Book reviews

Índex de l'obra ressenyada: Kerstin HAMANN and John KELLY, Parties, Elections and Policy Reforms in Western Europe : Voting for Social Pacts. London : Routledge, 201

Enhancing social partners'capacity and social dialogue in the new world of work: The case of Spain

This book examines social dialogue and the role of social partners in the governance of the world of work in 34 European countries. Actors in the world of work are facing an increasing number of challenges, including automatization and digitalization, new types of jobs and more diverse forms of employment. Through interviews, surveys and examples of best practice, the volume provides evidence on how social dialogue can meet these challenges, how the social partners can become stranger and more representative, and what role they and social dialogue can play regarding digitalization. The volume also addresses demographic change, migration flows, global supply chain management and environmental objectives

Political Exchange and Bargaining Reform in Italy and Spain

Wage bargaining structures in Italy and Spain changed significantly in the 1990s. This is usually seen as an employer-led response to exogenous pressures such as the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This article shows that while EMU acted as a catalyst for negotiated adjustments, changes in wage bargaining are better explained through factors endogenous to national systems, in particular union strategies and interactions in the policy-making arena. By means of policy concertation and political exchange, unions have shaped institutional change in collective bargaining so as to avoid a disorganized decentralization of labour relations

Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on wages and wage setting

This article is one of a series that explores working life issues in the 27 EU Member States, Norway and the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on information provided by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and published as a set of individual country reports in 'Working life in the COVID-19 pandemic 2020'.The COVID-19 crisis had a significant impact on wages and wage setting across Europe in 2020. The uncertain economic scenario, together with the difficulties inherent in online bargaining, led to a general postponement of collective agreements to 2021, especially at company level. Real wages maintained a positive trend during 2020 in most EU countries, with just modest increases, while higher increases were observed in the public sector. Wage support mechanisms introduced by governments also contributed to supporting wages in the private sector for workers whose hours have been reduced or who have been temporarily laid off. The crisis seems to have particularly affected low-wage workers, occupations, and sectors. It is likely that wage support mechanisms and minimum wages have played a key role in reducing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on growing earning inequalities

Collective bargaining in a climate of high inflation : The role of indexation mechanisms

EU economies have been facing since 2021 growing inflation as a consequence of the strain on value chains caused by the pandemic crisis and the increase in energy and food prices following the war in Ukraine. In most countries, this constitutes a major shift in the environment for negotiating wages, as low inflation has been the norm since the late 1990s. This inflationary context creates pressures for collective bargaining actors to adapt and respond to its double impact on wages. First, inflation leads to a decline in the purchasing power of wages and thus private consumption. Secondly, it affects to a larger extent those workers and households with lower incomes, since they have to dedicate a proportionately larger part of their wages to pay for energy bills, food etc (ILO 2022).Cross-country differences in inflation rates constitute a first element to explain the differential impact on real wages. These differences may arise because of different degrees of dependence on imported gas or the capacity to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. However, the translation into losses in purchasing power of wages as well as its distributional impact depends crucially on the institutional context for setting wages (collective bargaining coverage and structure, among others) and those policies implemented by governments that may reduce the need to set higher wages (Cantero and Aumayr-Pintar, 2023)

Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: professional football sector

Aquesta publicació s'elabora a partir de les contribucions de cadascú dels membres nacionals que integren la Network of Eufound Correspondent. Pel cas d'Espanya la contribució ha estat realitzada per l'Oscar Molina, i així consta a l'annex 3 (Correspondents who contributed to this report)This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the professional football sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in the European sectoral social dialogue and their capacity to negotiate agreements. The aim of Eurofound's studies on representativeness is to identify the relevant national and European social partner organisations in the field of industrial relations in the EU Member States. This study identifies Fifpro - representing employees - and European Leagues and ECA - representing employers - as the representative European-level social partner organisations in the professional football sector

