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Opportunities and traps for trade unions in European employment policy initiatives : the case of social dialogue on active inclusion
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Meardi, Guglielmo, Burroni, Luigi, Keune, Maarten, Bellini, Andrea, Galetto, Manuela, Mori, Anna, Payton, Noëlle and Scalise, Gemma (2022) Opportunities and traps for trade unions in European employment policy initiatives : the case of social dialogue on active inclusion. Zeitschrift für Sozialreform, 67 (4). pp. 306-332. doi:10.1515/zsr-2021-0011 ISSN 0514-2776.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zsr-2021-0011
Abstract
After some promise in the 1990s, European unions have grown increasingly disillusioned with regard to the results of EU social policy and EU social dialogue. The paper analyses the extent and reasons of this disillusion by looking at the impact on social dialogue of the Active Inclusion Recommendation launched by the European Commission at the outset of the economic crisis in 2008. The Recommendation led to a tripartite framework agreement at the EU level in 2010 (the only such agreement in a decade), which was then to be implemented at national and regional levels. With a multilevel governance approach, the paper looks at the extent to which social dialogue on Active Inclusion at the EU level, in six EU countries (France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) and six regions (Rhône-Alpes, Lombardy, Lower Silesia, Catalonia, West Sweden and Greater Manchester) within those countries was somehow revitalised. The analysis, looking at both top-down and bottom-up processes and based on documentary analysis and interviews, shows that the initiative displays ambiguities similar to those of typical composite EU principles, such as famously the case of ‘flexicurity’. The multilevel governance of the EU, including the interaction between ‘soft’ employment policies and evolving ‘hard’ Eurogovernance tools, and with poor horizontal and vertical coordination, resulted in multiple distortions of the principle and, over time, to frustration. Unions’ engagement varies by level, country and region, reflecting both traditional national approaches and the local perception of ‘active inclusion’ as an opportunity. Although trade unions were more welcoming of ‘active inclusion’ than they had been for flexicurity, similar related threats and opportunities led to modest achievements and a gradual fading of the idea at the European and national levels, with some more opportunities however at the regional level. The paper concludes that, if trade unions want to engage with the idea of a European Social Model and with Eurogovernance, they could develop stronger networks among regional organisations.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Industrial Relations Research Unit Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Labor market -- European Union Countries, Labor market -- European Union countries -- Regional disparities, Manpower policy -- European Union countries, Labor policy -- European Union countries, Labor unions -- European Union countries, European Union countries -- Social policy | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Zeitschrift für Sozialreform | ||||||
Publisher: | De Gruyter | ||||||
ISSN: | 0514-2776 | ||||||
Official Date: | 27 January 2022 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 67 | ||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 306-332 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1515/zsr-2021-0011 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 14 February 2022 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 27 January 2023 |
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