Governance Processes, Employee Voice and Performance Outcomes in the Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5

The Major Projects Agreement (MPA) is a framework agreement designed to improve performance in large mechanical and electrical engineering projects. It is built on integrated team working and includes the trade union as a partner in strategic, organizational and employment decisions. The agreement was recently implemented in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5). The use of the MPA at T5 illustrates how the promotion of a framework that legitimizes a role for unions in continuing dialogue with employers can positively affect organizational outcomes in large construction projects. While serving as a reminder that mechanisms exist within UK corporate governance for the representation and articulation of the interests of non-shareholder constituencies, T5 may be a unique case: the currently uncertain future of the MPA is indicative of wider constraints on the adoption of the partnership model in Britain.corporate governance, labour-management relations, partnership, stakeholder theory

EU governance and social services of general interest: When even the UK is concerned

The level of autonomy afforded to Member States to define certain services as ‘services of general interest’ and to shelter them from the market so as to promote social objectives has become in recent years a highly sensitive topic among EU and national policy actors and organisations. The increased activity in this area of the European Commission and the general absence of guidance on the conditions necessary to render such services of general interest by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) have resulted in uncertainty concerning the interaction of EU law with social services and more generally public services in the EU Member States. By focusing on the EU regulation on social services of general interest, the paper evaluates how the nature and provision of such services in the UK has been susceptible to changes as a result of the Services Directives, EU public procurement and competition law. The implementation of liberalisation plans in the UK well before any EU initiatives in this area meant that such services have been open to market forces well before other Member States. However, this has not led to the absence of concerns regarding the precise impact of EU law in this area. Recent policy initiatives by the Coalition government may expand further the degree of marketisation and increase the scope for interaction between EU and national-level regulation

Reflexive regulation and the development of capabilities : the impact of the 2002/14/EC Directive on information and consultation of employees in the UK

The research evaluates the pattern of change in the field of employee representation in the UK as influenced by the transposition and implementation of the Directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community and to relate this analysis to the impact of legislation in the field of labour law and industrial relations through the location of managerial and labour practice in implementing and handling the information and consultation arrangements. Theoretically, the thesis draws on the theory of reflexive law (Teubner, 1993; Barnard and Deakin, 2002) and on the capabilities approach (Sen, 1999), which has recently emerged in political economy. Empirically, it combines textual analysis, interviews with key actors, a questionnaire survey of companies and in-depth case studies in a few organizations in the business services and the financial sectors. The research aims to move beyond the traditional socio-legal concepts and methods to incorporate insights from the institutional and political economy frames of analysis commonly deployed in the field of industrial relations, and from its tradition of empirical enquiry rooted in field-based qualitative research methods. In diverging from existing UK social norms and conventions a new role for the two sides of industry, CBI and TUC, was created that assisted in the development of the national legislation transposing the directive and led to a re-conceptualization of the EU-level norms, as stipulated by the directive, concerning information and consultation of employees. Whilst the introduction of national legislation drove to some extent the spread of voluntary arrangements, albeit at the instigation of management, there was not much evidence that the 'standard provisions' of the UK Regulations promoted institutional experimentation or to a new framework for a process of learning, participation and capabilities for voice. This was down to the nature of the legal obligations, the efficacy of the enforcement mechanisms and the degree to which extra-legal resources, mainly trade union organization, were utilized

The rise of the dual labour market: fighting precarious employment in the new member states through industrial relations (PRECARIR)

