Cross-border social dialogue and agreements - International Labour

291 Pages·2008·0.8 MB·English

CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS:
An emerging global industrial relations framework?
CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE
AND AGREEMENTS:
An emerging global industrial
relations framework?
Editor:
Konstantinos PAPADAKIS
Contributors:
Dominique BÉ Nathan LILLIE
Brian BERCUSSON Doug MILLER
Giuseppe CASALE Konstantinos PAPADAKIS
Isabel DA COSTA Udo REHFELDT
Renée-Claude DROUIN André SOBCZAK
Dan GALLIN Katerina TSOTROUDI
Nikolaus HAMMER
International Institute for Labour Studies Geneva
International Labour Office Geneva
Published by the International Institute for Labour Studies
The International Institute for Labour Studies(IILS) was established in 1960 as an autonomous
facility of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to further policy research, public debate
and the sharing of knowledge on emerging labour and social issues of concern to the ILO and its
constituents — labour, business and government.
Copyright © International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies)
2008.
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ISBN 978-92-9014-862-3 (print)
ISBN 978-92-9014-863-0 (web pdf)
First published 2008
The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions of this
volume rests solely with their authors, and their publication does not constitute an endorsement
by the International Institute for Labour Studies of the opinions expressed.
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Preface
Many multinational companies have adopted corporate codes of
conduct that have social provisions. In some industrial countries, in fact,
most multinationals have such codes. Yet there is concern that these
codes, important as they are, may not translate into actual improvements
in workers’ rights and employment conditions. Indeed, these private ini-
tiatives often lack the kinds of monitoring mechanisms needed to ensure
that social provisions are implemented in practice. Moreover, these codes
are primarily a management tool, and are not negotiated with workers.
In this sense, they do not deal with the fundamental difference that exists
between the scope of the firm – which operates on a global scale – and
workers, whose voice is expressed in a fragmented manner, in the differ-
ent countries where the multinational operates.
It is in this context that new initiatives have emerged, namely inter-
national framework agreements (IFAs), which constitute the focus of this
volume. In contrast to traditional corporate codes of conduct, IFAs are
instruments negotiated with global trade unions. The purpose of IFAs is
to stimulate global social dialogue between the multinational and the rep-
resentatives of workers – that is, both where the firm is headquartered
and where it operates. IFAs also aim at promoting compliance with Inter-
national Labour Organization core labour standards.
This volume represents the first comprehensive overview of IFAs. It
covers the 62 IFAs that existed at the end of 2007 (compared with virtu-
ally none in the early 1990s and about 20 five years ago); provides a
detailed analysis of how the agreements operate in practice; examines the
extent to which IFAs pave the way for cross-border industrial relations;
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Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
looks at the legal dimensions of IFAs, including recent case law on the
related issue of cross-border industrial action; analyses factors that explain
why there are few IFAs in two sectors (textiles, clothing and footwear; and
maritime transport); and explores the options for international policy
action.
More fundamentally, the volume represents a major step in under-
standing the possibilities for developing cross-border industrial relations,
and has garnered contributions from some of the top international
experts in the field. Earlier versions of their contributions were discussed
at a workshop of the International Institute for Labour Studies, held on
15–16 December 2006 in Geneva.
This is a fascinating project of the Institute, and one that calls for
follow-up. The next stages will involve assessments of IFAs’ impact on
actual working conditions and of their effectiveness vis-à-vis the policy
goals of the International Labour Organization.
