WAGE DRIFT AND WAGE BARGAINING: A CASE STUDY OF THE BUILDING INDUSTRY IN MARSEILLES1
| Author | Maurice Parodi |
| Published date | 01 October 1963 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1963.tb00990.x |
| Date | 01 October 1963 |
WAGE DRIFT AND WAGE BARGAINING: A CASE STUDY
OF THE BUILDING INDUSTRY IN MARSEILLES
MAURICE PARODI*
THE
results of an investigation into earnings in the French building
industry, on which this article is based, show quite clearly that there
has been a persistent tendency for actual wages paid
to
differ consider-
ably from the rates laid down
by
collective agreement or statutory
decree. The structure
of
wage rates adopted
by
firms is usually well
above the official rates for the region; and the earnings
of
important
groups
of
employees have been further supplemented
by
piece-work and
bonuses. An important feature of the upward drift
of
earnings has been
a substantial widening
of
the differentials between the various categories
of workers in the industry. Those who have benefited most from this
trend have been the workers doing the most highly skilled and
responsible jobs. The main purpose
of
this article is to analyse the
factors that have led to these movements in wage rates and earnings
and to explain the mechanism whereby they have been brought about.
Information relating to wages in the building industry was obtained
from
a
number
of
enterprises in three towns in France, but the
examples given in this article are drawn from Marseilles.2 In each town
a number
of
firms
of
different size were examined and in each sample
a
firm that could be regarded as a
'
barometer
'
was included.
'
Barometer
'
firms were in general relatively large enterprises employing several
hundred workers and in which movements
of
wages were
a
sign
of a
coming general adjustment of the whole wage structure in the industry.
Sometimes these early movements are initiated
by
management and
sometimes they are the resuIt
of
social conflict in which the workers
and the local trade unions have been particularly active.
There is in France an official classification
of
workers into groups
according to their occupational skill, which was first adopted in
1945
by
Assistant Professor, Faculty
of
Law and Economics; and collaborating with the Centre
for the Study
of
Social Relations, University of Aix-Marseilles.
1
My warm thanks are due to M. Francois Sellier, Director of the Centre for the Study
of
Social Relations at the Universit of Aix-Marseilles. and to M. Andre Beltramone, for
helpful comments on the first dra& of this article.
a
The characteristics of the building industry in Marseilles differ in some respects from
other towns, but the observations were not different from those made elsewhere and
the conclusions arrived at would apply to a large part
of
the building industry in
France outside of the greater Pans regon.
2'3
To continue reading
Request your trial