Résumés
Abstract
This article examines the interest representation of European Employers’ Organizations (EEOs) in the European Union (EU). Previous literature in employment relations focused on employer activity in social dialogue, while literature in political science focused on political representation and how business associations lobby EU political institutions. Going beyond this dualism in the literature, this article suggests that gaining a full understanding of the interest representation of European Employers Organizations requires analyzing interactions between the political and social dialogue arenas. We argue that EEOs gain legitimacy through participating in social dialogue to facilitate their primary focus of political interest representation. Strategic and institutional perspectives on legitimacy provide insights into how EEOs respond to challenges and manage their environment within the EU to pursue their interests.
Keywords:
- employers’ organizations,
- legitimacy,
- European Union,
- social dialogue,
- political representation,
- lobbying,
- European employment relations
Résumé
Cet article examine la représentation des intérêts des organisations d’employeurs européens dans l’Union européenne. La littérature antérieure sur les relations d'emploi s'est concentrée sur l’activité des employeurs dans le cadre du dialogue social, tandis que celle en science politique s’est surtout intéressée à la représentation politique et la manière dont les associations d’entreprises font pression (lobbyisme) sur les institutions politiques. Dépassant ce dualisme notre article suggère qu’une compréhension complète de la représentation des intérêts des organisations européennes d’employeurs nécessite une analyse approfondie des interactions entre les sphères politique et du dialogue social. Nous soutenons que les organisations européennes d’employeurs gagnent en légitimité en participant au dialogue social afin de faciliter la représentation de leurs intérêts politiques. Les perspectives stratégiques et institutionnelles de la légitimité permettent de comprendre comment elles répondent aux défis et gèrent leur environnement au sein de l’Union européenne pour poursuivre leurs intérêts.
Mots-clés :
- Organisations d’employeurs,
- Légitimité,
- Union Européene,
- Dialogue Social,
- Représentation politique,
- Lobbying,
- Relations d’emploi Européennes
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Aranea, M. Demougin, P., Gooberman, L. and Hauptmeier, M. (2021). Handbook of European Employers' Organisations. Hans Böckler Foundation. https://www.boeckler.de/en/faust-detail.htm?sync_id=HBS-008096
- Arcq, E., Dufresne, A. and Pochet, P. (2003). The Employers: the Hidden Face of European Industrial Relations. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 9(2), 302-321. https://doi.org/10.1177/102425890300900210
- Begega, S. and Aranea, M. (2018). The Establishing of a European Industrial Relations System: Still Under Construction or Chasing a Chimera? Employee Relations, 40(4), 600-616. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2017-0151
- Bernaciak, M. (2015). Market Expansion and Social Dumping in Europe, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.
- Bouwen, P. (2002). Corporate Lobbying in the European Union: the Logic of Access. Journal of European Public Policy 9(3), 365–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501760210138796
- Bouwen, P. (2004). Exchanging Access Goods for Access: a Comparative Study of Business Lobbying in the European Union Institutions. European Journal of Political Research 43(3), 337–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2004.00157.x
- BusinessEurope et. al. (2017). More Competitiveness to Sustain the Social Dimension of Europe. Employer key messages. [online] https://www.businesseurope.eu/publications/more-competitiveness-sustain-social-dimension-europe-employer-key-messages
- CEEP (2016). Opinion on the European Pillar of Social Rights.
- Coen, D. (1997). The Evolution of the Large Firm as a Political Actor in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy 4(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/135017697344253
- Coen, D., Katsaitis, A., and Vannoni, M. (2021). Business Lobbying in the European Union. Oxford University Press.
- Compston, H. and Greenwood, J. (2001). Social Partnership in the European Union. In H. Compston and J. Greenwood (Eds.) Social Partnership in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Degryse, C. (2021). Holy union? The Sectoral Social Partners and the Covid‑19 Crisis in Europe. European Trade Union Institute. Report 2021.04. https://www.etui.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Holy%20union%20The%20sectoral%20social%20partners%20and%20the%20Covid-19%20crisis%20in%20Europe_2021_WEB.pdf
- Degryse, C. (2015). The European Sectoral Social Dialogue: an Uneven Record of Achievement? European Trade Union Institute, Working Article No 2015.02. https://www.etui.org/publications/working-papers/the-european-sectoral-social-dialogue-an-uneven-record-of-achievement
- Demougin, P. Gooberman, L. and Hauptmeier, M. (2019). The Unexpected Survival of Employer Collective Organisations in the UK, Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 74(2), 353-376. https://doi.org/10.7202/1062087ar
- Doellgast, V., Bidwell, M., and Colvin, A.J.S. (2021). New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy. ILR Review 74(3), 555-579. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793921993445
- Erne, R. (2008). European Unions: Labor's Quest for a Transnational Democracy. Cornell University Press.
- Eurofound (various years). Representativeness of the European Social Partner Organisations. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/representativeness-studies
- European Trade Union Institute. ESD Database [online] https://esddb.eu/en [accessed on 21 November 2022]
- Falkner, G. (1998). EU Social Policy in the 1990s: Towards a Corporatist Policy Community. Routledge.
