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Industrial Relations (industrial + relations)
Terms modified by Industrial Relations Selected AbstractsChanging Patterns of Industrial Relations in TaiwanINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2003Shyh-Jer Chen This article examines changing patterns of industrial relations (IR) in Taiwan. Although trade unions have become more autonomous since the lifting of martial law in the mid-1980s, trends such as the privatization of state-owned enterprises, industrial restructuring, flexible employment practices, and importation of foreign workers hinder union development. The millennium may represent a turning point for workers and their organizations because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) replaced the Kuomintang (KMT) as the ruling party. This may further union independence and power because the DPP tends to be a more pro-labor party. However, balancing the interests of workers and employers will still be a challenge for the DPP, particularly given employer opposition to many of the DPP's labor policies. [source] Globalization, Financial Crisis, and Industrial Relations: The Case of South KoreaINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2003Dong-one Kim The South Korean case shows that the globalization trend in the 1990s and the 1997,1998 financial crisis had two contrasting effects on labor rights. First, these developments resulted in negative labor market outcomes: increased unemployment, greater use of contingent workers, and widened income inequalities. On the other hand, they led international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to play important roles in improving labor standards in Korea. Also, continued restructuring drives prompted unions to merge into industrial unions and wage strikes with increased frequency and intensity. Contrary to the common belief, the Korean case shows that globalization and intensified competition resulted in stronger and strategic responses from labor by stimulating employees' interest in and reliance on trade unionism. [source] What's the Point of Industrial Relations?INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2010Edited by Ralph Darlington, In Defence of Critical Social Science No abstract is available for this article. [source] Union recognition in Ireland: one step forward or two steps back?INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2003Daryl D'Art In this paper a variety of union recognition procedures and their effect on union density levels in a number of countries are considered. The crucial importance of the national institutions that govern industrial relations are emphasised. While in Ireland, conditions such as social partnership and the buoyant economy of the 1990s would appear to favour union growth, the reverse has been the case. Recent legislation to establish more formal procedures for union recognition, we argue, is likely to be a dismal failure. Indeed, an unintended consequence of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001 may be the exclusion of the union from the workplace and the legitimisation of a firm's non-union status. [source] The Evolution of Indian Industrial Relations: A Comparative PerspectiveINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001Debashish Bhattacherjee This article examines the evolution of Indian industrial relations in an historical and structural context. In India, the evolution of industrial relations has been ,incremental' and ,adaptive' and not ,discontinuous' and ,revolutionary'. The relationship between changing industrialisation strategies and industrial relations institutions and practices in India is considerably more subtle than is often supposed in comparative industrial relations narratives, especially when detailed endogenous political economy considerations are taken into account. [source] National Culture and Industrial Relations and Pay StructuresLABOUR, Issue 2 2001Boyd Black The paper develops an explanatory model of comparative industrial relations and labour market structures based on national culture. The four cultural variables derived by Hofstede (Culture's Consequences, Beverly Hills: Sage, 1984) are used to investigate the relationship between national culture and various dimensions of industrial relations and pay structures. The paper finds national culture to be associated with the centralization of bargaining, the extent of corporatism, the degree of co-ordination in bargaining, the coverage of collective bargaining, trade union density, the extent of worker participation in decision making, and most dimensions of the pay structure. Hofstede's MAS variable, measuring cultural values representing gender social structuring, is associated with both industrial relations institutions and the pay structure. The results provide support for our cultural model. [source] Government Enterprises & Industrial Relations in Late Qing ChinaAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 1 2001David Pong This study examines the development of labour organisation and industrial action among workers in government enterprises in the late Qing (1860-1912). Because these were the largest industrial enterprises using the most advanced machinery, one expects that the workers in them would play the leading role in labour organisation. Further, during the centuries-long gestation period, the period of embryonic capitalism, workers in traditional enterprises had already developed a tradition of industrial action. Yet this tradition of protest did not appear to have contributed much to labour activism in the modern government works. Quite the contrary, it was in private industries, whether Chinese- or foreign-owned, that we find a higher level of labour organisation and activism. This is an unexpected discovery, for which an explanation is attempted. [source] Personnel Discipline and Industrial Relations on the Railways of Republican ChinaAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 1 2001Stephen L. Morgan The Chinese National Railways of Republican China (1912-37) had a personnel administration the equal of any of the major railway systems of the period. Railways require a sophisticated personnel bureaucracy to train, monitor and enforce codes of conduct which would ensure the safety of passengers, freight and the huge investment in rolling stock and fixed capital. Only the military had previously