The Hybridization of National Collective Bargaining Systems: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Transformation of Collective Bargaining in the European Union

In this article it is argued that the economic crisis has made national collective bargaining systems increasingly multi-layered, perforated and dynamically unstable, i.e. hybrid. The authors explain these transformations in terms of the concomitance of two different sources of change which do not necessarily follow the same logics. The first source stems from national systems’ endogenous logic of path dependency and the second from pressure to reform in accordance with exogenously applied strategies and logics. It is argued that these sources act like a whipsaw, pushing and pulling national collective bargaining systems between the two logics, leading to hybrid collective bargaining systems

Institutions or resources and capabilities? Explaining engagement in European sectoral social dialogue

We analyse social partner engagement in European sectoral social dialogue, testing two prominent theories to disentangle sector and country dynamics: institutional and resources and capabilities theories. While institutional theory accounted for certain social partner preferences, resources and capability theory proved stronger in predicting participation and provided insight into regulatory preferences. We conclude that resources and capability theory better explains our case, associating it with weaknesses of transnational governance. Specifically, limited incentives for participation mean that social partners with fewer resources forego participation, entailing pre-eminence of social partners with greater resources and hindering outcomes reflecting national institutional influences

Opening the black box: actors and interactions shaping European sectoral social dialogue

This article highlights the importance of organizational resources and individual capabilities for interactions and relationships among social partners in European sectoral social dialogue committees (SSDCs). We use an actor-centred approach to investigate work programme setting in the hospital and metalworking SSDCs. Our research reveals differences in how European social partner organizations coordinate and integrate members in SSDCs. In hospital, European Union (EU)-social partners build bridges that span otherwise separate actors or groups. The findings suggest that the absence of bridging efforts can lead to the dominance of a few actors. In metalworking, small cohesive groups are more effective in forming close networks and determining work programmes. While work programmes in hospital represent issues which are on national agendas, in metalworking, they focus mainly on EU policy areas

‘You see similarities more than differences after a while’. Communities of Practice in European industrial relations. The case of the hospital European Sectoral Social Dialogue

This article looks at the hospital European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC) through a Community of Practice (CoP) theoretical lens. Based on a 2-year project, qualitative in-depth interviews at the European level and in five Member states, and participant observation of the hospital SSDC, we propose a shift from traditional institutional and resource-based accounts and provide a learning and knowledge-focused understanding of this specific area of European industrial relations. Interpreting the SSDCs as a CoP sheds new light on the role of power relations, participation and informal activities among members and on how they work together; this, we find, can alert those interested in more effective functioning of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue on how to strengthen this supra-national level of industrial relations

The TRENDS High-Contrast Imaging Survey. VI. Discovery of a Mass, Age, and Metallicity Benchmark Brown Dwarf

The mass and age of substellar objects are degenerate parameters leaving the evolutionary state of brown dwarfs ambiguous without additional information. Theoretical models are normally used to help distinguish between old, massive brown dwarfs and young, low mass brown dwarfs but these models have yet to be properly calibrated. We have carried out an infrared high-contrast imaging program with the goal of detecting substellar objects as companions to nearby stars to help break degeneracies in inferred physical properties such as mass, age, and composition. Rather than using imaging observations alone, our targets are pre-selected based on the existence of dynamical accelerations informed from years of stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements. In this paper, we present the discovery of a rare benchmark brown dwarf orbiting the nearby ($d=18.69\pm0.19$ pc), solar-type (G9V) star HD 4747 ([Fe/H]=$-0.22\pm0.04$) with a projected separation of only $\rho=11.3\pm0.2$ AU ($\theta \approx$ 0.6"). Precise Doppler measurements taken over 18 years reveal the companion's orbit and allow us to place strong constraints on its mass using dynamics ($m \sin(i) = 55.3\pm1.9M_J$). Relative photometry ($\Delta K_s=9.05\pm0.14$, $M_{K_s}=13.00\pm0.14$, $K_s - L' = 1.34\pm0.46$) indicates that HD 4747 B is most-likely a late-type L-dwarf and, if near the L/T transition, an intriguing source for studying cloud physics, variability, and polarization. We estimate a model-dependent mass of $m=72^{+3}_{-13}M_J$ for an age of $3.3^{+2.3}_{-1.9}$ Gyr based on gyrochronology. Combining astrometric measurements with RV data, we calculate the companion dynamical mass ($m=60.2\pm3.3M_J$) and orbit ($e=0.740\pm0.002$) directly. As a new mass, age, and metallicity benchmark, HD 4747 B will serve as a laboratory for precision astrophysics to test theoretical models that describe the emergent radiation of brown dwarfs.Comment: Accepted to Ap