European Works Councils after Brexit: Institutional Stability, Change and Demise in Transnational Employment Relations

本研究项目探讨了英国脱欧对欧洲工人委员会（EWCs）的影响。EWCs为在欧盟经营的跨国公司的员工提供咨询和信息权。英国退出欧盟的决定对EWC产生了影响，因为它涉及EWC立法的两个门槛条件，即在至少两个欧洲国家拥有150名员工的工厂，以及欧洲公司总规模必须达到1000名员工。英国脱欧意味着一些在英国设有子公司的跨国公司不再满足这些条件。该项目采用制度理论的视角。这一文献的一个重要概念是，制度有监管，规范和文化的维度。监管维度是指EWC立法，它定义了员工和公司的权利和义务。在这个监管框架内，参与者制定具体的实践、规范和想法，以制定公司层面的EWC立法。本研究项目的一个关键难题是：在监管维度消失后，EWC会发生什么？一种可能性是EWC不再存在，例如，管理层可能坚持要求满足监管门槛。另一种可能性是，工作环境委员会和管理部门之间过去的工作和经验形成了规范、惯例和想法，使工作环境委员会得以延续。过去的制度理论研究主要关注制度变迁。我们超越了这个焦点，探究制度是如何转变、维持或放弃的，关注制度的变化、稳定和消亡。一项关键任务是确定英国脱欧后这些制度进程的驱动因素、因素和行为者。针对本次申请，我们对受英国脱欧影响的EWCs进行了初步研究，发现部分EWCs与管理层已经协商了补充协议，以替代欧盟立法，而其他EWCs则在努力进行。在此基础上，该项目将通过16个EWCs深度案例研究（约128个访谈），与员工代表、工会和管理层探讨这种调整过程。该项目做出了几个关键贡献。首先，之前没有研究考察过英国脱欧对EWCs的影响，因此我们开辟了新的实证领域。其次，我们通过解释当监管基础消失时制度如何继续、变化或消亡，从而为理论文献做出贡献，超越了关于变化的成熟文献，并详细说明了维持制度并解释其稳定或消亡的机制。第三，该项目与法国、德国和英国的研讨会有一个参与和影响维度，为从业者提供如何应对英国脱欧的建议，这将反馈到公司层面的适应过程，影响雇佣关系。

This research project examines how Brexit affects European Works Councils (EWCs). EWCs provide employees with consultation and information rights in multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the European Union (EU). The decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to leave the EU had implications for EWCs as it concerned two threshold conditions of the EWC legislation namely the existence of sites in at least two European countries with 150 employees and a required total European company size of 1,000 employees. Brexit meant that some MNCs with subsidiaries in the UK no longer met these conditions.The project uses the lens of institutional theory. An important notion of this literature is that institutions have regulatory, normative and cultural dimensions. The regulatory dimension refers to the EWC legislation that defines rights and obligations for employees and companies. Within this regulatory frame, actors develop practices, norms and ideas that are specific to their enactment of the EWC legislation on the company-level. A key puzzle of this research project is: What happens to an EWC after the regulatory dimension breaks away? One possibility is that an EWC ceases to exist, e.g. management might insist on the regulatory thresholds to be met. Another possibility is that the past work and experiences between EWCs and management shape norms, routines and ideas, enabling the continuation of an EWC.Past research in institutional theory had a key focus on institutional change. We go beyond this focus and inquire how institutions are transformed, maintained or abandoned, focussing on institutional change, stability and demise. A key task is to identify the drivers, factors and actors that explain these institutional processes in the wake of Brexit.We have done preliminary research on EWCs affected by Brexit for this application which showed that some EWCs and management have negotiated supplementary agreements as a substitute for EU legislation, while others were struggling to carry on. On this basis, the project will interrogate such adjustment processes across 16 in-depth case studies of EWCs (about 128 interviews) with employee representatives, unions, and management.The project makes several key contributions. First, no previous research has examined the impact of Brexit on EWCs and thus we break new empirical ground. Second, we contribute to the theoretical literature by explaining how institutions continue, change or demise when regulatory foundations disappear, reaching beyond the well-developed literature on change, and specify mechanisms that maintain institutions and explain their stability or demise. Third, the project has an engagement and impact dimension with workshops in France, Germany and the UK to provide advice for practitioners on how to deal with Brexit, which will feed back into adaptation processes on the company-level, impacting employment relations.