A report from the homeland of the Ghent system: the relationship between unemployment and trade union membership in Belgium

Vandaele, Kurt

doi:10.1177/102425890601200417

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Belgian unions are involved in social security management by handling unemployment benefits as typical part of the 'Ghent system' (Vandaele, 2006): this contributes to the relatively high union density, particularly among agency workers, who are unionised at nearly 60% (Arrowsmith, 2006).…”

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Trade unions and labour market dualisation: a comparison of policies and attitudes towards agency and migrant workers in Germany and Belgium

Pulignano

Meardi

Doerflinger

2015

Work, Employment and Society

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The article addresses the question of the extent to which, and the reasons why, western European trade unions may have privileged the protection of 'insiders' over that of 'outsiders'. Temporary Agency Workers, among whom migrant workers are over-represented, are taken as test case of 'outsiders'. The findings from a comparison of Belgian and German multinational plants show that collective agreements have allowed a protection gap between permanent and agency workers to emerge in Germany, but not in Belgium. However, the weaker protection in Germany depends less on an explicit union choice for insiders than on the weakening of the institutional environment for union representation and collective bargaining. The conclusion suggests that European unions are increasingly trying to defend the outsiders, but meet institutional obstacles that vary by country. This article has three interrelated analytical aims. Firstly, through selected case studies within the same multinational companies affected by the same external pressures, it questions the role of efficiencydriven or rational choice-based explanations for using one extreme form of vulnerable work, namely temporary agency work. The cases illustrate diversity in the organisation of the use of agency labour that cannot be explained by company variables alone and require the consideration of social and political factors. Secondly, the article explores some of these factors by comparing 'most similar' cases, i.e. two neighbouring 'co-ordinated market economies' with similar welfare state models, but where temporary agency workers are subject to very different degrees of protection. The comparison allows to identify the importance of union power and related collective bargaining, and representation systems, and thereby to assess Palier and Thelen's (2010) argument more in depth. Thirdly, we go beyond existing institutional accounts by addressing agency and institutional factors together to tackle the underlying question of the extent to which the unions' role in co-organising dualisation depends on their political choices rather than on the environment they are in. 3The comparative perspective adds to the literature on labour market segmentation and on union responses (Benassi, 2013;Lillie, 2012;Doellgast and Greer, 2007;Hassel 2012), by looking in particular at the implications of power and the influencing factors. We propose to problematize the role of employers and trade unions beyond economic determinism and structural approaches that derive their roles merely from supposedly pre-existing interests. Instead, we pay deeper attention to the socio-political context in which the actors operate and which they concomitantly construct.Thereby, we aim to contribute to debates on social inclusion and dualisation by stressing the crucial role of institutionally situated micro-political games, where actors are strategic 'agents' within a context of power relations.The article is organised as follows. Firstly, segmentation debates are addressed and the rationale of a ...

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confidence: 99%

Trade unions and labour market dualisation: a comparison of policies and attitudes towards agency and migrant workers in Germany and Belgium

Pulignano

Meardi

Doerflinger

2015

Work, Employment and Society

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“…From the very beginning, the Danish version of the Ghent system differed from the Belgian model. Wage earners were not forced to join a UIF controlled by a union in the original Belgian model, but had the opportunity to enrol in a public‐controlled UIF managed by the local city council (Vandaele, 2005; 2006). In addition, UIFs controlled by the trade unions in the Belgian model were in fact interdisciplinary from the beginning, which meant that they were able to organise members across different trades and sectors, creating a state of competition among them.…”

Section: Political Institutional Changes and New Trajectories For Unimentioning

confidence: 99%

TheGhent effect for whom? Mapping the variations of theGhent effect across different trade unions inDenmark

Høgedahl

2014

Industrial Relations Journal

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The presence of an unemployment insurance system based on voluntary membership in unemployment insurance funds (known as the ‘Ghent system’) and a high union density has long been known and well documented, and even referred to as a special ‘Ghent effect’. However the Ghent system, especially in the three classic Ghent countries, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, has come under significant pressure in recent years, and many researchers are referring to an erosion of the Ghent system as a recruiting mechanism for trade unions. But prior research aimed at documenting the Ghent effect seems to disregard variations in how strongly trade unions benefit from the Ghent system as a recruiting mechanism. Hence, this article sets out to investigate whether all trade unions equally benefit from a Ghent effect across different sectors and occupations by studying the Danish case. Unique survey data made it possible to map Danish wage earners' reasons for joining or leaving unemployment insurance funds and trade unions. The article finds that there are great variations among Danish trade unions in terms of how strongly they are dependent on a Ghent effect as a recruiting mechanism. We may expect the same variations in the two other Ghent countries, Sweden and Finland, because the organisation of the Ghent system is similar in the three Nordic countries. In addition, the article shows that this variation might help explain why some trade unions are on the rise to the detriment of others.

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“…There are also important differences between the two countries. Whereas trade union membership in the Netherlands is relatively low, and on the decline, Belgium has, because of its “quasi Ghent system” of unemployment insurance and its trade union representatives on the shop floor, a relatively stable and quite high trade union density rate (Ebbinghaus & Visser, ; Vandaele, ).…”

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Towards a comprehensive explanation of the development of occupational pension. The interplay between welfare state legacies, industrial relations, and housing regimes in Belgium and the Netherlands

Deken

2018

Soc Policy Adm

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This article investigates the interplay between social policies, industrial relations, and housing regimes in order to explain the development of occupational pensions. The structure of statutory provisions and industrial relations of the Bismarckian “latecomer” Belgium make it appear a “most likely case” for a successful transition into “mature” multi‐pillarism. The continued importance of outright homeownership in the retirement package turns out to be a key in explaining that such a transition largely failed in Belgium. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, two financial crises have eroded the apparent advantages of securing the second‐tier function of retirement provisions by relying on prefunded occupational plans and a financialized housing regime. The crises provoked a drift away from the “high road” of second‐pillar pensions, and initiated a process that increases the importance of outright homeownership in the retirement package at the expense of generously funded occupational plans.

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A report from the homeland of the Ghent system: the relationship between unemployment and trade union membership in Belgium

Cited by 26 publications

References 24 publications

Trade unions and labour market dualisation: a comparison of policies and attitudes towards agency and migrant workers in Germany and Belgium

Trade unions and labour market dualisation: a comparison of policies and attitudes towards agency and migrant workers in Germany and Belgium

TheGhent effect for whom? Mapping the variations of theGhent effect across different trade unions inDenmark

Towards a comprehensive explanation of the development of occupational pension. The interplay between welfare state legacies, industrial relations, and housing regimes in Belgium and the Netherlands

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