The Impact of European Integration and German Unification on Industrial Relations in Germany
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1994.tb01049.x |
| Author | Karin Wagner,Dieter Sadowski,Martin Schneider |
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
32:4
Dec
1994
0007-1080
$3.00
The Impact of European Integration
and German Unification on Industrial
Relations in Germany
Dieter Sadowski, Martin Schneider and
Karin Wagner
Abstract
Can the present turmoil in German industrial relations be attributed to the
effects of the Single Market,
or
to unijication,
or
to other factors? European
regulation or legislation
may
intervene in the German industrial relations
system,
may
remove responsibilities from national actors,
or
may,
by
deregulation, induce stronger interdependence between national regimes.
Various instances are considered to evaluate the actual and potential EU
impact on German industrial relations. The evidence suggests that fears
of
‘social dumping’ in the richer member-states are largely unfounded, and that
the effects of unijication and the recession on German industrial relations are
currently more signijicant than the impact of European integration.
1.
Introduction
The western German economy, with its high standard of labour regulation,
is a major candidate for ‘social dumping’ in a deregulated Single European
Market.
A
number of fears were articulated in the richer member-states in
the years preceding the completion
of
the Single European Market (see e.g.
Deubner
1990:
18).
However, it needs to be empirically established whether
the process
of
European integration really does result in downward
pressures on national regulation, and whether it thereby changes the social
partners’ environment in such a way as to affect the outcomes of bargaining
processes and institutions in German industrial relations. We consider the
evidence on direct as well as indirect EU effects, and on changing
substantive as well as procedural rules in the national industrial relations
system. Two opposing perspectives
on
the nature
of
the European
integration process predict very different degrees, and directions, of EU
impact on national regimes.
Dieter Sadowski, Martin Schneider and Karin Wagner are all at the Institute for Labour Law
and Industrial Relations in the European Community, Trier, Germany.
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