The particular function of the European Works Council is to provide transnational representation for workers in Community-size conglomerates. Its structure and powers, which are extremely varied by reason of the agreements underlying its creation, are often ill-suited to dealing with restructuring. This is because it needs time to constitute a transnational structure for action, co-ordination and synergy with national players. It often lacks legitimacy on restructured sites attempting to defend workers’ jobs, owing to competition among a group’s production or services locations. The AgirE cases reveal known tendencies hampering the EWC’s action; they point to several factors of powerlessness leading to the EWC’ exclusion from the field of action. At the same time, they illustrate this transnational actor’s potential, and the existence of levers for action while restructuring is taking place.
If it is true that the European Works Council can play a pivotal role vis-à-vis restructuring operations by transnational groups, one can regret that it has not succeeded in establishing a transnational counterpoise for dealing with them so far.

FR

163.4 kb

EWC_Role_Restructurings_Final_Draft_MAM_JJP

This paper, which is centered on a "macro" approach, does not deal directly with firms’strategies, but it copes with a general reflection on restructuring based on a broad definition of this phenomenon.
It is divided in three parts :
1. The first one reviews the academic literature, mainly the North American one, according to which there would be a link between destabilising external contrainsts (like the opening of the world market, among others) and the emergence and the consolidation of internal stabilisation systems, as social or employment protection for instance. However, the author’s reflection is not limited to the social field : some different policies, such as monetary policies or migration policies, can also contribute to stabilisation.
2. The second part copes with the perceptions and the factors regarding the employees’ fear towards restructurings. In other words, what kind of policies could reduce these fears ?
3. The third one relates to public policies and the institutional interactions bound to ensure the transitions linked to restructurings. More concrete mechanisms are presented in other contributions (see namely R. Peña-Casas).
In conclusion, the author draws some general lessons for the debate on restructurings in the European Union.

FR

237.4 kb

Follow_Up_Policies_EU_PP

This paper is in line with a contribution presented during the Madrid seminar on "The Evolution of the National Collective Bargaining Models and the Innovative Feature of Collective Agreements".
This paper was dealing with an analysis of the evolution registered in three distinct national regulations - Germany, France, United Kingdom - and a correlation of that evolution to the European Law on the Constitution of the Company (Europäische Betriebsverfassung).
The thesis put forward observed that the EU Law had developed a consistent system of employee participation based upon three main principles :
  the representation of the workforce at the level of the company ;
  the development of a culture of dialogue between management and labour ;
  the autonomous conformation of the procedures to be observed in the performance of that dialogue.
It was argued that EU Law had influenced to a great extent the evolutions observed in the three national regulation studied, namely through :
  the reinforcement of the powers of the actors at the level of the company ;
  the change in the nature of collective agreements ;
  the development of a partnership culture at the level of the company ;
  the saveguard of trade unions as watchdogs in the whole process.
This phenomenon was coined as controlled decentralisation and it was attributed to the influence of EU Law.
The present paper aims at examining to which extent this thesis can be validated or not with respect to the case studies carried out in the framework of the AgirE project. It comes out that these cases do illustrate to a great extent the dynamics of the process of controlled decentralisation considering that the regulation systems examined tend to evolve away from traditional models of collective bargaining in accordance with the characteristics mentioned above.

EN

341.9 kb

Collective_Bargaining_BM

The past twenty years had been marked by major changes in industry with the emergence of a new division of labour. This presentation examined those changes, including a change in the relationship of enterprises with time and space, and its effects.
The technological revolution had led to consequences in various sectors of the economy as well as the emergence of new groups, including more and more demanding clients.
Two phenomena could be observed: transformations in the international division of labour against a background of globalisation on the one hand, and an increasing tendency for the economic system to operate in networks on the other. Production was changing (relocations, international division of labour, automation, etc.), as was illustrated by two cases: Lummezzane and Zwickau in the metal-working industry.
In addition to the change in firms’ relationship with space, their relationship with time had also changed (from the “just in time” setup in the 1990s to the current project management mode), as in the Ericsson case, for example, where there was an important shift from hardware production to consulting and a growing trend towards working in project mode.

