1
EMU and industrial relations: a case of convergence and divergence?
Paul Marginson and Keith Sisson
Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick, UK
Abstract
The development of EMU has led to considerable reflection about the trajectory of
industrial relations in Europe. In the event, rather than the ‘two extremes of social union
versus a completely deregulated free-for-all’, a multi-level system appears to be
emerging, which is simultaneously prompting both convergent and divergent
developments. For, in as much as EMU is bringing about a measure of convergence
within sectors across national boundaries, it is also leading to greater diversity between
sectors within them, reflecting the different intensity of pressures for change. For the
foreseeable future, complexity, uncertainty and instability look set to be the defining
characteristics, with policy makers and practitioners seeking to influence directions to
their own advantage. Especially uncertain is the impact of enlargement, bearing in mind
the very different industrial relations systems and levels of economic development of the
accession states.
2
In contemplating the impact of economic and monetary union (EMU), the main
preoccupation of industrial relations commentators has been with what might be
described as the end point. Moreover, a widely held view seems to have developed that
only two such points are possible. Put starkly, the choice is seen as being between
centralisation and decentralisation. Either the EU establishes a vertically integrated
system that is comparable to existing national systems, i.e. a social union to accompany
economic union. Or existing systems of national industrial relations must fragment,
lea ...