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The past 20 years were convulsive for industrial relations in Ireland: from boom to bust and back again, with the Financial Crisis killing off national bargaining; the Supreme Court first undermining sectoral bargaining, then shifting back in favour of it; and of course, the Covid‐19 pandemic generating an overhaul of working conditions across society. All along, widespread industrial unrest has been notable by its absence. Long‐term decline in Irish trade union density continues, despite recent research showing significant popular support for trade unions, particularly among young workers. Now, the obligation to transpose the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages has brought Ireland to a crossroads in collective labour law and industrial relations reform. How Ireland has responded to these pressures, internal and external, holds lessons for other jurisdictions, of which this article highlights three: a commitment to pragmatic adaptation over principled coherence makes measuring the success of any reform project difficult; different methods of reform enjoy varying levels of legitimacy; and disjunction between different levels of bargaining generates pressure on the system, including risks to the legitimacy of the system itself and the actors within it—particularly beleaguered trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that industrial relations (IR) in the German public sector are not just a replica of private sector IR. It suggests that neither the structures, nor the outcomes can be sufficiently explained by derivation from private sector IR processes. Primarily, the specifics and developments of the public sector explain public sector IR. It is of fundamental importance whether trade unions operate in a profit‐driven market environment or a publicly financed environment that is under public control. Differences between the public and the private sector result not least in the distinct relevance and meanings of trade union power resources. This influences the ways in which industrial action in the private and the public sector works and is relevant for trade union strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the scholarly debate on industrial relations (IR) transformation is inclined toward the conclusion that the IR transformation is bound to take place with changes in the surrounding business environment, we observe a few exceptions in each economy. The current study investigates one of such curious IR contexts, that is, the Indian coal sector. We rely on the 'logic of the action' framework and the IR transformation measures to assess the sector at an aggregate and micro level. The coal sector in India consists of a mix of both permanent and informal workforce. With respect to the permanent workforce, we analysed the collective bargaining agreements spanned over five decades (1975–2021). For the informal workforce, we analysed the recommendations of the HPC on wages and working conditions, the provisions of relevant legislation, internal circulars of coal companies and important judicial pronouncements. Our analyses revealed vast differences in wages and working conditions between the permanent and informal workforce. Despite a significant decline in the permanent workforce, they could negotiate better terms as the growing size of the informal workforce was yet to form a collective bargaining mechanism for better wages and working conditions. These results are indicative of a paradox which needs to be explored further. Our study advances the thesis of adaptive state capitalism in the coal sector through functional and numerical flexibility despite a politicised multi‐union model in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's major public dispute resolution agency has changed substantially since the 1990s from a stand‐alone tribunal administering a collectivist system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration to an integrated agency resolving both individual and collective disputes as well as performing a broader regulatory role. It remains central to Australian industrial relations, reflecting its adaptability and the peculiarities of its political and industrial relations contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of trades councils and trade unions in organising within local and regional contexts around the challenges facing and potential union strategies for addressing the needs of insecure and precarious workers. We deploy a case study on the Sheffield Trade Union Council and the Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise campaign as a way of exploring innovations and challenges for the trade union movement for organising the unorganised. We explore the potentials as well as limitations of local organising and campaigning around insecurity and marginalisation by trade unions to demonstrate theoretically and empirically within industrial relations research the role of strategic spaces for action by workers and trade unions and the set of institutional, economic, social and cultural resources that workers can draw on in developing their respective strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the hospital European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC) through a Community of Practice (CoP) theoretical lens. Based on a 2‐year project, qualitative in‐depth interviews at the European level and in five Member states, and participant observation of the hospital SSDC, we propose a shift from traditional institutional and resource‐based accounts and provide a learning and knowledge‐focused understanding of this specific area of European industrial relations. Interpreting the SSDCs as a CoP sheds new light on the role of power relations, participation and informal activities among members and on how they work together; this, we find, can alert those interested in more effective functioning of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue on how to strengthen this supra‐national level of industrial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike national trade unions, which operate within country‐specific industrial relations systems, Global Unions have an international mandate and multi‐scalar positionality. As a consequence, their repertoires of action and the opportunity structures available to them differ from those of national unions. Drawing on qualitative interview data and fieldwork observations, we propose a typology of different strategic domains used by the Global Union Federations (GUFs), which identifies their characteristics, scale and constraints. We then discuss two cases that illustrate how complementary