administrative structures approaching the modern railway companies, the first modern business to organise on such a scale large numbers of employees over vast geographic areas. In China the railway introduced not only a new transport technology but also played a major role in creating the new industrial working class through the regimes of work and discipline their administration created. Drawing on neglected railway personnel archives, this paper examines the work organisation and structures of discipline that governed the working day of Chinese railway employees. [source] Path Dependency and Comparative Industrial Relations: The Case of Conflict Resolution Systems in Ireland and SwedenBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2009Paul Teague This article uses the theory of path dependency to explain the evolution of employment conflict resolution systems in Ireland and Sweden. It argues that the traditional ,voluntarist' conflict management path followed in Ireland has fragmented as a result of a series of internal developments that have reduced trade union density, increased the importance of employment law in the settlement of workplace disputes and established social partnership as the main wage-setting mechanism. By contrast, the Swedish system has experienced reform within the boundaries of the established conflict management path, which is largely attributable to the still powerful role played by trade unions within the country. Thus, while the operating rules of the system have changed, its core underlying principles , collectivism and self-regulation , remain intact. [source] New Actors in Industrial RelationsBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 4 2006Edmund Heery First page of article [source] The British Journal of Industrial Relations: Position and ProspectBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2005Edmund Heery First page of article [source] Collective Consultation and Industrial Relations in ChinaBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2004Simon Clarke Economic reform in China has seen the replacement of the administrative regulation of labour relations by their contractual regulation, with an increasing emphasis on the role of the collective contract system. Studies of the introduction of the system emphasized the determining role of the state. In this paper we examine the more recent development of the collective contract system and conclude that it is primarily the continued integration of the trade union into management at the workplace that prevents collective consultation from providing an adequate framework for the regulation of labour relations. [source] Is There a Third Way for Industrial Relations?BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2004Chris Howell There has been little systematic analysis of what the ,Third Way' means in the sphere of industrial relations. This paper examines the record of the New Labour government in order to evaluate the distinctiveness, innovation and coherence of its industrial relations policy. It argues that many of the limitations of this policy result from the institutional context within which it was introduced. In comparative perspective, Third Way industrial relations can be thought of as a policy adaptation specific to centre,left governments in weakly co-ordinated liberal market economies. [source] Interests, Institutions and Industrial RelationsBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 4 2003Nick Wailes In the comparative politics literature there are two main approaches to the impact of international economic change on national policy patterns. The first , new institutionalism , has been very influential in comparative industrial relations scholarship. The second, which focuses on the role of interests, has been less prominent. Comparing industrial relations reform in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, this paper argues that there are a number of limitations to an institutionalist approach and outlines a framework for the comparative study of the impact of international economic change on national patterns of industrial relations which integrates both institutionalist and interest-based approaches. [source] The Individualization of Irish Industrial Relations?BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2001William K. Roche Research claims that industrial relations in greenfield sites in Ireland are commonly individualized. Data from a representative sample of workplaces in Ireland show that no trend towards more pronounced individualization is apparent in the use of HRM practices in new as compared with established workplaces. The state of collective industrial relations in workplaces in general is also shown to be independent of the extent to which individually focused HRM practices have been adopted. The Irish findings, and recent international research, question the idea of individualization as a useful way of understanding the character and dynamics of employment relations in advanced economies. [source] Varieties of Industrial Relations Research: Take-over, Convergence or Divergence?BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2005Carola M. Frege Industrial relations (IR) research faces various pressures of internationalization. Not only do global economic forces increasingly shape the subject of the discipline, employment relations, but also the academic community itself is becoming more international. The article discusses whether and in what ways IR research is affected by these trends. It is based on a comparative, longitudinal study of journal publications in the USA, Britain and Germany. The findings reveal significantly different patterns of IR research across the three countries. In particular, the strong variation between US and British research patterns challenges the common notion of a homogeneous Anglo-Saxon style in conducting social science research. The analysis suggests that despite growing internationalization, IR research continues to be strongly embedded in nationally specific research cultures and traditions. [source] Increasing Returns, Labour Utilization and Externalities: Procyclical Productivity in the United States and JapanECONOMICA, Issue 266 2000Michela Vecchi This paper investigates procyclical productivity and attempts to discriminate among several competing explanations. The study focuses on the United States and Japan, since the different industrial