Search

Questo lavoro analizza i diversi impatti istituzionali sulla qualità del lavoro dei lavoratori impiegati in una multinazionale che opera nel settore del food retail. Considerando la crescente rilevanza delle multinazionali e il loro elevato livello di standardizzazione, l'indagine sul ruolo delle diverse istituzioni rappresenta un modo per verificare se esse possano svolgere un ruolo nella definizione delle condizioni di lavoro. La ricerca prende quindi in considerazione elementi istituzionali specifici: la regolamentazione del mercato del lavoro, il sistema di relazioni industriali e i regimi di welfare, per analizzare il loro impatto su aspetti quali il livello di occupazione non standard, i salari e l'orario di lavoro; ma anche per approfondire come le diverse strategie di regolamentazione delle relazioni industriali e dei sindacati influenzino le condizioni di lavoro all'interno di una multinazionale. Inoltre, la ricerca si concentra sul settore dei servizi e in particolare sul food retail, che presenta una serie di peculiarità ancora poco indagate e interessanti per l'analisi della qualità del lavoro (ad esempio, l'elevato tasso di turnover, l'alto livello di occupazione non standard, le difficoltà per i sindacati). Per analizzare questi aspetti, la ricerca adotta un approccio comparativo, indagando la qualità del lavoro tra diverse filiali della stessa multinazionale, operanti in due diversi contesti istituzionali, Italia e Danimarca. Oltre all'analisi delle statistiche descrittive e della letteratura corrente sul tema, la ricerca prevede interviste qualitative semi-strutturate ai rappresentanti sindacali e ai manager dell'azienda in entrambi i Paesi. La ricerca si propone di offrire nuovi contributi teorici e pratici sul dibattito convergenza/divergenza delle imprese multinazionali che operano nei Paesi ospitanti, tenendo conto dei risultati proposti da diverse letterature; inoltre, approfondisce l'impatto che le politiche di welfare hanno sulle caratter, This work investigates different institutional impacts on job quality for workers employed in a multinational corporation operating in the food retail sector. Considering multinational corporations’ increasing relevance and their high level of standardisation, investigating the role of different institutions represents a way to test whether they can play a role in defining working conditions. Thus, the research takes into account specific institutional elements: labour market regulations, industrial relations system and welfare regimes, to analyse their impact on aspects such as the level of contingent employment, wages and working hours; but also to deepen how different industrial relations regulation and unions strategies affect working conditions inside a multinational corporation. Also, the research focuses on service sector and in particular on retail, which presents a series of peculiarities still not deeply investigated and interesting in the analysis of the job quality (for example, high turnover rate, high level of contingent employment, difficulties for trade unions). To analyse these issues, the research adopts a comparative approach, investigating job quality between different branches of the same multinational corporation, operating in two different institutional contexts, Italy and Denmark. Together with the analysis of descriptive statistics and current literatures on the theme, the research foresees qualitative semi-structured interviews to trade unions representatives and corporation’s managers in both the countries. The research aims to offer new theoretical and practical contributions on the convergence/divergence debate on multinational corporations functioning in host countries, considering the findings proposed by different literatures; also, it deepens the impact that welfare policies have on the characteristics of the labour supply, which in return affect MNCs’ strategies, and the perceived level of job quality; and finally, the research inve

Purpose: This article contributes to the debate on how social policies and labour market regulation have been used to limit the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic by focusing on one specific economic segment of European labour markets: private consumption services, such as trade, tourism, catering and other support services. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis combines mixed methods and a variety of sources. First, we built a set of indicators from the EU-LFS microdata for 2019 and the 2018 Eurostat “Structure of earnings survey” and performed a cluster analysis (k-means) on the dimensions and indicators considered. Second, we elaborated EU-LFS data covering 2019 and 2020 (by quarter) and OECD 2020 data, and finally we traced Covid-related policy reforms for the period March 2020–December 2021 and analysed documents and information collected in different policy repositories. Findings: The paper shows the relevance and characteristics of private consumption services in different countries, demonstrating that so-called labour market “outsiders” are highly represented in this sector and illustrates the policies adopted to respond to the pandemic in different European countries. The paper asks whether this emergency has been a window of opportunity to redefine regulation in this sector, making it more inclusive. It demonstrates, however, that the common approach in Europe has been dominated by temporary, short-term and one-off measures, which do not represent major changes to the social security schemes that were in place before the pandemic. Originality/value: This article builds on the literature on labour market dualization, but approaches the concept from a different perspective – one not centred on the nature of employment relations (stable/unstable) but on economic sectors/branches. This article does not, therefore, discuss in general terms what happened to labour market outsiders during the pandemic, but rather focus attention on a specific group o