Transnational Industrial Relations as Multi‐Level Governance: Interdependencies in European Social Dialogue
| Author | Paul Marginson,Maarten Keune |
| Published date | 01 September 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12005 |
| Date | 01 September 2013 |
Transnational Industrial Relations as
Multi-Level Governance:
Interdependencies in European
Social Dialogue
Maarten Keune and Paul Marginson
Abstract
Processes of transnationalization of industrial relations have been redrawing
and increasing the complexity of the industrial relations map, adding new levels,
actors and institutions, and creating new horizontal and vertical relationships
and interdependencies. To capture these changes, we propose a multi-
governance perspective enriched by due attention to power relations. We then
apply this perspective to analyse the evolution of European social dialogue
(ESD), showing that the conventional reading of ESD moving from depen-
dency to autonomy is a false one: negotiated regulation emanating from the
ESD rests on two-directional relations, between the European and national
levels involving autonomy and dependency at the same time. It also involves
differing forms of horizontal interdependency between private actors and
the public authorities. To show its wider applicability, we also briefly relate
this approach to International Framework Agreements and European Works
Council agreements.
1. Introduction
Traditionally, the development of industrial relations was closely linked to
the development of the nation state, resulting in distinctively national systems
of industrial relations (Crouch 1993). In recent decades, however, industrial
relations have increasingly acquired a transnational dimension. On the
one hand, transnationalization is associated with regional economic and/or
political integration between states resulting in common supranational rules
Maarten Keune is at the University of Amsterdam. Paul Marginson is at the University of
Warwick.
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British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/bjir.12005
51:3 September 2013 0007–1080 pp. 473–497
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2012. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
and institutions. This includes the institution of regional industrial relations
arrangements in several regional trading blocs, ranging from the strictly
inter-governmental arrangements under North American Free Trade Agree-
ment, through the adoption of a platform of common social rights and steps
to enforce them under Mercosur, to the social dimension — including a range
of minimum rights adopted by supranational institutions, implemented by
national authorities and enforced by a supranational court, and a unique
form of governance based on social dialogue — of the European Union (EU).
To differing extent, this has fostered the creation of transnational relation-
ships among trade unions, employers’ organizations and/or public bodies,
and prompted cross-border coordination initiatives by the parties (Kaminska
and Visser 2011). On the other hand, transnationalization stems from the
internationalization of production through the growing importance of mul-
tinational corporations (MNCs) and their supply chains (e.g. Dunning and
Lundan 2008). The rising role of MNCs has been accompanied by emerging
industrial relations actors and activities that cross borders. They include
European and world works councils, a strengthening role for regional and
global sector unions, coalitions between unions and non-governmental orga-
nizations, and MNC and/or supply chain-based joint texts — including Inter-
national Framework Agreements (IFAs) and agreements concluded with
European Works Councils (EWCs) — signed by company management and
various types of workers’ representatives.
Transnationalization has not had the effect of displacing the national level,
which remains the dominant locus of industrial relations. Its effect, however,
has been to redraw and increase the complexity of the industrial relations
map, adding new levels, actors and institutions, and creating new horizontal
and vertical relationships and interdependencies among company, sectoral,
national and transnational public and private actors. This complexity is not
easily captured by traditional industrial relations approaches. In this article,
we propose a multi-level governance perspective, augmented by according
due attention to power relations, to capture the process of transnationaliza-
tion. We focus our analysis on one major example of multi-level governance
in industrial relations: the European social dialogue (ESD) at cross-sector and
sector levels. ESD is a rich instance of transnationalization of industrial
relations resulting from regional integration and nicely illustrates the new
relationships and interdependencies between different levels and types of
actors. A multi-governance perspective allows us to capture the relevant
multiple horizontal and vertical relationships, or interdependencies, between
the European and national, and public and private, actors involved. Interde-
pendency implies the presence of both autonomy and dependence in a rela-
tionship, and our central proposition is that these interdependencies
simultaneously enhance and limit the capacity of the European social partners
to make and implement agreements. We also illustrate the wider potential of
a multi-level governance perspective on transnational industrial relations by
considering two further examples that address the second main impetus
underlying transnationalization, involving interdependencies between actors
474 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2012.
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