Towards socially sensitive corporate restructuring? Comparative remarks on collective bargaining developments in Germany, France and Italy

Abstract

Rapidly changing markets in the context of globalization call for increasingly frequent restructuring to sustain the competitiveness of individual firms. To meet this need while minimizing consequent job loss, the social partners in major European countries have devised a variety of decentralization mechanisms that enhance local-level flexibility without fundamentally calling into question the traditional national models of collective bargaining. Analysing the use of 'opening clauses' in German industry agreements, France's firm-level 'derogation agreements' and mandatory bargaining on 'workforce planning', and Italy's tripartite 'territorial agreements', the author concludes with a plea for a supranational framework to support socially sensitive restructuring across Europe.