relations in these two economies serve to cast a sharper light on the procyclical productivity debate. Labour hoarding, evaluated through the introduction of a labour utilization proxy, proves to be an important influence. The interpretation of the role of external economies remains an open issue. [source] The ratification of ILO conventions: A hazard rate analysisECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 3 2001Bernhard Boockmann There are over 180 ILO conventions in many areas of labour law, industrial relations and social security, but they are not ratified universally: for the conventions adopted between 1975 and 1995, the cumulative probability of ratification is about 13 percent 10 years after their adoption. In this paper, the ratification decision is understood as a transition between two states. Using duration analysis, we identify circumstances which are favourable to this transition. For industrialized countries, the ratification of ILO conventions is shown to depend on internal political factors such as government preferences or the power of left-wing parties in parliament. For developing countries, economic costs of ratification have a significant impact. There is no evidence for external pressure in favour of ratification. Among industrialized member states, there is a clear downward trend in estimated ratification probabilities over the last two decades. [source] The Free Movement of Goods as a Possible ,Community' Limitation on Industrial ConflictEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000Giovanni Orlandini The aim of this essay is to underline the fact that the process of achieving single market integration is very likely to influence the regulation of industrial conflict. In this perspective, the Commission v France judgment is analysed, in which the ECJ,through a combined interpretation of Article 30 (now 28) and Article 5 (now 10) of the Treaty,states that a Member State is obliged to adopt all ,appropriate measures' to remove any ,obstacles' impeding the free circulation of goods caused by private persons. A new Regulation (n. 2679/98) has followed the ECJ decision, instituting a system of notification of such obstacles arising, or the threat of them, and the right of the Commission to demand a formal reply from a State on whether it has taken, or will be taking the necessary and proportionate measures. The analysis of the principles adopted by the ECJ and of the Regulation shows that, at Community level, pressure is exerted on States to prevent the exercise of collective action as effectively as possible, if this damages inter-State trade. A transnational limit on industrial conflict thus emerges in the Community order, which may well affect the equilibria of national industrial relations in various ways. [source] Coordination as a Political Problem in Coordinated Market EconomiesGOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2006KATHLEEN THELEN The purpose of this article is to explore the political dynamics of employer coordination in three well-known "coordinated market economies." We examine differences in how employer coordination has been organized in Sweden, Germany, and Japan in the area of industrial relations, and we examine the extent to which such coordination represents a self-sustaining equilibrium, as some of the most influential treatments suggest. To preview the findings, we argue that precisely the intensification of cooperation between labor and management in some firms and industries (that the "varieties of capitalism" literature correctly emphasizes) has paradoxically had deeply destabilizing collateral effects that have undermined or are undermining these systems as they were traditionally constituted. All three cases are characterized not so much by a full-blown breakdown of coordination so much as a very significant reconfiguration of the terms and scope of such coordination. Specifically, all three countries feature the emergence of new or intensified forms of dualism,different in each case based on different starting points,in which continued coordination within a smaller core has in some ways been underwritten through the breaking off of other, more peripheral, firms and workers. [source] Unraveling Home and Host Country Effects: An Investigation of the HR Policies of an American Multinational in Four European CountriesINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2005PHIL ALMOND This article argues that the institutional "home" and "host" country effects on employment policy and practice in multinational corporations (MNCs) need to be analyzed within a framework which takes more account both of the multiple levels of embeddedness experienced by the MNC, and processes of negotiation at different levels within the firm. Using in-depth case study analysis of the human resource (HR) structure and industrial relations and pay policies of a large U.S.-owned MNC in the IT sector, across Germany, Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the article attempts to move towards such a framework. [source] Changing Patterns of Industrial Relations in TaiwanINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2003Shyh-Jer Chen This article examines changing patterns of industrial relations (IR) in Taiwan. Although trade unions have become more autonomous since the lifting of martial law in the mid-1980s, trends such as the privatization of state-owned enterprises, industrial restructuring, flexible employment practices, and importation of foreign workers hinder union development. The millennium may represent a turning point for workers and their organizations because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) replaced the Kuomintang (KMT) as the ruling party. This may further union independence and power because the DPP tends to be a more pro-labor party. However, balancing the interests of workers and employers will still be a challenge for the DPP, particularly given employer opposition to many of the DPP's labor policies. [source] Why No Shop Committees in America: A Narrative HistoryINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2001David Brody This article explores the origins of the prohibition against shop committees in modern labor law. It identifies World War I as the crystallizing moment and argues that shop committees might have become a permanent feature of American industrial relations at that time but for a series of contingent events