Unravelling Regulation: How Production Relocation to the East Impacts the German Model of Labour Relations at the Workplace

Over the past several years, the issue of production relocation from Germany to lower cost sites in Central and Eastern Europe has repeatedly been in the news, reflecting the contentious nature of the political and economic conflicts it has generated. In an academic context as well, there has been a broad discussion of this phenomenon and its potential and existing ramifications for Standort Germany. While there is no doubt that there has been a steady and considerable decline in industrial employment in Germany over the past 30 years (Statistisches Bundesamt 2008), there is no data that distinctively show the extent to which this decline can be attributed to production relocation to foreign countries. In both the political and academic context, when focusing on developments in Germany, topics such as the threat of relocation, its actual planning and motives, as well as the process development have been at the forefront. For its part, research on labour relations at the relocated plant has concentrated on the issue of the extent to which a particular home country model has been transferred. In contrast, there has been virtually no discussion of the changes and developments associated with the impact of such relocation processes on labour relations at the home sites in Germany.