Trine Pernille Larsen

Challenging Scandinavian employment relations: the effects of new public management reforms

Building on the convergence/divergence approach, this paper examines whether recent new public management (NPM) inspired reforms entailing inter alia cutbacks in the public sector, marketisation and management by performance measures have had significant implications for service provision and employment relations in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish public sector. In this paper, we argue that although differences exist across the Scandinavian countries, it is evident that they have managed to adopt and implement NPM-inspired reforms without dismantling their universal welfare services and strong traditions of collective bargaining in the public sector. However, this restructuring is taking its toll on the work environment.

A New Mode of European Regulation? The Implementation of the Autonomous Framework Agreement on Telework in Five Countries

This article examines the implementation of the first autonomous framework agreement signed by European social partners in a number of member states. Although the telework agreement states that it is to be implemented in accordance with national procedures and practices specific to management and labour, practice is often different. The approach adopted reflects the specific policy character of the telework agreement and the ongoing power struggle between unions, employers and the state.

The economic crisis: Testing employee relations

Company based bargaining during the recent economic crisis has been subject to some research, but little is known about how this affects employee relations. This article addresses this literature gap by examining the employee relations in companies highly affected, less affected and not affected by the crisis. It argues that although Danish shop stewards are involved in developing local responses to the crisis, most manage to keep their colleagues onboard, even if decisions concern reduced earnings and dismissals. However, a limit exists to the collaboration: in companies hardest hit by the crisis shop stewards are more likely to find conflicts of interests between management and colleagues stressful and fewer feel respected by colleagues. Therefore, shop stewards’ engagement in local bargaining comes at a cost and may jeopardize their relations with colleagues. The analysis also reveals that shop stewards from time to time have to cooperate and engage in conflicts with management as well as colleagues as part of local bargaining.

The challenge of suicidal behaviour in early psychosis.

Much attention has been paid to the risk of suicide in schizophrenia. As Miles in a review estimated that the risk of suicide was 10%, this figure had been repeated many times in reviews and comments. However, most likely this figure is too high, and in a recent review, Palmer et al. identified all firstepisode studies and estimated the lifetime risk to be 5.6%. Similarly, in their estimation of lifetime risk of suicide in various disorders, Inskip et al. estimated the lifetime risk in schizophrenia to be 4%. Even though the estimates of lifetime risk in schizophrenia may not reach 10%, the suicide risk is much higher among these patients compared with the general population. Comprehensive analyses of suicides have shown that people with severe mental illness form a particularly high-risk group. Analyses of data extracted from Danish registers also reveal that the greatest risk of suicide occurred just after admission to hospital or just after discharge, and that for patients with disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum, the first year of treatment was associated with approximately 60% increased risk of suicide compared with the whole group of patients who had been admitted because of these disorders. The absolute risk of suicide was highest among the elderly patients, but the excess risk compared with the general population was highest in the young age groups. Though both Danish studies and a recent Finnish study have shown decreasing suicide rates among patients with schizophrenia during the last decades, the risk of suicide in patients with disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum is still approximately 20-fold higher than in the general population. Suicidal behaviour and suicidal ideation is much more common than suicides. A total of 28% of patients included in the OPUS trial had had at least one suicide attempt before first contact with psychiatric services and the same percentage with suicide attempt before first contact was found in the LEO trial. In the TIPS project, Melle et al. found lower figures; 16% of first-episode psychotic patients from the areas without early detection strategies attempted suicide before first contact with psychiatric services, and 5% in the early detection areas had done so previously in their lifetime. Few randomized controlled trials have been conducted with the aim of reducing suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia, and there is hardly any evidence supporting the effectiveness of interventions on suicidal behaviour and mortality. This problem is partly due to the fact that studies would need very high numbers of participants to show a significant, clinically relevant difference between two or more treatment groups. Hawton et al. conducted a review of risk factors for suicide in schizophrenia and found that hopelessness and depressive symptoms, suicidal thinking and suicidal attempts, agitation and motor restlessness, fear of mental disintegration, poor adherence to treatment and recent loss were the strongest risk factors, as was drug (but not alcohol) abuse. A review of risk factors for suicide attempt in schizophrenia identified past or recent suicidal ideation, previous deliberate self-harm, past depressive episode, drug abuse or dependence, and higher mean number of psychiatric admissions as predictors. Depression, previous suicidal plans and suicidal thoughts were also the strongest predictors of suicide attempt in the OPUS trial. These results clearly indicate that to prevent suicidal behaviour among first-episode psychotic patients it is necessary to focus on the group of patients with depressive symptoms and suicidal behaviour and ideation. In this issue of Early Intervention in Psychiatry, Harris et al. publish the results of a retrospective non-randomized comparison of first-episode psychotic patients who have received early intervention services and those who have not. The design is naturalistic, and the paper is based on longitudinal data. In such design, it is necessary to control for possible differences in suicide risk in the two comparison cohorts, as selection bias might be responsible for differences in suicide rates. However, after careful control for potential confounders, the results seem to indicate a protective effect of early intervention services, although still ongoing, which is in line with the findings of Bertelsen et al. Although the results should be interpreted cautiously, the results of the analyses carried out by Harris et al. seem to indicate that suicide risk could be Early Intervention in Psychiatry 2008; 2: 1–2 doi:10.1111/j.1751-7893.2007.00052.x