Raymond Torres
Director,
International Institute for Labour Studies
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Table of contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Konstantinos Papadakis
Data concerning IFAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Historical benchmarks and factors contributing
to the evolution of IFAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Overview of chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Part 1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 1 International framework agreements: A reassessment . . 15
Dan Gallin
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The original intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Conclusions from experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The first IFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
IFAs and codes of conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
IFAs and European works councils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Conclusions: Back to the future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
Chapter 2 Transnational collective bargaining at company level:
Historical developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Isabel da Costa and Udo Rehfeldt
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The origins of a transnational bargaining strategy at company level:
World councils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The European detour to transnational collective bargaining
at company level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
European and global framework agreements in the automobile sector 56
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Part 2 Industrial relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 3 International framework agreements as elements
of a cross-border industrial relations framework . . . . . 67
Konstantinos Papadakis, Giuseppe Casale
and Katerina Tsotroudi
IFAs as industrial relations instruments from an ILO perspective . . 68
Definition and parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Machinery for monitoring and dispute settlement . . . . . . . 73
Scope and binding character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Dissemination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Possible contribution of IFAs to the emergence of a cross-border
industrial relations framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Industrial relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Chapter 4 International framework agreements in the context
of global production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Nikolaus Hammer
Changing structures of global production systems . . . . . . . . . . 91
International framework agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Developing a tool for international industrial relations . . . . 96
Four levels of provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Implementation and monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
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Table of contents
Conclusions: The challenge of buyer-driven value chains for IFAs . . 105
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Part 3 Legal dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 5 Legal dimensions of international framework agreements
in the field of corporate social responsibility . . . . . . 115
André Sobczak
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Powers of signatories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Signatories – employers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Signatories – workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Scope of application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Rights conferred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Monitoring procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Legal value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Legal nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Towards a legal framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Chapter 6 Implementation and monitoring of cross-border
agreements: The potential role of cross-border collective
industrial action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Brian Bercusson
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Cross-border social dialogue in the European Union . . . . . . . . . 132
Follow-up to the Commission’s Social Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
The experience of European works councils . . . . . . . . . . 135
The Commission’s Green Paper on modernizing labour law . . 137
Context: Collective action in the European single market . . . . . . 139
The law: Transnational collective industrial action and free
movement in the European Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Viking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Laval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
The Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Court
of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Response of the European Court of Justice to the Charter . . . . . . 146
European Court of Justice citation of the Charter . . . . . . . . . . 147
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Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
European Court recognition of a fundamental right
to collective action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
An “anti-social dumping principle” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Part 4 Varieties of dialogue and regulation at cross-border level 159
Chapter 7 The ITGLWF’s policy on cross-border dialogue
in the textiles, clothing and footwear sector:
Emerging strategies in a sector ruled by codes
of conduct and resistant companies . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Doug Miller
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Textiles, clothing and footwear: Figures and misperceptions . . . . 163
Targeting multinational companies for cross-border dialogue
in textiles, clothing and footwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Why no IFA? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
The disclosure debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Codes of conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
ITGLWF involvement in multi-stakeholder initiatives . . . . . 178
Union avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Breakthrough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Chapter 8 The ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006:
A new paradigm for global labour rights implementation 191
Nathan Lillie
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Significance of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 . . . . 194
Maritime industry regulatory structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Flag States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Port State Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Labour supply States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Labour market competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Maritime Labour Convention contents and functioning . . . . . . . 204
ILO as an institutional setting for labour standards negotiations . . 205
Actors and interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
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Part 5 Policy action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 9 A report on the European Commission initiative
for a European framework for transnational collective
bargaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Dominique Bé
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Transnational collective bargaining within the framework
for European social dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
The reality of transnational collective bargaining in Europe . . . . . 223
Towards a European Union framework for transnational collective
bargaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
First Commission announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Second Commission announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Commission study report and seminars on transnational collective
bargaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
First study, on transnational collective bargaining . . . . . . . 226
First seminar, on transnational collective bargaining . . . . . 227
Second study, on transnational agreements . . . . . . . . . . 227
Second seminar, on transnational agreements . . . . . . . . . 224
Views of European social partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe 228
International Organisation of Employers . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
European Trade Union Confederation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions . . . . . . . 233
Next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Chapter 10 The role of the ILO in promoting the development
of international framework agreements . . . . . . . . . 237
Renée-Claude Drouin
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Recognizing international trade union rights in International Labour
Conventions and other instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Promoting IFAs through sectoral activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Dispute resolution services and technical assistance to trade unions
and employers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
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