EN

167.7 kb

New_Division_Labour_EE

This paper deals with the analysis of the relationships beween the discourse held by the European Employment Strategy on employability support (EES) on the one hand, and restructuring on the other one.
The link between a particular conception of employability and the issue of adaptability (strategic / operational) now presented as a response to the speed of change of the socio-economic environment is being especially examined.
The analysis of the concepts on which the EES is based (adaptability, employability, flexicurity) shows a peculiar representation of the labour market and of the workers to come, e. g. a more and more flexible market, workers being viewed as always more desirable and more adaptable "self entrepreneurs". In other words, a culture of permanent adaptability as a response to permanent changes tend to appear and develop.
Not only is the sole strenghtening of "human capital" and of employability being put forward (the EES being more workforce-oriented than available jobs-oriented), but the operational impact of the EES on firms’ restructurings is unclear and thus difficult to assess.
The author concludes that the initiatives taken by the European Social Fund (ESF) to improve the management of restructurings should be promoted, the more concrete actions being carried out at this level.

FR	262.8 kb	EES_Employability_Restructurings_0706_PPT_RPC
FR	154.2 kb	EES_Employability_Restructurings_WRD_RPC

This paper deals with the issue of restructuring from a European flexicurity perspective.
The European discourse on flexicurity is first being described in relation with restructuring as economic and social reality. This description brings to the fore what types of flexibility and of security the EU combines in its policies guidelines. A data analysis shows that very different flexicurity efforts can be noticed at the national level amounting to different challenges for balancing flexibility and security in case of company restructurings. The EU takes such specificities into account and it proposes various pathways of flexicurity according to Member States.
The paper’s conclusion suggests to look further into the possibilities to create alternative flexicurity strategies at the company and regional levels when restructuring is expected.

EN	218.8 kb	Restructurings_Flexicurity_WRD_SB_HC
EN	39.8 kb	Restructurings_Flexicurity_PPT_SB_HC

Four points are examined in this paper :
  expertise, taking into account the various situations related to the issue in Europe ;
  an attempt to draw up a typology on the basis of the case studies carried out for the AgirE project ;
  an analysis of demand ;
  other reflections on the expert’s job.

FR	104.3 kb	Experts_Diagnosis_Anticipation_MB
FR	5.1 kb	Experts_Role_Board_210607_MB.xls

This paper investigates the extent to which the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund provide ways to manage processes of restructuring of economic activities, in particular their implications on territories and human resources, and possibly improve local and regional capacities to anticipate such processes. It starts with a brief overview of the rules governing the allocation and implementation of the structural funds with the aim to show their possible contribution to managing or anticipating large-scale restructuring.
The input of regional policy is actually twofold. On the one hand, in line with the traditional goals of a public development policy, it aims at providing a number of growth-enhancing collective goods, often with a redistribution concern towards the regions lagging behind or facing reconversion. On the other hand, EU regional policy aims at modifying the governance of socio-economic development within the member states and place it in a multi-level setting.
In this line, this paper attempts to assess the concrete contribution of the structural funds to building capacities for adaptation to socio-economic change, relying on empirical data on past experience available in evaluation reports and secondary literature and some case studies undertaken for the project.
Although the situation varies significantly accross countries and regions, the mobilisation of the structural funds in the context of restructuring remains limited. This in part reflects policy choices at the EU and national levels. We can identify a number of obstacles to the mobilisation of the structural funds, some of which might be resolved in the new programming period.

EN

221.2 kb

EU_Regional_Policy_070606_CS

Fiscal policies are one of the several factors that might influence corporate restructurings.
Taxes are relevant for companies to increase their "after tax profits" for distributing dividends or reinvesting retained earnings. The financing decision-making of companies is examined from the perspective of taxation to show how lower tax burden might influence locational and investment decisions, also shown by empirical studies.
At the European level, national sovereignty in the field of taxation pertains, but the EC Treaty is to be respected by Member States setting their tax policies. This results in conflicts solved by the European Court of Justice with relevant practical impact on firms’ ability to relocate their economic activity. Present EC legislation and case law as well as the new legislation currently under preparation is clearly pointing in the direction of more cross-border mobility of firms motivated by tax considerations.
This contribution considers the possibility for EC policy action taking into account restructurings’ impact on employees, concluding that - although there are theoretical options for action - presently such policies are unlikely to be developed in the field of taxation.

EN	314.9 kb	Tax_Policies_070604_BG
EN	322.3 kb	Impact_Tax_Policies_Restructurings_0709_BG

In this paper, Mireille Battut (Alpha) and Philippe Duchamp (PCG) reflect on the main lessons bound to be drawn out from the AgirE case studies in relation to anticipation (strategic / operational), prior to focusing on the conditions to be fulfilled for an participative anticipation to be achieved.

EN

599.4 kb

Anticipation_Point_View_WR_Final_Draft_MB_PhD