Decentralizing industrial relations and the role of labour unions and employee representatives / editor Roger Blanpain ; guest editor Shinya Ouchi and Takashi Araki

This volume in Kluwer's Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations series reprints papers submitted to the 8th Comparative Labour Seminar (JILPT Tokyo Seminar) held on 21 February 2006.

In countries where collective bargaining is conducted mainly at the industry or regioanl level, there is often a type of workers' representation at the company or establishment level other than a labour union. Where this double form of worker representation - that is, labour unions and employee representatives - exists, the relationship between the two can present a delicate problem in industrial relations. Decentralizing Industrial Relations is an in-depth country-by-country analysis, for nine major industrial nations, of three essential topics in this area: the relationship between labour unions and employee representatives, the shift in collective bargaining from industry or branch towards the company or establishment level, and the role of labour unions or employee representatives in the flexibilization of labour protective regulations. What emerges in the course of the analysis sheds important light on such crucial factors as the following: the political power of labour unions; the extent to which employee representatives can and do protect workers's interests; 'single-channel' (labour unions only) versus 'double-channel' systems; invasion of disadvantageous working conditions in collective agreements or workplace agreements. In the aggregate, the study finds that, although employers are nowhere completely free to modify working conditions unilaterally, in all countries they can, abetted by the decline of labour unions and an emphasis on 'flexibilization', make working conditions increasingly dependent on the individual employment contract. In this global context, the supremacy of labour unions is being questioned. This issue is undoubtedly one that deeply concerns all professionals interested in labour, employment, and industrial relations.