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The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security : a multi-level comparative institutional analysis of three countries and four companies within the chemical and pharmaceutical sector
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Paolucci, Valentina (2015) The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security : a multi-level comparative institutional analysis of three countries and four companies within the chemical and pharmaceutical sector. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2869940~S1
Abstract
The main contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate that collective bargaining represents a fundamental source of flexibility and security for the labour market. This original finding emerges from a comparative analysis of bargaining arrangements in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector in three countries – Italy, Denmark, and the UK – with a detailed examination of arrangements at company level in two of these – Italy and Denmark. The sector chosen for the analysis is a solid manufacturing industry exposed to international competition and characterised by a long tradition of collaboration between the social partners. A focus on collective bargaining which is both multi-level and comparative enabled this research to establish: first, that sector level industrial relations institutions account for the degree of within-country homogeneity in the content of firm level agreements over issues of flexibility and security; and second, that the degree of cross-company heterogeneity is conditioned primarily by firm-level contingencies – both union density and organisational characteristics. This means that at company level both institutional structures and non-institutional variables play an important role.
Significantly, the increasing attention paid at EU level to policies aimed at achieving greater flexibility while protecting the level of security for the workforce, and the ineffectiveness of the Member States to fully embrace such a policy paradigm, have required academic debate on flexicurity to look beyond public policies and legal regulation as sources of flexibility and security for the labour market. In line with this stream of research the thesis shows that sector level bargaining institutions act as beneficial constraints on company level negotiations over flexibility and security. In light of this it is argued that the flexicurity literature has not only overlooked the role of collective bargaining in shaping different regimes of flexibility and security, it has also ignored a further form of security: the procedural security that a well-functioning multi-employer system provides to lower bargaining levels. Furthermore, by paying exclusive attention to collective bargaining institutions, the research responded to the challenge of offering a clearer account of the context within which the notion of flexicurity is deployed.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Collective bargaining, Labor market, Pharmaceutical industry -- Italy, Pharmaceutical industry -- Denmark, Pharmaceutical industry -- Great Britain, Chemical industry -- Italy, Chemical industry -- Denmark, Chemical industry -- Great Britain | ||||
Official Date: | September 2015 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Marginson, Paul ; Simms, Melanie ; Galetto, Manuela | ||||
Sponsors: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Extent: | 356 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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