REGOLAZIONE DEL LAVORO E IMPRESE INNOVATIVE. LE RELAZIONI INDUSTRIALI NEI FACTORY OUTLET CENTRES IN ITALIA.
Tesi di Dottorato
Data di Pubblicazione:
2011
Citazione:
REGOLAZIONE DEL LAVORO E IMPRESE INNOVATIVE.
LE RELAZIONI INDUSTRIALI NEI FACTORY OUTLET CENTRES IN ITALIA / S. Gasparri ; relatrice: I. Regalia. Universita' degli Studi di Milano, 2011 Dec 01. 23. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2010. [10.13130/gasparri-stefano_phd2011-12-01].
Abstract:
Trilateral regulation, based on relations among trade unions, employers (or their associations) and governments, is one of the main mechanisms of socio-economic regulation in Western countries since decades, as well as a cornerstone of the so-called European social model. Notwithstanding, work regulation without trade unions' involvement is an increasingly widespread reality, especially within innovative workplaces. This outcome gives credit to the "race to the bottom" and "globalization theories", which predict a general convergence towards a neo-liberal institutional setting, where there is no space for labour and work regulation is unilaterally set by firms.
To examine what underlies trade unions' inclusion or exclusion from regulatory processes, this research focuses on an innovative business like the Factory Outlet Centre, a huge retailing complex with almost one thousand workers, mostly shop assistants. Actually, from an Industrial Relations perspective, it might not be the appropriate unit of analysis to test trilateral regulation's survival, given that its features, like being a greenfield and a multi-employers workplace full of several micro-firms, are usually associated to labour's under-representation. But the context matters too, and here Italy is the setting of analysis, which is a particularly fitted context, because it shows an "organized" system of industrial relations, where labour representation is traditionally rooted. Moreover, Italian legal framework on commerce has been recently reformed, moving several competencies to regional and local administrations. Within this frame, field work deepens eight Factory Outlet Centres evenly spread in four regions (Toscana, Emilia Romagna, Lombardia and Veneto), allowing the emergence of regional varieties, as the ones related to political sub-cultures. The working hypothesis is that innovative businesses rely on new ways to coordinate socio-economic activities that, challenging the old features of regulation, allow the first-mover to act as a rent-seeker, unless involved entrepreneurs, politicians and trade unionists reach a new compromise. So there are only two kinds of actors, "first-movers" and "subordinates", and three kinds of actions, unilateral, negotiated and cooperative. As far as our case-studies are concerned, first-movers are entrepreneurs who promote and develop retailing complexes such as Factory Outlet Centres; as well as local governments, which hold the legal authority to give planning permissions and retailing licenses to make them operate. Instead, subordinate actors are trade unions, firstly worried about the way to reply to others' strategies. As far as cooperation and opportunism are concerned, the former targets to positive-sum games, while the latter always conceives at least a loser. Thanks to an extended review of policy documents, sentences, local newspapers and twenty-two interviews, this research explains precisely why in few cases trade unions have been involved in the work regulation, while in the others such a triangulation has not been feasible, letting employers and local politicians set the rules. Indeed, a clear finding emerges from the empirical analysis. Whenever work regulation is decentralized at local level, employers and local administrators join together to exclude, unilaterally, trade unions from the deal, exchanging mutual favours and acting as perfect rent-seekers. On the contrary, insofar as a more centralized public actor actively intervenes, such as regional policy-makers or judges, cooperation permeates work regulation, including trade unions along with employers and local administrators, as also leading to positive repercussions on workers' well-being without undermining company's profitability. A straightforward demonstr
Tipologia IRIS:
Tesi di dottorato
Keywords:
regolazione del lavoro ; sindacato ; Factory Outlet Centre ; contrattazione di sito
Elenco autori:
S. Gasparri
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