Magdalena Bernaciak

Social dialogue revival or ‘PR corporatism’? Negotiating anti-crisis measures in Poland and Bulgaria1:

Despite earlier pessimistic assessments of social dialogue performance in central and eastern Europe, the 2008–2010 downturn in the economy brought an increase in tripartite activity in most new EU Member States. This article seeks to account for this development by analysing the drivers and outcomes of anti-crisis social dialogue in Poland and Bulgaria. It argues that the two countries’ governments staged tripartite negotiations in hard times to demonstrate their adherence to the consensual mode of policy-making. They did this with the expectation that this would boost their popularity and bring them electoral advantage.

Social Dumping: Political Catchphrase or Threat to Labour Standards?

Despite its widespread use in popular discourse, the term ‘social dumping’ remains poorly defined and thus subject to misconceptions or conscious abuse. This paper reviews recent public debates and academic studies on real or perceived social dumping threats, drawing attention to the simplistic understanding of the mechanism underlying such practices as well as to enduring operationalization problems. It goes on to offer a refined conceptualisation of the notion by constructing an analogy between trade and social dumping. Finally, using examples from the EU context, it outlines key characteristics of social dumping practices pursued in the areas of labour/services and capital mobility.

All roads lead to decentralization? Collective bargaining trends and prospects in Central and Eastern Europe

Collective bargaining is one of the building blocks of western European industrial relations systems. According to Visser and Kaminska (2009: 19), ‘a degree of solidarity wage setting based on coordination at the sectoral level or above’ was an important factor behind the creation of national social protection systems and the unprecedented growth in Europe in the first decades following the Second World War. Apart from its contribution to macroeconomic management, coordinated bargaining at sectoral and national levels has brought tangible benefits for its participants, providing workers with collective voice and guaranteed high wages and decent working conditions. For employers, it has minimized the threat of cheap competition from non-unionized companies and lowered the risks of union whipsawing and industrial conflict, encouraging long-term planning and investment (Visser, 2013). In the process of transition from communism to capitalism, all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries formally established collective bargaining institutions. However, their role has been more limited than in western Europe: with the exception of Slovenia, singleemployer bargaining has been dominant, and collective bargaining coverage has been lower than in the old EU Member States. The post-2008 economic downturn posed new challenges to the region’s weak bargaining structures, as the crisis-time negotiations had to take account of falling output and government belt-tightening. Still, CEE collective bargaining systems have fared very differently since 2008. Whereas some countries have experienced a modest revival of plant-level negotiations, in others the importance of bargaining institutions has decreased even further. Taking the pre-crisis socio-economic models in the new EU Member States as our point of departure, this article reconstructs the different trajectories followed by CEE collective bargaining systems during the recent crisis. It argues that the variations observed in bargaining practices and outcomes reflect the countries’ industrial structures, regulatory frameworks, government policies implemented during the downturn, and long-term trends and path dependencies. In its second part, the article assesses the prospects for establishing multi-employer coordinated bargaining in the new EU Member States, concluding that this is unlikely in view of the lack of bargaining traditions and supporting institutions, as well as the enduring weakness of CEE social partner organizations.

Social Dumping and the EU Integration Process

This paper proposes a conceptualization of social dumping and applies it to an analysis of the EU integration process. Building on recent contributions in the fields of economic theory, economic sociology and institutional political economy, it defines social dumping as the practice, undertaken by self-interested market participants, of undermining or evading existing social regulations with the aim of gaining a competitive advantage. The paper also argues that the social dumping practices of market actors are encouraged by policy initiatives of liberalization and deregulation.

Polish trade unions and social dumping debates: between a rock and a hard place

This article examines the stances of Polish trade unions on EU enlargement, intra-EU labour mobility and EU service market liberalization. It shows that, despite the liberal rhetoric embraced by mainstream media and successive Polish governments, the country’s labour organizations did not lend their support to the logic of low-cost competitiveness. The article accounts for this stance by referring to the insider-outsider theorem. It argues that whereas transnationally mobile workers and self-employed individuals (the ‘outsiders’) could make use of short-term cost advantages, the domestic workforce (the ‘insiders’) benefited from the gradual improvement of employment conditions in Poland and their convergence with western standards. The desire to cater to the interests of the insiders made the unions reject social dumping and defend the west European social ‘archetype’ to which their countrymen aspired.

Trade unions in Europe: Challenges and responses: New Contexts and Challenges in Europe

Trade unions are collective organisations with the purpose of defending and advancing the interests of workers. However, which workers are represented, how their interests are conceived and what methods are adopted to pursue these objectives are issues that show great variation both within and between countries. These differences in turn affect how they address questions relating to labour migration. In this chapter, we explore the different models of European trade unionism and their contrasting approaches to issues of recruitment and representation.

Weak Labour, Strong Interests: Polish Trade Unions and the Integration of EU Energy and Service Markets

This paper examines the motives behind the EU-level activism of CEE trade unions, which are commonly regarded as weak actors. To this end, it studies lobbying and protest actions staged by Polish labour organizations in relation to proposals for the EU Emission Trading Scheme Directive and the EU Services Directive. The analysis confirms the salience of interest-based accounts of supranational union action, but it also shows that labour interests are context-specific, influenced by economic conditions and regulatory changes in particular market segments. In this regard, priority given by the unions to job preservation or the improvement of social standards has important implications for their positions; it also determines the selection of their allies at national and transnational levels.

Beyond the CEE 'Black Box': Crisis and Industrial Relations in the New EU Member States

This working paper maps out developments of industrial relations in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) during the period 2008-2014. It looks at wage trends and public sector austerity measures, collective bargaining practices, social dialogue performance and the incidence of strikes and protests.