Flexicurity from the Individual’s Work-Life Balance Perspective: Coping with the Flaws in European Child- and Eldercare Provision

Based on a comparative analysis of work and care situations of employees with caring responsibilities in Finland, Portugal and the UK, this article argues that workers with eldercare responsibilities seem more likely to face difficulties than working parents, although many working parents also struggle to combine work and childrearing. The constraints such employees face in their daily lives due to caring responsibilities have significant implications for their flexibility and employability in the labour market — mainly because of inadequate care services and inflexible employers. However, such work—life balance constraints are rarely examined in most flexicurity studies and their effects on other forms of flexibility and security are therefore often overlooked. This article calls for a more nuanced concept of flexicurity, which takes the individual’s work—life balance perspective into consideration.

Tackling precarious work in public supply chains: A comparison of local government procurement policies in Denmark, Germany and the UK

Through a cross-national comparative study of local government ‘best practice cases’ of socially responsible procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK, this article critically examines the role of labour clauses in addressing issues of low wages and precarious work in public supply chains. It provides new insights on the negotiations and outcomes of labour clauses across different stages of the policy process, including implementation and monitoring. The analysis demonstrates the importance of pragmatic alliances of progressive local politicians, unions and employers in ensuring that socially responsible procurement moves beyond rhetoric, along with supportive national and sectoral employment regimes. Labour clauses can compensate for weak systems of labour market regulation by setting higher standards for outsourced workers, while they play a complementary role in more regulated labour markets by levelling up wages and working conditions to prevailing collectively agreed standards.

Lifting wages and conditions of atypical employees in Denmark-the role of social partners and sectoral social dialogue: Lifting wages and conditions of atypical employees

The article focuses on IR†institutions and atypical employment in three sectors in Denmark. It demonstrates that industrial cleaning with precariousness being widespread shows most social partner responses followed by construction and then hospitals with fewest responses and problems. Despite these social dialogue initiatives, cross†sectoral variations of precariousness continue to exist.

Bargaining for equal pay and work–life balance in Danish companies – Does gender matter?:

This article adds new insights into how equal pay and work–life balance issues are negotiated in male- and female-dominated companies, based on a survey of 3275 shop stewards, conducted in 2010. Inspired by Gregory and Milner’s concept of opportunity structures, we argue that the gender composition of the workforce affects the equal pay and work–life balance discussions and actions in Danish companies, but in a slightly different way from expected. It is often the male shop steward who exploits the opportunity structure created by more women among the staff to develop equal pay and work–life balance actions.

The effects of union mergers and internal restructuring: a bottom-up perspective by Danish shop stewards: The effects of Union mergers and Internal Restructuring

This article explores how recent union mergers and restructuring affect unions service provision, interest representation and perceived union influence. We find that Danish shop stewards are just as satisfied with their unions service provision and interest representation but report of greater influence on federal and local branch union politics in 2010 compared to 1998.

Dealing with austerity and migration in the northern European cleaning sector: Social partner strategies to strengthen wage floors

Industrial cleaning shares some common features across countries. Institutions for collective wage regulation are fragile, the market is highly price-sensitive and skewed competition has exerted pressure on wages and conditions. Increased cross-border mobility of labour and enterprises after EU enlargement brought new sources of competitive pressure, which was amplified by the subsequent economic crisis. We study changes in collective regulation in industrial cleaning in Denmark, Germany, Norway and the UK since the turn of the century, and find that the social partners have responded differently to the challenges. We discuss these responses in the light of national differences in industrial relations regimes and the regulatory tools available for the organized actors.