Different worlds of work? A study on labour market regulatory institutions and contingent work in Belgium and Germany

Against the background of current debates on labour market segmentation and inequality, this thesis addresses the question of how the work outcomes (i.e. a set of working conditions, especially wages, training, and security) of regular and contingent workers (i.e. workers with limited employment duration and job insecurity, as well as lack of access to benefits) are produced. It argues that solely studying the employment contract as a basic regulatory institution is not sufficient (anymore) to explain different work outcomes in highly fragmented contemporary labour markets. Instead, the thesis brings forward the argument that workplace bargaining processes have to be examined in combination with labour market regulatory institutions at the national and sectoral levels in order to understand how the work outcomes of different groups of workers are created. The thesis is based on four empirical studies, applying cross-national (Chapter 3, 4, 6) and cross-sectoral (Chapter 5) comparative case study methodologies. In total, eleven workplaces of six multinationals in the Belgian and German metal and chemical sectors are being examined. The research approach of this PhD thesis is grounded in two theoretical accounts based on internal labour market theory. On the one hand, Osterman’s (1987) employment subsystem framework is applied, because it gives valuable insights into how jobs within an organisation’s internal labour market are shaped, and into which factors are at play producing the terms and conditions of such jobs. On the other hand, the framework of Beynon et al. (2002) is used, which advocates for studying employment change based on an integrated approach examining the workplace as embedded in broader economic and social institutions, as this embeddedness may affect the shape of internal labour markets. Therefore, this thesis examines the workplace – which is the main level of analysis – as embedded in the national and sectoral regulatory context to explain how work outcomes of regular and contingent workers are produced. This research approach highlights the fact that workplace actors (i.e. local management and employee representatives) have considerable levels of discretion with regard to the design of internal labour markets, shaping the terms and conditions of employment via collective bargaining. As a result, the thesis draws a comprehensive and contextualised picture of contingent work in comparison with regular work. It provides a broad view on how work outcomes are produced by systematising the processes leading to such outcomes across different national and sectoral regulatory contexts. Three main conclusions can be drawn based on the empirical evidence presented and analysed throughout the chapters: Firstly, the regulatory context plays an essential role in understanding how the work outcomes of regular and contingent workers are created, as it defines the general framework for employment. Secondly, regulatory interventions of workplace level employee representatives are at least equally important and key to understanding how differences between groups of workers are produced locally. This is because local employee representatives have high levels of discretion that they can use to improve the work outcomes of regular and contingent workers in some cases. The combination of these two conclusions emphasises the interaction between the regulatory context and workplace bargaining processes, and demonstrates the importance of studying the investigated subject based on an integrated approach. Thirdly, the thesis stresses the need for not considering workers as one homogeneous group anymore. This research indicates that employment contracts are important as regulatory differences between contract types could be exploited by companies which is likely to lead to inequalities at work.status: publishe