- Gooberman, L. and Hauptmeier, M. (2022). The Adaptation and Resilience of Employers’ Organizations’. In L. Gooberman and M. Hauptmeier (Eds.) Contemporary Employers’ Organizations. Routledge.
- Gooberman, L., Hauptmeier, M. and Heery, E. (2019). The Decline of Employers’ Associations in the UK, 1976 to 2014, Journal of Industrial Relations 61(1), 11-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185617750418
- Gospel, H. (2017). Employer Collective Action in the Labour Market. Theory, Tradition and Trends. In J. Benson, Y. Zhu, and H. Gospel (Eds.), Employers' Associations in Asia: Employer Collective Action. Taylor and Francis
- Grant, W. (2000). Pressure Groups and British Politics. Macmillan
- Greenwood, J. (2017). Interest Representation in the European Union (4th edition). London.
- Hancké, B. (2000). European Works Councils and Industrial Restructuring in the European Motor Industry. European Journal of Industrial Relations 6(1), 35-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/095968010061003
- Im, Z. J., Trine, P. L. and Pircher, B. (2024). European Social Dialogues: Shaping EU Social Policy through Parental Leave Rights. ILR Review, 77(5), 685-715. https://doi.org/10.1177/00197939241231789
- Keller, B., and Platzer, H-W. (2003). The Europeanisation of Industrial Relations. Industrial Relations and European Integration. Trans-and Supranational Developments and Prospects. Ashgate
- Keller, B. and Weber, S. (2011). Sectoral Social Dialogue at EU level: Problems and Prospects of Implementation. European Journal of Industrial Relations 17(3): 227-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680111410960
- Keune, M. and Marginson, P. (2013). Transnational Industrial Relations as Multi-Level Governance: Interdependencies in European Social Dialogue. British Journal of Industrial Relations 51(3), 473–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12005
- Marginson, P, and Sisson, K. (2004). European Integration and Industrial Relations: Multi-level Governance in the Making. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Maurer, J. G. (1971). Readings in Organizational Theory: Open System Approaches. Random House
- Meyer, J. W. and Rowan, B. (1991). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. In W.W Powell and P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 41–62.
- Müller, T. and Platzer, H.-W. (2020). The European Trade Union Federations within the European Polity: ETUFs and International Trade union Activity.” Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 26(3), 289–305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258920945094
- Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes. Academy of Management Review. 16, 145–179. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1991.4279002
- Pfeffer, J. and Salancik, G. R. (1978). The External Control of Organizations: a Resource Dependence Perspective, Harper & Row.
- Platzer, H.W. and Müller, T. (2012). Global and European Trade Union Federations. Peter Lang AG.
- Prosser, T. (2016). Economic Union without Social Union: The Strange Case of the European Social Dialogue. Journal of European Social Policy, 26(5), 460-472. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928716664298
- Prosser, T., Bechter, B., Galetto, M. Weber, S., and Larsson, B. (2022). Institutions or Resources and Capabilities? Explaining Engagement in European Sectoral Social Dialogue. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43(3), 1420-1439. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X211016052
- Rüb, S., and Platzer, H-W. (2018). Das Management als Akteur Transnationaler Arbeitsbeziehungen: Eine empirische Untersuchung in Deutschen Konzernzentralen. Nomos Verlag.
- Scharpf, F. W. (2009). Legitimacy in the Multilevel European polity. European Political Science Review 1, 173-204. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773909000204
- Smismans, S. (2008). The European Social Dialogue in the Shadow of Hierarchy. Journal of Public Policy, 28(1), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X08000822
- Suchman, M, C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review 20, 571-610. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080331
- Treib, O. and Falkner, G. (2017). Bargaining and Lobbying in EU Social Policy. In David Coen and Jeremy Richardson (Eds.), Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors, and Issues: 256-76. Oxford University Press.
- Tricart, J-P. (2019). Legislative Implementation of European Social Partner Agreements. Challenges and Debates. ETUI Working Paper 68. https://www.etui.org/publications/working-papers/legislative-implementation-of-european-social-partner-agreements-challenges-and-debates
- Voss, E., Broughton, A. Pulignano, V., Franca, V. and Contreras, R. (2018). Exploring the Connections between EU-and National-level Social Dialogue. Eurofound https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2018/exploring-connections-between-eu-and-national-level-social-dialogue
- Weber, T. (2001). The European Sectoral Social Dialogue. In H. Compston and J. Greenwood. (Eds.) Social Partnership in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, 129-153.
- Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (Vol. 2). University of California Press.
- Welz, C. (2008). The European Social Dialogue under articles 138 and 139 of the EC treaty: Actors, Processes, Outcomes (Vol. 36). Kluwer Law International BV.
- Woll, C. (2006). Lobbying in the European Union: From Sui Generis to a Comparative Perspective. Journal of European Public Policy, 13(3), 456-469. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501760600560623
10.7202/1062087ar