Crisi i ajustament del mercat de treball a Catalunya : una perspectiva històrica

Background of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004. WP1: CompilationComparat amb altres països de l'entorn europeu, l'impacte de la crisi financera internacional en el creixement real de les economies catalana i espanyola ha estat de proporcions més grans (OECD, 2009). Les raons que expliquen la gravetat d'aquesta crisi són ben conegudes i es poden resumir en un patró de creixement econòmic basat en una expansió del crèdit sense precedents, un model econòmic esbiaixat cap a sectors com la construcció o el turisme i una expansió de l'ocupació basada en el sector immobiliari i la bombolla creada entorn d'aquest. Si bé l'impacte diferencial de la crisi en els agregats econòmics de Catalunya i Espanya queda ben palès en les dades de creixement, aquell és encara superior si es mira l'evolució del mercat de treball i, en particular, les xifres d'ocupació i d'atur (Pajares, 2009; Domingo i Sabater, 2009). Si, durant els anys de ràpida expansió econòmica, les economies catalana i espanyola van crear gairebé un 70 % del total de l'ocupació generada a la Unió Europea (UE) en el període 2000-2007, la destrucció d'aquesta ha estat igual d'intensa o més, amb les repercussions socials que això suposa. Després de dos anys de destrucció neta d'ocupació, les últimes dades permeten entreveure l'inici d'una lleu recuperació, que, no obstant això, serà lenta comparada amb la d'altres països del nostre entorn. És, doncs, un bon moment per a començar a fer balanç de les conseqüències en termes d'ocupació que ha tingut la crisi econòmica. Aquest és el primer objectiu d'aquest article. Així doncs, una anàlisi detallada de l'evolució del mercat de treball mostra com els costos de l'ajustament, mesurats en termes d'atur, han recaigut de manera asimètrica entre els diferents grups de població. Al mateix temps, el creixent nombre de veus que demanen un canvi en el model de creixement i, en conseqüència, del mercat de treball fa aconsellable una diagnosi de la situació adoptant una perspectiva històrica. És per això que el segon aspecte d'aquest article consisteix a comparar l'evolució dels principals agregats del mercat de treball a Catalunya després de la recessió de principi dels noranta amb l'actual. L'objectiu d'aquest exercici és doble. D'una banda, entendre la dimensió real de l'impacte de la recent crisi sobre el mercat de treball a Catalunya i, en particular, sobre col·lectius de treballadors especialment vulnerables. I, de l'altra, analitzar a través d'aquesta comparació l'efecte que la immigració ha tingut en el patró d'ajustament del mercat de treball davant la recessió econòmica

¿Participación financiera para sostener las pensiones? entre la democracia industrial y la motivación

Aquest article és un dels resultats del projecte PRIN italiano "Old and new paths in labour regulation": 210C7L7K7 Ministerio dell'Istruzione i presentat a la Conferencia Anual SASE (The Society for Advancement of Sociology of Economic), Chicago 11 Julio 2014.Background of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004. WP1: CompilationLa participación financiera se ha venido extendiendo a través de la política de la Unión Europea para incentivar el desarrollo de los planes de pensiones privados. La finalidad es aliviar la presión sobre el gasto en pensiones públicas. La participación financiera es una expresión de la Democracia Industrial, impulsada por los sindicatos del centro y norte de Europa. Pero en los últimos años se ha venido extendiendo como parte de la política de recursos humanos de la empresa para incentivar, motivar y retener al empleo cualificado. En la política de la UE se pretende que la participación financiera sea una de las bases para el sostenimiento de un nuevo modelo de bienestar ocupacional negociado. Nuestra tesis es que este modelo no es extensible a España dada la abundancia de pequeñas empresas y la debilidad del sindicalismo y la negociación colectiva en las mismas. Pero la participación en los beneficios podría ser obligatoria para financiar la sostenibilidad de las pensiones de jubilaciónThe Financial Participation has been spreading through the policy of the European Union to encourage the development of private pension plans. The purpose is to relieve pressure on public pension expenditure. Financial participation is an expression of Industrial Democracy, led by unions in central and Northern Europe. But in recent years it has been extended as part of the human resources policy of the company to encourage, motivate and retain qualified employment. The EU policy is intended that financial participation is one of the bases for sustaining a new model of occupational well-being negotiated. Our thesis is that this model does not extend to Spain given the abundance of small businesses and the weakness of trade unionism and collective bargaining in them. But participation in benefits could be required to fund the sustainability of pensions

Industrial relations in deep water : the Spanish public sector during the crisis

For many years, in most European countries, the public sector has been under pressure to reduce expenditure and increase efficiency. Long-term pressures on the public sector, and especially the recent austerity drives following from the crisis, have led to reforms and cuts in public budgets with serious negative effects on the European Social Model, on the quality of public services and on social outcomes, including health and inequality. This book analyses the evolution of employment, job quality and labour relations in the public sector since the 2008 crisis in nine EU Member States: Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, and the UK

The Effectiveness of national social dialogue institutions : from theory to evidence

Social dialogue has been challenged in some countries in the wake of the Great Recession. In particular, National Social Dialogue Institutions (NSDIs) have sometimes been charged with having limited effectiveness in policymaking. This paper evaluates how and when NSDIs prove less effective than they should in performing their tasks, how to measure such effectiveness, and how to improve their operational capacity and impact. The effectiveness of social dialogue crucially depends on combinations of the problem-solving capacity of the NSDI, an encompassing mandate to deal with relevant socioeconomic issues and an enabling environment that grants the inclusion of social dialogue into decision-making. Combining the results from a 2017 ILO-AICESIS survey of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions around the globe with the analysis of four case studies (Italy, South Korea, Brazil and Tunisia), the study shows substantial evidence that two sub-dimensions are key to enhance the policy effectiveness of NSDIs: enjoying political support and having an 'effective mandate' as opposed to relying on just a formal remit to deal with socioeconomic issues of interest