Abstract
While it is today largely recognized that workplace employment relations contribute significantly to economic growth, competitiveness and social welfare, they are rarely the object of international comparison. It is precisely to fill this gap that a Franco-British team has undertaken to compare the results of two groundbreaking and large-scale statistical surveys focusing on employment relations at the workplace level in the United Kingdom and France: the Workplace Employment Relations survey (WERS) and the survey Relations professionnelles et négociations d’entreprise (REPONSE).
The key objective of the volume is to complement the existing literature comparing employment relations in France and the United Kingdom by assessing the extent to which their similarities and differences described at a macro-level could also be identified at the workplace level. Although not harmonized, the underlying WERS and REPONSE surveys are conducted every five to six years and use a similar methodology, providing unique data to compare employment relations and the organization of work from a workplace perspective. Around 150 similar variables on jobs characteristics, experiences and attitudes of employees, collected in companies with more than 11 staff, are available in both countries. The novelty of this book lies in the systematic use of linked employer–employee data, making Comparative Workplace Employment Relations the first comprehensive comparative analysis that allows to contextualize employee experiences.
Each of the six core chapters expands on one specific aspect of employment relations. Chapter 2 examines how workplaces are structured and governed in Britain and France. It appears that family-owned companies are far more numerous in France, while Britain has a larger share of foreign-owned companies. The authors found substantial differences in the management of human resources between the two countries, confirming that centralized coordination and authority are distinctive features of the French economy.
Chapter 3 focuses on the different uses of three main avenues for employee voice in the workplace: union representation; non-union representation; direct consultation of employees by employers. It shows that different voice regimes tend to characterize France as a union and voice-focused country and Britain as one focused on direct communication and exit.
Chapter 4 investigates the degree to which firms’ employment systems in the two countries conform to the archetypal models of an occupational labour market (OLM) offering limited employment protection in the case of UK versus an internal labour market (ILM) characterized by opportunities for career progression within firms in the case of France. While findings show substantial heterogeneity across workplaces, they suggest a more focused strategy towards ILM building in France, contrasting with a more heterogeneous approach in Britain.
Chapter 5 explores the use of management practices in three domains – work organization and ICT, incentives and performance, evaluation and targets setting – to compare their prevalence and their effects on workplace performance. It shows that workplaces are more likely to have adopted practices in the three domains in France than in the UK, especially where trade unions are present. The authors also found that the use of incentive practices was positively correlated with workplace labour productivity in both countries.
Chapter 6 investigates the perception of job quality in the two countries through the subjective experience of employees, using measures of job satisfaction and of non-pecuniary incentives based on employees’ ratings. These two aspects appear highly positively correlated and mainly linked to a ‘workplace-effect’. The results did not find much difference between the two countries.
Chapter 7 explores the degree to which workplaces adjusted their practices in terms of employment, wages and working hours between 2004 and 2011. It appears that the recession hit non-unionized workplaces harder in both countries, resulting in greater employment reductions and higher rates of pay freezes and cuts. The adjustments were more varied in the UK, where the rate of freezes and cuts was three times greater than in France.
The conclusion, again, draws out clear differences in the way workplaces are configured and in the way they manage employment relations from one country to another. However, they do not rule out the hypothesis of a convergence in the long term.
Based on the data-linkage of the two national surveys this book offers a substantial contribution to comparative employment relations at the workplace level in France and the UK. We may regret that the authors did not draw on the raw data at sector level more systematically as this would have added nuance and enriched the comparison further. However, the authors show a particularly open scientific approach by indicating routes to access the raw data they have used in a detailed appendix. They also provide a rich bibliography for each chapter allowing the immediate resituation of each set of data in the context of actual debates. A very stimulating and productive read!