PROJECT GOALS This project investigated the role of industrial relations in addressing precarious work. It focused on the initiatives and responses that trade unions and employers’ associations developed to deal with precarious work in Croatia, the Czech Republic (hereafter Czechia), Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia since 2008. In each country, the study analysed developments in five sectors, namely public healthcare, the metal industry, construction, retail and temporary agency work (TAW). The project used a qualitative approach to examine the dimensions of precarious employment, including low pay, irregular working hours, low job security and limited representation of workers’ rights. DUAL LABOUR MARKETS Apart from an increase in the share of non-standard work contracts since 2008, findings suggest that all forms of employment were exposed to more precarious conditions following various degrees of labour market deregulation across the 10 countries. In a context of weak law enforcement and decreasing unions’ role and influence, employers were able to use (and sometimes abuse) their enlarged prerogatives to increase the workload, the use of irregular working time and sometimes, to reduce the income of workers on all types of contracts. Still, workers in the informal market and dependent self-employed have the most precarious working conditions across the countries. These vulnerable groups are most prevalent in the construction and the retail sectors, often doing work for small domestic firms. In contrast, large (often multinational) firms, particularly in the construction and metal sectors use more frequently outsourcing to reduce labour costs. The share of agency workers, fixed-term and part-time employees has risen across the countries but less than expected in some countries (e.g. Croatia and Romania) due to labour shortages associated with massive emigration and the fact that employers have sufficient leverage to demand employees on full-time open ended contracts to work irregular hours contingent on companies’ needs. RESPONSES OF SOCIAL PARTNERS TO PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT Social partners focused primarily on legal initiatives to regulate precarious work at the national level, while additional initiatives, such as collective bargaining were used at lower levels. Employers’ initiatives generally sought to deregulate the labour market and they have been quite successful, in most countries. Unions’ initiatives to improve precarious employment conditions through legislation often failed, which sometimes resulted in innovative or ‘recombined’ old and new strategies to fight against precarious work. In some countries, unions managed to organise the most vulnerable workers, such as self-employed and outsourced employees. Nevertheless, unions’ strategies varied across countries from aiming to transform precarious work arrangements into standard employment in Slovenia to supporting the economic rationale of precarious work forms in Latvia. POLICY IMPLICATIONS Periods of crisis throw new light on the role of the social partners. The labour market deregulation has shifted the initiative in industrial relations from unions and employers’ associations to individual employers by widening their prerogatives to set employment conditions, which in turn, increased the dualization of the labour markets. Furthermore, there is evidence of precarious work practices being exported by multinationals across their subsidiaries, prompting convergence of management practices. Trade unions need to be aware of the international dimension of precarious work, as they could also use their international networks, including their positions in European Works Councils, to fight against spreading precarious work by multinationals and a ‘race to the bottom’ in labour standards. Nevertheless, social partners cannot fight against precarious work, unless governments guarantee, at least, the fundamental union rights and ensure the effective implementation of labour law

Power resources and successful trade union actions that address precarity in adverse contexts: The case of Central and Eastern Europe

Is it possible for trade unions to fight precarity in an adverse global context? Although existing research suggests this is possible, there is limited understanding of the interplay of resources that enable unions to address precarity in deregulated markets. This study employs a power resource approach to investigate how unions overcome their external constraints. It draws upon 130 in-depth interviews with key informants across nine Central and Eastern European countries to investigate successful and unsuccessful union actions in sectors with differing external resources. In each sector, unions that mobilise their internal resources have been able to reduce various precarity dimensions, such as low wages, lack of voice, and irregular working time. The results reveal that unions whose objectives are based on convincing win–win discourses can make strides, acting as drivers of change in precarity patterns even in unfavourable conditions. Moreover, the study introduces a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of union success, identifying union actions that result in measurable improvements in precarity dimensions for all worker types. To deepen understanding of the role unions play in fighting precarity in adverse contexts, future research could investigate union actions that improve a wider range of precarity dimensions for all workers

The form and content of the Greek crisis legislation

This paper offers a dialectical analysis of the law relating to the Greek crisis. The form and content of the measures introduced in the Greek legal system to deal with the debt crisis is examined under the concept of ‘necessity’. It is argued that this concept, used by the Greek Council of State to justify the constitutionality of these measures, opens a path for a more comprehensive analysis of the measures implemented through the mechanism of the Greek Memoranda of Understanding. The measures are seen as ‘necessary’: on the one hand in their accordance and basis on principles of the European Union; on the other hand in their class orientation and reflecting of specific social (class) interests. But despite their necessity, neither their content, nor the form of implementation of these measures is fixed; it is rather contingent, i.e. dependent on the level of intensification of social (class and intra-class) and economic antagonisms