The Interrelationship of Collective Bargaining at Industry and Company-Levels in Wage Determination

Castel, Nicolas; Delahaie, Noélie; Petit, Héloïse

doi:10.4000/travailemploi.6804

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In METAL1 and METAL2, which belong to a listed group and a company controlled by a private equity fund, respectively, wage restrictions result from a unilateral decision by management even if the parent group imposes its directives in this matter. This fact is consistent with the finding that wage bargaining margins are limited in the context of centralized decision‐making at the company or group headquarters level (Castel et al, 2015). Although local employee representatives experienced limited leeway to weigh in on the wage‐related adjustments decided by the parent group, their structural power helps to locally create a climate favourable to exchanges between management and employees beyond differences in trade‐union organization.…”

Section: Collective Bargaining Under Pressure: From Negotiating Mutual Cb To Opportunistic Adjustmentssupporting

confidence: 90%

Workforce adjustment strategies and concession bargaining in times of crisis: A qualitative approach based on French case studies

Delahaie

Pérez

2021

Industrial Relations Journal

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Although the scale of the current crisis undoubtedly implies heavy repercussions on employment and work, this paper draws on the experience of French firms that implemented various workforce adjustments during the 2008 crisis. We focus on how adjustments were negotiated and the bargaining leeway for employee representatives. On the basis of 14 case studies, we seek to determine whether the crisis has led to concession bargaining and, if so, assess the characteristics of the bargaining. Mobilizing the power resources approach, we identify three types of concession bargaining based on their reciprocal and reversible features and question how actors were able to mobilize resources (institutional, associational and structural) at the workplace level. Our analysis shows that times of crisis are conducive to concession bargaining, the counterparts of which are not always identifiable for employees. Ultimately, it raises the need to identify new resources that unions could mobilize to defend jobs in the face of the COVID‐19 crisis.

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Section: Collective Bargaining Under Pressure: From Negotiating Mutual Cb To Opportunistic Adjustmentssupporting

confidence: 90%

Workforce adjustment strategies and concession bargaining in times of crisis: A qualitative approach based on French case studies

Delahaie

Pérez

2021

Industrial Relations Journal

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“…Decentralised bargaining has not developed to the detriment of sector bargaining (Jobert, 2000; Tallard and Vincent, 2014). The latter continued to develop, but now plays a lesser role in the wage dynamics, which are essentially driven by the legal minimum wage and company bargaining (Castel et al , 2015).…”

Section: The Long-term Development Of Collective Bargainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Industrial relations in France

Rehfeldt

2018

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the actors, institutions and changing rules of the French system of industrial relations (IR). It questions whether the traditional view of the French model as “state-centric” is still adequate. Design/methodology/approach Based on institutionalist IR theories of social regulation and neocorporatism, the paper analyses the evolution of the French IR system from a “State-centric” model to the development of collective bargaining, both at the sector and company level, as well as of tripartite concertation. Findings Initially based on adversarial relations between trade unions and employers, compensated by strong state interventionism, the French IR system has experienced a series of reforms, adopted under the pressure of the unions in the 1980s and mostly under the pressure of the employers’ organisations since the turn of the century. These reforms boosted collective bargaining at the workplace level and tripartite concertation at the peak level. The paper analyses the limits of both developments and explains why a reversal of the hierarchy of norms was imposed in 2016 by law without prior concertation. Originality/value The paper presents an original explanation of the change of the initial French IR model, stressing the importance of power relations and the role of IR experts in the different reform moments.

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The geography of collective bargaining in French multi‐establishment companies

Askenazy,

Cottineau

2024

Industrial Relations

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Despite growing interest in the firm bargaining process, little research focuses on the structure of bargaining within multi‐establishment firms. We question whether running negotiations at the workplace level and/or firm level is a strategic choice for employers. We hypothesize that the level chosen depends on the geography of the firm. Employers face a trade‐off: workplace bargaining is more efficient because it meets local conditions; yet higher level negotiations increase coordination costs for workers and weakens their bargaining power, which can benefit the employer. Using a French representative survey, we find a significant relation between the level of bargaining within a firm and the number, spatial distribution and heterogeneity of its establishments, suggesting that the structure of multi‐establishment firms can inform the level at which collective bargaining takes place.

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The Interrelationship of Collective Bargaining at Industry and Company-Levels in Wage Determination

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Workforce adjustment strategies and concession bargaining in times of crisis: A qualitative approach based on French case studies

Workforce adjustment strategies and concession bargaining in times of crisis: A qualitative approach based on French case studies

Industrial relations in France

The geography of collective bargaining in French multi‐establishment companies

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