arising in particular from the great steel strike of 1919. Historians have missed this linkage, the article concludes, because in the intervening 1920s, employee representation became disassociated from industrial democracy, with the notable exception of the railroads, where blatantly antiunion use of employee representation prompted the judicial condemnation of employer domination of labor organizations that provided the doctrinal foundation for Section 8a(2) of the National Labor Relations Act. [source] Commitment to Company and Union: Evidence from Hong KongINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2000Ed Snape This article examines the pattern and antecedents of employee commitment to company and union in the Hong Kong context. Findings are consistent with those from the United States. In general, company and union commitment have different antecedents, although the perceived industrial relations climate is a common predictor. Dual commitment is in evidence. Union membership is a function of union commitment. The findings caution against attempts to explain the pattern of Hong Kong industrial relations purely in terms of culture. [source] Ownership, corporate governance and industrial relations in the banking and telecommunications sectors: the case of GreeceINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Stella ZambarloukouArticle first published online: 10 MAY 2010 ABSTRACT The article examines how changes in ownership and corporate governance have affected industrial relations systems by drawing on the recent experience of Greece in two sectors: banking and telecommunications. The findings show that despite the seeming institutional stability in industrial relations arrangements, substantive change has taken place in the aforementioned sectors, which has resulted in the decentralisation of bargaining procedures. [source] Free movement, equal treatment and workers' rights: can the European Union solve its trilemma of fundamental principles?INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2009Jon Erik Dølvik ABSTRACT This article analyses the trilemma the EU is facing concerning three fundamental principles on which the Community rests: free movement of services and labour; non-discrimination and equal treatment, and the rights of association and industrial action. With rising cross-border flows of services and (posted) labour after the Eastward enlargement, the conflict between these rights has triggered industrial disputes and judicial strife. In the view of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), highlighted in the Laval Quartet, some principles are more fundamental than others. Tracing the ,dual track' along which European integration has evolved, whereby supranational market integration has been combined with national semi-sovereignty in industrial relations and social policies, our claim is that the supremacy of free movement over basic social rights implied by the ECJ judgments is leading Europe in a politically and socially unsustainable direction. To prevent erosion of the European Social Models and of popular support for European integration, the politicians have to reinsert themselves into the governance of the European project. A pertinent start would be to ensure that the rising mass of cross-border service workers in Europe become subject to the same rights and standards as their fellow workers in the emerging pan-European labour market. [source] Industry differences in the neoliberal transformation of Australian industrial relationsINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009Mark Bray ABSTRACT This article argues that our theoretical understanding of neoliberalism and empirical understanding of the transformation of industrial relations in Australia since the early 1990s can be improved by disaggregating analysis from national to industry level, and by focusing on the dual neoliberal objectives of decollectivisation and individualisation. [source] Old-time militancy and the economic realities: towards a reassessment of the dockers' experienceINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009Dan Coffey ABSTRACT This article makes the case for a fundamental reassessment of an important stage in the history of industrial relations in the UK port transport sector vis-à-vis the regulation of employment and the controversial demise of the National Dock Labour Scheme. It argues that the popular view that state regulation combined with trade union organisation and restrictive working practices in the 1970s and 1980s to undermine the competitiveness of the port transport sector lacks convincing empirical foundations. It notes some implications for wider debates around Britain's variety of capitalism. [source] The impact of EU accession on Turkish industrial relations and social dialogueINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008Engin Yildirim ABSTRACT This article examines whether the European Union membership process is transforming the ,deep structure' of Turkish industrial relations. We make an attempt to illustrate this through the prism of Turkish experience in social dialogue regarded as an indispensable tool of the European social model. Turkish industrial relations is characterised by restrictive labour laws, employer hostility to unionisation, a large informal economy and labour market, and strong state intervention, which have historically constituted the main elements of ,the deep structure' of Turkish industrial relations. In procedural terms, the institutions for social dialogue have been established but the influence of the social partners is limited because of the dominance of the state and the weakness of labour. The existing attempts at developing social dialogue rest on shaky foundations emanating mostly from the state's and employers' disrespect of basic labour rights. [source] Performing industrial relations: the centrality of gender in regulation of work in theatre and televisionINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007Deborah Dean ABSTRACT Women performers have worked in a formally unsegregated occupation since 1660. However, formal and informal regulation of their access to work can only be understood in the context of their interaction as gendered workers with other, gendered, institutions and processes. This analysis has wider implications for the study of industrial relations. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||