French multinational companies, new state regulations and changes in the employment relationship during the crisis

Abstract

On the basis of a survey conducted in three French multinational corporations in the automobile industry that have set up production facilities in central and eastern Europe, this article examines some of the major changes in the employment relationship that have taken place in the rather specific economic context of the second half of the decade after 2000. Two main propositions are put forward and discussed: the first relates to the rise of a ‘management-led social dialogue’ as the outcome of an increasingly close meshing of corporate industrial strategies, human resource policies and the management of industrial relations at the local level; the second relates to the emergence of a ‘Porterian state’ playing a role of, on the one hand, mediator in the effort to build some ‘labour-management compromises’ for coping with the crisis and, on the other hand, promoter of new forms of socio-economic regulation requiring new institutional complementarities. The analysis, developed on the basis of a comparative approach – i.e. France versus the central and eastern European countries – is rounded off by an examination of the place and role of the European Union in these changes.

Crisis adjustment strategies in France: The contribution of establishment-level data

“…In fact, the institutionalisation of labour relations does not tip the balance of power in favour of employees, especially during an economic crisis when the social dialogue can be used by management for its own purposes (Béthoux et al, 2015;Delteil & Dieuaide, 2012). This is especially true in France, where the Auroux laws made collective bargaining obligatory.…”

The politics of flexibility: Employment practices in automotive multinationals in Central and Eastern Europe

“…Structures of social dialogue had an important role also in Toyota, the dominant parent of TPCA, and in PSA (Delteil and Dieuaide, 2012). These employers accepted from the start that they would recognize and negotiate with unions.…”

“…In Hungary, Audi persuaded the government in 2009 to allow extensions beyond the existing 12-month accounting periods. In PSA, the parent of PCA, work-time accounts were negotiated after 2008 (Delteil and Dieuaide, 2012). In Slovakia, PCA implemented a Flexikonto from 2009 and negotiated an extension of the accounting period to 30 months in 2013, in exchange for employment guarantees.…”

Multinationals and regional economies: embedding the regime shoppers?

“…iii) the multiple ways in which technology, often allied to product market liberalization, has enabled markets to be serviced remotely (in Anglophone countries at least, the Indian call centre has been one of the core public images of economic globalization); iv) the multiple ways in which corporate financialization, and the related ideology of the lean enterprise, have made MNCs increasingly unwilling/unable to tolerate redundant capacity, leading in many cases to intense competition between different geographical sites of the same MNC for investment (the auto industry is the emblematic case in point here, see Delteil and Dieuaide, 2012); v) the broad transition at state level from protecting national productive capitalisms to securing positions in international contests for mobile investment.…”