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The Employers: the hidden face of European industrial relations

Author

Listed:
  • Etienne Arcq

    (Researcher at the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (Brussels))

  • Anne Dufresne

    (Researcher at the Observatoire social européen)

  • Philippe Pochet

    (Director of the Observatoire social européen and EU Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Abstract

The first section of this article recalls the most important organisational features of the cross-industry players in the European social dialogue (UNICE, UEAPME, CEEP). Four sectoral employer federations (WEM, Euratex, FIEC, EuroCommerce), selected on grounds of the specific nature of their profile, are also analysed here in view of the increasing importance currently taken on by the sectoral social dialogue. The second part of the article reports on the achievements of the social dialogue as seen by the employers. This dialogue has seen at least two salient events: in 1991, when the cross-industry social partners signed an agreement laying down collective bargaining practices; and more recently when a first voluntary agreement on telework was concluded. This agreement represents for the European employers, as for the trade unions, a radical change in terms of affirming their autonomy in drawing up their work programme and in the way that negotiated solutions are implemented. This has also been a period of consolidation for UNICE as a body representing Europe's employers, while CEEP has embarked on new – territorial – forms of representation. As for UEAPME, a peripheral body in the early 1990s, it has gradually asserted itself as a fully-fledged protagonist in the social dialogue.

Suggested Citation

  • Etienne Arcq & Anne Dufresne & Philippe Pochet, 2003. "The Employers: the hidden face of European industrial relations," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 302-321, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:9:y:2003:i:2:p:302-321
    DOI: 10.1177/102425890300900210
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Schmitter, Philippe C. & Streeck, Wolfgang, 1999. "The organization of business interests: Studying the associative action of business in advanced industrial societies," MPIfG Discussion Paper 99/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Coen, David, 1998. "The European Business Interest and the Nation State: Large-firm Lobbying in the European Union and Member States," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 75-100, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. David Natali & Caroline de la Porte, 2009. "Participation through the Lisbon strategy: comparing the European Employment Strategy and pensions OMC," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 15(1), pages 71-91, February.

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