• search hit 43 of 90
Back to Result List

From pressure for change to actual change: How class actors’ responses to labour migration shape the trajectories of continuity and change in employment relations institutions

  • This dissertation uncovers how pressure for change in the European Union (EU) open market is translated into actual change by explaining how employers’ use of migrant labour, and trade unions’ responses thereto, drive institutional developments in three areas central to the governance of work: collective bargaining, job security regulations, and workplace representation. Based on process-tracing case studies of the German manufacturing sector, the German, Norwegian, and Swedish construction and hotel and restaurant sectors, I trace how sectoral differences in the interactions between employers and trade unions trigger distinct causal processes that contribute either to institutional continuity or liberalization. The findings reveal that liberalization in Germany does not follow a single trajectory: while employers’ and trade unions’ responses to migrant labour in the manufacturing sector contribute to dualization, the responses in the construction and hotel and restaurant sectors instead contribute to deregulatory liberalization. I find that the class actors’ responses in the Swedish construction and hotel and restaurant sectors, in turn, contribute to a third variety of liberalization – socially embedded flexibilization, whereas the actors’ responses in the Norwegian construction sector trigger a process of institutional resilience creation, endeavouring to contribute to institutional continuity under high pressure for change. In capturing how individual employers through their use of migrant labour are pursuing non-politically controlled change strategies, this dissertation offers us the insight that employers’ logic of action based on compliance with employment relations rules and practices is explicitly contested by the logic of action stimulated by the increased marketization generated through European integration. Aside from addressing the micro-level drivers of change resulting from the accumulated actions of individual employers, this dissertation also highlights the role of different labour supplies in enabling change processes to take place. It is argued that unless trade unions, as counterpart to employers, and nation states in their enforcement and legislative capacities create conditions that disable employers from noncompliance with existing institutions in their use of migrant labour, employers will follow the logic of action encouraged in the EU open market and use their access to migrant labour in ways that result in liberalization of the employment relations.

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Sandra Engelbrecht
Advisor:Anke Hassel, Dorothee Bohle, Andrea Spehar
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (07/2021)
Publication year:2021
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2020/12/07
Number pages:432
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-4004
Release Date:2021/07/01
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2021D007 + 2021D007+1
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - 4.0 International
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.