Description
Book SynopsisThe service sector has not always received the attention it merits in industrial relations research when set against its enormous economic significance. One factor in this is certainly the highly diverse nature of services. Research attention has also lagged behind long-standing processes of transnationalization undertaken by service sector companies and the challenges these pose for policy and practice in the field of employment relations. This study by Stefan Rüb and Hans-Wolfgang Platzer represents a pioneering effort to remedy this gap. Through six named company case studies, Rüb and Platzer explore the scope and background for transnational employee relations conflicts and the mechanisms that have emerged to resolve and anticipate these, highlighting the complex relationships between employee representatives, management and trade unions.
The choice of case studies aims to capture a broad range of service sector employment, in terms of both working conditions and employment relations arrangements. As well as covering a number of key sectors, the choice of home countries of the selected firms also aims to capture the impact of national influences for the main industrial relations models in Europe. Overall, the study offers insights into the complexities of the Europeanization of company-level industrial relations in a dynamic field now also confronted by the convulsions unleashed by the Eurozone crisis.
Trade Review« [...] this book is likely to give more ideas and insights than the authors preconceived.»
(Stan de Spiegelaere, British Journal of Industrial Relations 2016)
Table of ContentsContents: UNI Europa and the policy field of transnational companies – Accelerated development of European industrial relations after the establishment of an SE: The case of Allianz – The scope and limits of extending a national model into the European space: The case of AXA – Continuous development and differentiation of transnational industrial relations: The case of IKEA – The development of European industrial relations: Kering – Temporary surge of European industrial relations triggered by a dispute: The case of MM Packaging – A great leap forward in European industrial relations: Post-acquisition developments in the case of DS Smith – European company industrial relations in the service sector: Findings, challenges, perspectives – The service sector and the Europeanization of industrial relations: Challenges and perspectives.