strategies of (a) engaging in incremental innovation and (b) combining repertoires from different strategic domains have supported the GUFs' desire to play a stronger role as global labour governance intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of a structured antagonism lying at the heart of the employment relationship is widely cited but also commonly misinterpreted. The paper firstly returns to the origin of the concept to locate its approach to workplace industrial relations. It forms part of labour process analysis, within which its distinct emphasis is two‐fold: a focus on levels of analysis, such that the connections between the underlying antagonism and concrete behaviour can be interrogated; and a preference for comparative analysis, which allows the relevant processes to be identified. In this paper, we apply these themes to contemporary workplaces such as those in the gig economy. Recent research demonstrates substantial empirical and theoretical progress but can be taken further using the above two ideas. A methodological checklist emerges to guide a future programme of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technology (ICT) challenges traditional assumptions about the capacity to manage work beyond organizational and physical boundaries. A typology connects a variety of non‐traditional work organizations made possible by ICT, including offshoring, outsourcing, remote work, virtual companies and platforms. A model illustrates how new technology serves as a proximate cause for a revision of social contracts between capital, labour and government reached through bargaining and how external shocks such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, the institutional environment and limitations in practice influence how technology changes the organization of work. An historical case study of the New Deal Industrial Relations System illustrates the general features of the model for tackling major transformations in the organization of work. A review of the outsourcing and offshoring literature provides examples of how features of the model will potentially influence the future of post‐pandemic remote work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although trade union density is the most influential and most commonly used indicator to map trade union strength, comparing between countries and time, the author argues that trade union density is lacking both specificity and comparability. Additionally, many studies on industrial relations neglect developing countries. Therefore, the paper offers a new concept based on a combination of different theoretical approaches that identify determinants of trade union strength involving developing countries. On that basis, the author creates a novel, composite index that is better at capturing trade union strength than previous indices. First evaluations of this collective labour force index, which covers the years 2000 to 2016 in 72 countries, show that it is quite capable of doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks into differences and similarities between former labour migrants' and today's refugees' workplace integration and asks what role German industrial relations play in integration processes. Drawing on more than 150 interviews, document analysis and three employee attitude surveys, conducted in the course of three research projects, a crucial finding is that despite some differences between labour migrants and refugees in terms of labour market access, education and support programmes, in both cases, workplace integration often works better than integration in German society in general. The integration of both groups is fostered by 'pragmatic cooperation' of workers, which is based on everyday encounters and promotes collegiality, and by universal rules for all workers, including the active and passive right to elect works councils. German industrial relations provide the institutional frame for this 'workplace universalism'. However, workplace integration is under pressure due to polarized societal discourses and eroding industrial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the genesis of private dispute resolution arrangements introduced by employers and unions in Ireland. These forms of collective alternative dispute resolution (ADR) comprise three‐person panels or sole adjudicators, who mediate and issue findings on collective disputes. Findings may be non‐binding or binding. Using data and interviews covering 11 private dispute resolution arrangements in 10 organisations, the paper identifies the circumstances in which they have emerged and a series of influences that lead employers and unions make path‐breaking changes in dispute resolution procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at changing patterns of labour regulation over the last 50 years ago. We begin with the contribution of the 'Oxford School' within industrial relations analysis and its influence on the Donovan Royal Commission. We then discuss the architecture of the British corporate state and the approach of successive Conservative administrations between 1979 and 1997. Next, we consider labour market analysis and interventions under New Labour alongside emerging European influences and rights‐based models of justice. We conclude with some final comments regarding contemporary labour market thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German public sector wage restraint has been explained through the presence of a specific type of inter‐sectoral wage coordination in the industrial relations system—that is, export sector‐led pattern bargaining. First, as a literature‐assessing exercise, this paper reviews the literature in industrial relations and comparative political economy (CPE) and finds that (i) the origins and mechanics of inter‐sectoral wage coordination through pattern bargaining have never been laid out clearly; (ii) that the mechanisms of the pattern bargaining thesis have never been tested empirically; and (iii) that the CPE literature reveals an export‐sector bias. Second, as a theory‐testing exercise, hoop tests are performed to verify the pattern bargaining hypothesis. The key finding is that Germany cannot be considered a case of export sector‐driven pattern bargaining, opening a new research agenda for the study of public sector wage setting centred on public sector employment relations, public finance, public administrations and the politics of fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the two‐way relationship between multinational companies (MNCs) and Turkey's vocational education and training system through case studies of Japanese and German MNCs in the automotive