Working Lives Research Institute
Richard Pond, Howard Potter
January 2007 - December 2007
European Commission Social Dialogue Budget
Project co-ordinator Salvo Leonardi, IRES research institute, Rome
The
object of the project was to examine how collective workers’
involvement and participation - by means of the information and
consultation rights - can constitute, at the different levels
(plant/enterprise, nationals and trans-national level), either a social
and an economic resource for both the social partners acting within a
transnational company (TNC). company. A central aim was to improve the
social partners’ expertise at European level and, in comparative terms,
through the promotion of an exchange of information and experiences
among stakeholders involved in industrial relations.
The project set out to be an international and empirical comparison of the links between globalisation, local industrial relations and the economic performance of TNCs. The main focus will be the role played by workers’ participation - especially in terms of and information and consultation rights at the company level (through the European Works Council and union representatives) - for transforming the inputs of the new global challenges into competitive outputs for European TNCs.
The main part of the project will involve the four partner organisations from the UK, Italy, Poland and Germany preparing two case studies on TNCs in the tyres and chemicals sectors. The partners were also responsible for a final report that looked at the general issue of globalisation and information and consultation, the industrial relations of the chemicals sector, restructuring and EWCs and training. The case studies were discussed as part of a final conference in October 2007.
GLORI - Final Report, Jan 2008