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Negotiating Flexibility: External Contracting and Working Time Control in German and Danish Telecommunications Firms

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  • Virginia Doellgast
  • Peter Berg

Abstract

This study examines how different participation rights and structures affect employee control over working time. The analysis is based on a comparison of matched call center and technician workplaces in two major telecommunications firms in Germany and Denmark. It draws on data from semi-structured interviews with managers, supervisors, and employee representatives between 2010 and 2016. Unions and works councils in both firms agreed to a series of concessions on working time policies in the early 2010s in exchange for agreements to halt or reverse outsourcing. The authors use Lukes’ concepts of decision-making and agenda-setting power to explain these common trends, as well as later divergence in outcomes. Germany’s stronger formal co-determination rights over working time proved a critical power resource for employee representatives as they sought to re-establish employee control in new, more flexible working time models.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginia Doellgast & Peter Berg, 2018. "Negotiating Flexibility: External Contracting and Working Time Control in German and Danish Telecommunications Firms," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(1), pages 117-142, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:71:y:2018:i:1:p:117-142
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    Cited by:

    1. Doellgast, Virginia & Marsden, David, 2019. "Institutions as constraints and resources: explaining cross-national divergence in performance management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89978, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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