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European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation: Transnational Labour Relations at the European Central Bank Construction Site

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  • Ines Wagner
  • Nathan Lillie

Abstract

European integration through mutual recognition has facilitated the growth of a pan‐European labour supply system in which transnational subcontractors ‘post’ workers from low‐wage areas to higher wage areas. This allows employers to create spaces of exception in which the national industrial relations system of the country where work occurs does not fully apply. Drawing on interviews with managers, workers, unionists and works councillors at the European Central Bank construction site in Frankfurt, Germany, this article shows how transnational subcontracting allows employers to access, and create competition between, sovereign regulatory regimes. It concludes that high‐cost, high‐collective good national systems such as the German one, which depend on territorial boundedness for their integrity, are likely to be destabilized by this aspect of European integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Ines Wagner & Nathan Lillie, 2014. "European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation: Transnational Labour Relations at the European Central Bank Construction Site," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 403-419, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:52:y:2014:i:2:p:403-419
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12096
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nathan Lillie & Ian Greer, 2007. "Industrial Relations, Migration, and Neoliberal Politics: The Case of the European Construction Sector," Politics & Society, , vol. 35(4), pages 551-581, December.
    2. Virginia Doellgast & Ian Greer, 2007. "Vertical Disintegration and the Disorganization of German Industrial Relations1," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(1), pages 55-76, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Werner Schmidt & Andrea Müller, 2021. "Workplace universalism and the integration of migrant workers and refugees in Germany," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 145-160, March.
    2. Mussche, Ninke & Corluy, Vincent & Marx, Ive, 2016. "The Rise of the Free Movements: How Posting Shapes a Hybrid Single European Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 10365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Andrea Iossa & Maria Persdotter, 2021. "Cross‐Border Social Dumping as a ‘Game of Jurisdiction’ – Towards a Legal Geography of Labour Relations in the EU Internal Market," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1086-1102, September.
    4. Jens Arnholtz & Chris F. Wright, 2023. "Labor Migration as a Source of Institutional Change: Danish and Australian Construction Sectors Compared," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(3), pages 532-555, May.
    5. Cornel Ban & Dorothee Bohle & Marek Naczyk, 2022. "A perfect storm: COVID-19 and the reorganisation of the German meat industry," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 101-118, February.
    6. Virginia Doellgast & Matthew Bidwell & Alexander J. S. Colvin, 2021. "New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(3), pages 555-579, May.
    7. Dries Lens & Ninke Mussche & Ive Marx, 2022. "The different faces of international posting: Why do companies use posting of workers?," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 28(1), pages 27-45, March.
    8. Ines Wagner & Lisa Berntsen, 2016. "Restricted rights: obstacles in enforcing the labour rights of mobile EU workers in the German and Dutch construction sector," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 22(2), pages 193-206, May.
    9. Seeliger, Martin, 2017. "Die soziale Konstruktion organisierter Interessen: Gewerkschaftliche Positionsbildung auf europäischer Ebene," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 89, number 89.
    10. Ines Wagner, 2015. "EU posted work and transnational action in the German meat industry," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 21(2), pages 201-213, May.
    11. Ergen, Timur & Seeliger, Martin, 2018. "Unsichere Zukünfte und die Entstehung von Kooperation: Wie Erwartungen kollektives Handeln ermöglichen," MPIfG Discussion Paper 18/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Bjarke Refslund & Annette Thörnquist, 2016. "Intra-European labour migration and low-wage competition—comparing the Danish and Swedish experiences across three sectors," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 62-78, January.

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