European Journal of Industrial Relations

This article presents a theoretical model in order to understand and explain forms of cross-border interest representation by European Works Councils. It argues that both their structures and activities and their outcomes can be explained by drawing on four theoretical rationales: the structures and coordination patterns of the company concerned, cultural-institutional factors linked to the ‘country-of-origin effect’, historical trajectories and actors’ strategies. This argument is supported by empirical data from case study research in three automotive assembly companies.

This article addresses current issues and relevant prospects of EU social dialogues at sectoral level. It examines fundamental difficulties ‘post-Lisbon’, especially as regards implementation, including procedures for follow-up and monitoring. The article also deals with the Commission’s most recent Staff Working Document on sectoral social dialogue, raises major caveats and elaborates on various prospects of most recent voluntary results (‘autonomous agreements’ and ‘process-oriented texts’).

The Framework agreements on Telework and Work-related stress present unique challenges to our understanding of the European social dialogue, given that they were the first European inter-sectoral collective agreements to be implemented via ‘soft’ means rather than legally binding directives. Their implementation and substantive effects were in practice piecemeal; this implies a retreat of the European social dialogue as a viable means of regulating social Europe.

According to welfare state theories, women pursuing high-level careers benefit from access to maternity-leave programmes and child care. Yet this is not the complete picture. While theories exploring public policy highlight the contribution of welfare services to the relative productivity of women compared to men, these theories should be complemented with a focus on conditions internal to the firm and in particular the organization of human resources. I focus on IT and pharmaceutical firms in the USA and Denmark, and show that US companies manage compliance by setting clear goals for gender diversity while this is not the case in Denmark. Furthermore, US subsidiaries in Denmark view the US paradigm of equality of outcome as more attractive than the Danish paradigm of equality of opportunity. The Danish welfare state is increasingly seen by human resource managers as inadequate when it comes to promoting female managers in the private sector.

This article examines the gender pay gap in Ireland from a comparative perspective, using an employer-employee matched dataset from 2003. The research assesses the magnitude and drivers of the gap separately for both the full-time and part-time labour markets. The results suggest that a wage bargaining system centred on social partnership was of benefit to females within both labour markets. Trade union membership was associated with a wider gap in the full-time labour market but a narrower differential among part-time workers.