INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL最新文献

This study examines how the pandemic changed the ethnicity gaps in working-from-home practices in the UK. We do this by examining seven waves of the UK Labour Force Survey from 2017 to 2023, divided into three time periods—pre-pandemic, during-lockdown and post-lockdown. The results show that although the gap found between White and BME workers in the pre-pandemic period disappears as we move into the post-lockdown period, there are large differences between different ethnicities, especially when we intersect ethnicity with migration status, gender, and parental status. Even in the post-lockdown period of 2022–2023, Black men, particularly Black fathers, stood out for their low levels of homeworking, alongside Chinese and ‘Other Asian’ workers - both men and women. On closer inspection, we found that it was especially migrant workers from these ethnicities who were significantly worse off in terms of their access to homeworking. The paper shows that although we see a positive change in homeworking, which has increased for most ethnic groups over the course of the pandemic, certain groups are still left behind in this growth. The paper further highlights the need for an intersectional analysis when examining such labour market patterns.

This article is about current developments of codetermination by works councils as a core institution of labour relations in Germany. It is argued that we can observe seven different paths of development which point into different directions, combining processes of erosion, functional change and social innovation in co-determination.

Industrial relations studies have struggled to explain the variations in human resource (HR) practices in firms operating in the same institutional contexts and sectors and facing similar market pressures. Budd, Pohler, and Huang's (2021) model on the frames of reference used by managers and employees constitutes a notable exception, as it focuses on how actors view HR practices. We build on this model and critique and extend it by including unions as actors and exploring employers' and unions' frames concerning HR practices and the ensuing outcomes. We also develop an analytical framework composed of workplace-level relational and beyond-workplace external elements. We invite future research to show the empirical validity of our model and framework.

While employee engagement might enhance staff wellbeing alongside organisational performance, delivering mutual gains can be challenging. This article assesses co-production as a route to engagement in a public health workplace, and finds that co-produced engagement strategies and mutual gains outcomes are possible where underpinned by genuinely collaborative organisational governance arrangements.

In decentralized systems where unionization and bargaining occur at the establishment level, what explains the (speedy) transition from union registration to the first collective agreement? While prior evidence in some developed countries (i.e., the United States) estimates this transition to be approximately a year, on average, little to no evidence exists in other contexts where unions play a less central role, as is the case in many developing countries. Addressing this gap, we analyze the Philippines where national unionization and collective bargaining coverage rates are relatively low. Using methods from survival analysis on novel register data of all new union registrations from 2016 to 2021, we descriptively demonstrate that: (i) median union membership density is low at 40%; (ii) only 20% of all new union registrations successfully register a contract within the first 5 years; and (iii) unions with higher densities, that are independent, and in the manufacturing sector are associated with elevated transition rates to a collective agreement.

In many European democracies, political parties and trade unions have developed a long-standing relationship. This relationship has certainly evolved over the last few decades as both actors have had to adapt to changes in their constituencies. This study examines the evolving dynamics between political parties and trade unions across Europe, with a focus on both Western and Central-Eastern European contexts. By utilising data from the Comparative Interest Group survey, we investigate how factors such as political power, resources, and ideological alignments influence these interactions. Our findings reveal that unions prioritise contacts with ruling parties, underscoring the importance of political access. Despite assumptions, financial resources alone do not determine engagement frequency, as well as ideological alliances. We also highlight differing contact levels influenced by political systems, showing that pluralist environments foster more interaction compared to corporatist settings. This research contributes valuable insights into the adaptive strategies of trade unions in contemporary democracies, reflecting on historical ties and varying institutional landscapes.

Recent contributions within the disconnected capitalism literature argue that personal financial insecurity related to household indebtedness and pension fund financialisation is positively associated with time-related underemployment. This is because financially insecure workers are more likely to accept worsening working conditions on the fear of losing their job and defaulting on their debts. Using quarterly data from the Eurostat for the period 2008Q3–2020Q4, this paper shows that the persistent rise of time-related underemployment rates in postcrisis Greece is robustly associated with the household debt ratio and pension fund investments in financial derivatives. We also demonstrate that while the effects of financialisation are similar for men and women, the employment-tied and gendered nature of social benefits in the country has disproportionately affected women in the context of austerity. The paper concludes that personal financial insecurity is a key missing factor behind rising time-related underemployment in Greece since 2008.