D'une série de « National Labour Standards » à un « European Monetary Standard » ?

The paper investigates the links between the European Monetary Integration and the ongoing specificities and partial autonomy of industrial relations, labour markets and labour regimes at the national level. This is a follow up of John Hicks (1955) paper arguing that the Thirties experienced the transition from a gold standard, to a series of labour standards. The implementation of the Ecu means a complete change in the economic and monetary regime, but in an apparently opposite direction, upon which most economic theories do not provide any clear conclusion. Given the lagging and sketchy social charter, the monetary integration will very likely challenge most national industrial relations and labour regimes. Indeed, there are few national variables able to deliver parallel price evaluations and a unique interest rate: within the current configuration, diverging unemployment rates are to be expected. Consequently, industrial relations should be redesigned, but the bargaining between firms and the unions will not necessarily deliver labour contracts coherent with the macroeconomic objectives of European authorities.