Betriebsvereinbarungen 2015 – Verbreitung und Themen

Working more in order to preserve jobs? Works councils in the Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering industry and the ‘Swiss franc shock’ in 2015

“…This trend has been called the ‘controlled decentralisation’ of collective bargaining (Haipeter, : 34). Works councils are major actors whenever management initiates derogation from CA provisions, regardless whether it is actually the signatories of the CA (employers association and trade union) that by law have to agree to such derogation (Baumann and Maschke, ). Early literature has identified decentralisation trends as being part of an erosion process of the whole system of industrial relations, tending to ‘undermine the division of labour between co‐determination and collective bargaining’ (Hassel, : 483).…”