Collective bargaining and the social construction of employment
Description
Insofar as employment operates as a social norm, its configuration may be viewed as the outcome and expression of struggles and conflicting attitudes within society. By means of collective bargaining at local, national or European level, the trade unions are involved in the processes and whereby modes of employment regulation undergo change and relations among social categories (gender, age, occupational groups) and among the categories of employment, unemployment and inactivity are redefined.
- How, in the national contexts, are the industrial relations systems engaged in contributing to the construction of a European social model?
- How much influence do trade unions have in workplaces and in the making of public employment policy?
- What strategies are the trade unions developing in relation to national compromises that could result in competition between national systems?
These are some of the questions raised by a group of researchers belonging to the “employment, labour, industrial relations and society” network set up in 1997 to coordinate the efforts of eight social science research teams from six countries that had developed similar critical analyses of labour market change.
