Explaining divergent bargaining outcomes for agency workers: the role of labour divides and labour market reforms

Benassi, Chiara, Dorigatti, Lisa and Pannini, Elisa ORCID: 0000-0001-8258-5986 (2018) Explaining divergent bargaining outcomes for agency workers: the role of labour divides and labour market reforms. European Journal of Industrial Relations. ISSN 0959-6801

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Abstract

Under what conditions can unions successfully regulate precarious employment? We compare the divergent trajectories of collective bargaining on agency work in the Italian and German metal sectors from the late 1990s. We explain the differences by the interaction between trade unions’ institutional and associational power resources, mediated by employers’ divide-and-rule strategies and by union strategies to (re)build a unitary front. In both countries, the liberalization of agency work allowed employers to exploit labour divides, undermining unions’ associational power and preventing labour from negotiating effectively. However, while Italian unions remained ‘trapped’ in the vicious circle between weak legislation and fragmented labour, German unions were able to overcome their internal divides. The different degree of success depended on the nature of the divides within the labour movements.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ejd
Additional Information:	© 2018 SAGE Publications
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Date Deposited:	20 Jul 2018 09:20
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2024 00:54
Funders:	Hans-Boeckler Foundation
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/89371

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