industry. Drawing on semistructured interviews, it addresses the initiatives the MNCs have taken to guarantee skilled employees and their interaction with the Turkish vocational education and training system. The analysis shows how the MNCs have been 'institutional entrepreneurs' by introducing new practices. This was possible as the host environment has been open to change but also a requirement where strong industrial relations systems constituted an essential but missing home country institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anglophone countries address the question of workplace‐level union bargaining rights via the mechanism of statutory recognition. Existing literature has evaluated such regimes as underpinned by several weaknesses. In contrast, Ireland presents an unusual case whereby the question of bargaining rights is resolved via collective dispute resolution procedures combining voluntary and statutory provisions. However, employer challenges and civil court rulings resulted in the weakening of these procedures from a trade union perspective. We assess the latest attempts to reform the Irish provisions via the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015, evaluating the implications for unions and their capacity to represent members' on pay and working conditions in comparison to Anglophone statutory recognition regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the decline of collective bargaining in Portugal during the recent economic crisis and why, following significant improvements in the economic and political contexts, the number of collective agreements published each year remains lower than before. Drawing on theoretical work on institutional change by Streeck and Thelen (2005) and Baccaro and Howell (2017), it argues that industrial relations institutions in Portugal have been subject to an incremental but transformative process of liberalisation. The analysis of national data and in‐depth interviews with key informants reveals that serial legal amendments since the 1990's weakened unions, converted bargaining into a mechanism to introduce flexibility and wage austerity and reduced incentives for the parties to conclude agreements. While these changes were gradual, their consequences became clear during the crisis. By improving understanding of recent developments in Portuguese collective bargaining, the article enriches knowledge of processes of liberalisation of industrial relations in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s, given the scope of the Trade Disputes Act 1906 that had granted immunity against specific torts (civil wrongs) to organisers of industrial action, the courts had little role in industrial relations. Hence, the importance of the House of Lords decision in 1964 that, in threatening to strike to secure Douglas Rookes's removal from the Heathrow design office of the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation after his resignation from the union, Alfred Barnard and others had used unlawful means because a threat to break a contract of employment came within the tort of intimidation that was unprotected by the Trade Disputes Act's statutory immunities, and thus, they were liable to pay damages to Rookes. The legal arguments deployed are analysed within growing unease in the Conservative Party and among employers at the emergence of workplace union organisation and national strikes. Despite being partially neutralised by the Trade Disputes Act 1965, Rookes was a harbinger of a new judicial activism that outflanked trade unions' tort immunities by creating novel common law liabilities. This in turn laid the political basis for subsequent Conservative legislation to restrict and regulate trade unions and industrial action, a project that is ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Evidence of spatial variance in the relationship between trade union membership and job satisfaction is limited. Using three nationally representative data sets, we examine lower levels of satisfaction among union members and considers how this relationship varies geographically across the nations and regions of Great Britain. The analysis demonstrates that the union satisfaction gap can largely be accounted for by relative characteristics of union members and the jobs that they hold. However, there is evidence of geographical variance. The union satisfaction gap is generally found to be highest within Scotland and North of England. Despite high levels of union membership, evidence of a union satisfaction gap in Wales is relatively weak. These differences relate to differences in the perceptions of industrial relations among employees across these areas, which appear to be related to geographical variance in worker heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade unions have been analysed quantitatively primarily in their role as vested interest organisations, attempting to quantify the excludable benefits they provide to members rather than examine their wider impact in an institutional context. Power resource theory acknowledges unions as social agents but assumes the willingness to oppose neoliberalism is constant, limited only by scarce power resources. Whilst true in general terms, this fails to explain trends of increasing labour market dualism in resource‐rich industrial relations regimes. This article examines social solidarity as a union power resource, measuring the impact of trade union membership on social attitudes of solidarity. Data were collected from the 2016 European Social Survey for 18 countries, grouped into five distinct industrial relations regimes. The findings suggest that, at European level, union membership still has a significant effect on all dimensions of social solidarity, but these relationships vary significantly across industrial relations regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government has accepted the Taylor Review's recommendation that it should report annually on job quality in the UK. This article argues that three principles need to be followed in choosing the right measures and shows how these principles have been used to create a short job quality quiz (www.howgoodismyjob.com). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey of 682 Australian organisations, we find that employee participation influences organisations' behaviours to reduce carbon emissions. Representative forms of participation and mechanisms dedicated specifically to environmental management are particularly important. Utilisation of a range of forms of participation is also associated with a broader suite of emission reduction activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]