisation. L’évaluation des accords ...d’avenir dans la métallurgie et l’industrie électrique montre que la participation des représentants des salariés à la « transformation » n’est décisive que dans les secteurs où les syndicats et la codétermination sont forts. La « transformation » et la numérisation ont toutefois été à l’origine d’importantes réformes de la politique de négociation collective et des politiques publiques : elles ont fourni le « récit » de la nécessité d’un nouvel agenda politique avec une forte participation des partenaires sociaux.
Abstract
Collective industrial relations (CIR) are founded on particular rights that can be exercised only by employee representative bodies, not by individual employees. From the many publications ...on CIR that have appeared in the International Labour Review over the past 100 years, 15 contributions were selected for inclusion in this Centenary Issue. A criterion for the selection of an article was its focus on the strengthening of inclusivity ‐ that is, the extension of the protection afforded by CIR to as many people as possible and not just to privileged groups. Inclusive CIR are the precondition for reducing discrimination in the labour market and for universalizing decent work.
Die Folgen der Digitalisierung für die Arbeitsbedingungen sind nicht technisch vorgegeben, sondern gestaltbar. Dazu müssen allerdings die Interessen der Beschäftigten im Strukturwandel auch aktiv ...eingebracht werden. Auf eine solche aktive Gestaltungspolitik zielt das gemeinsame Projekt NRW Arbeit 2020 von IG Metall, NGG und IG BCE. Die wissenschaftliche Begleitung des Projekts zeigt, dass sich der dialogorientierte Gestaltungswille von Gewerkschaften und Betriebsräten auszahlt. Allerdings sind umfangreiche Beratungen notwendig, die sich nicht ohne weiteres in alle Betriebe übertragen lassen.
In the more recent dualistic theories, Germany is cited as an example of a less solidaristic equilibrium, in which ‘producer coalitions’ between core workforces supposedly unaffected by deregulation ...and their employers prevented the introduction of a minimum wage. The present article shows that such an equilibrium never existed. Core workforces are being threatened by the outsourcing of jobs to the low‐wage sector. This threat created the breeding ground for a joint campaign by manufacturing and service unions for a minimum wage, which made it possible to amalgamate the unions' considerable resources at company level, their strength being derived from the German system of codetermination. Under pressure from the manufacturing unions in particular, the arrangements for the minimum wage follow, as far as possible, the traditions of free collective bargaining. As a result, the social partners in Germany have a considerably stronger influence on the minimum wage than those in the UK.
The rise to prominence of the service sector - heralded over half a century ago as the great hope for the twenty-first century - has come to fruition. In many cases, employment in the service sector ...now outnumbers that in manufacturing sectors, and it is accepted that in all developed countries, the service sector is the only one in which employment will grow in future. The reasons for this is the subject of much controversy and debate, the outcomes of which are not merely of academic interest but of decisive importance for economic policy and the quality of working and living conditions in future.
In order to examine these various arguments, research teams from eight European countries worked together for three years on a comparative study of the evolution of service sector employment in EU member states. They also investigated working and employment conditions in five very different service industries (banking, retailing, hospitals, IT services and care of the elderly) in a number of countries, and the results of their research are presented in this informative new collection, of interest to students academics and researchers involved in all aspects of industrial economics.
"Working in the Service Sector provides a valuable overview of the European Service Sector, brings together a considerable range of perspectives, and sets an impressive benchmark for comparative studies of work and organizations in terms of depth, focus, and theoretical outlook" Industrial Relations Review
Gerhard Bosch is Professor for sociology at the university Duisburg-Essen and Vice President of the Institute for Work and Technology. He is an expert on labour market policy, working time and employment policy.
Steffen Lehndorff is an economist and Director of the Working Time and Work Organisation Research Unit at the Institute of Work and Technology (Institut Arbeit und Technik, IAT), Gelsenkirchen / Germany. His major research interests include international comparative studies of employment and working-time structures and regulation and of working time, work organisation and industrial relations in services and manufacturing.
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Service Economies Part I: Different Service Societies in Europe 2. Measuring Economic Tertiarisation 3. The Incidence of New Forms of Employment in Service Activities 4. Why Do Countries Have Such Different Service-Sector Employment Rates? 5. Services and the Employment Prospects for Women Part 2: The Organization of Service Work 6. The Family, The State, and Now The Market 7. The Reluctant Nurses 8. Work Hard, Play Hard? 9. Work Organisation and The Importance of Labour Markets in The European Retail Trade 10. Lean Banking Part 3: Common Challenges 11. The Shaping of Work and Working Time in The Service Sector 12. The Delegation of Uncertainty 13. Can Trade Unions Meet The Challenge? 14. Diversity and Regulation of Markets for Services
Wage‐setting institutions can play a crucial part in containing the socio‐economically destabilizing growth of income inequality. Using an analytical framework that distinguishes between protective ...and participative standards, the author examines their respective effects on the incidence of low‐paid employment and income inequality under the wage‐setting systems of Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. His comparative focus on the interplay of statutory minimum wages and collective wage bargaining shows that while the latter is more effective than the former at reducing inequality, both require state intervention, with particular emphasis on participative standards to counter the erosion of industrial relations institutions.
Resumen
Las relaciones laborales colectivas se amparan en derechos que corresponden a los órganos de representación de los trabajadores, y no a cada trabajador. Para el presente monográfico se han ...seleccionado 15 investigaciones publicadas sobre este tema en la Revista Internacional del Trabajo a lo largo de su historia. Uno de los criterios de selección ha sido que los artículos se centraran en el fortalecimiento de la inclusividad, es decir, la extensión de la protección al mayor número posible de personas, y no solo a colectivos privilegiados. La inclusividad es indispensable para reducir la discriminación en el mercado laboral y unlversalizar el trabajo decente.
Reducing Wage Inequality Bosch, Gerhard; Weinkopf, Claudia
Work and occupations,
02/2017, Volume:
44, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article concurs with Weiss’s critique of the myth of the powerless state, which underestimates the possibilities that remain open to nation states to take action. Even today in an environment ...characterized by globalized markets, nation states have at their disposal instruments that can effectively ensure high job quality. The Swedish and French examples show that the state, by means of various combinations of participative and protective labor standards, can ensure that there is a low share of low-wage workers and a high rate of coverage by collective agreements. Given sufficient political pressure, new standards, such as the minimum wage in Germany, can be put in place.
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