European Journal of Industrial Relations

It is widely assumed that the development of enhanced skills appropriate to advanced technologies is an important means of increasing the employability of the socially excluded. This article tests this assumption through case studies in the food industry in Austria, Germany and Britain. The findings indicate that organizational restructuring, technological change and redeployment of labour have very different consequences for women and for men. In all three countries the restructuring of work and skills increased the marginalization of women, reinforcing gender cleavage.

This article highlights the absence of explicit reference to training for European works councillors in both the 1994 Directive and its transposed form in national legislation. Analysis of `Article 13' voluntary agreements reveals a similar lack of attention to the issue. The authors examine the infrastructure of EWC training in Europe and highlight the significance of European Commission funding for transnational meetings in advance of the implementation of the Directive. The absence of a requirement in the Directive and a reduction in Commission funding will have implications for the organization and delivery of EWC training and ultimately for the effectiveness of multinational consultation and information procedures in the future.

How far can organization-specific industrial relations coexist with national industrial relations systems? This article adopts a novel perspective on this question by looking at organizations which are outside any national framework of industrial relations. Two case studies of employment conditions, labour relations and trade union structures in European authorities reveal industrial relations systems independent of those of the country in which they are based, and primarily dependent on organization-specific factors such as the institutions regulating employment conditions in the organization.

This article compares the attitudes of east and west German workers to their union and works council. The author's research in the clothing and textile industry examines to what extent union members in east Germany have individualistic or collectivist attitudes towards the newly established institutions of interest representation and whether these differ from those of their west German colleagues. The conclusion is that overall the east Germans display collectivist attitudes which do not differ significantly from those in the west.

What scope is there for social regulation that avoids the uniformity of the state and the anarchy of the market? This article argues the need for new forms of `social contract', regulatory processes based on the negotiation of differences through devolved procedures within a `public space'. Collective bargaining is a classic form of such devolution, but there are many others, and the advance of citizenship requires their extension. The construction of new social contracts is the most promising route for the reconstruction of solidarity in an era of increased individualism.