In all MS traditional paradigms of collective bargaining no longer seem able to accommodate increasingly complicated forms of corporate structuring and the fragmentation of labour force. In the global economy, companies striving to improve their efficiency re-structure, but often fail to guarantee that the worker’s voice is heard. At the same time widespread and ever-expanding use of the Internet around the world, and the development of new technology companies, are contributing to a rise in digital work, where service providers are often self-employed workers not covered by traditional collective representation. Transforming role of trade unions, works councils and the way social dialogue is conducted poses challenges for the EU integration if protection of local and immediate interests prevail over the larger perspective.
The panel discusses the dynamic impact of this changing reality and EU law and policy can react to the fragmentation of the increasingly transnational labour force, and whether EU regulation promotes or hinders the development of collective bargaining in the changing environment. The four papers explore how far environmental governance policy, and transnational collective bargaining, guarantee sustainability of social dialogue, the pitfalls of the current regulation of collective redundancy procedures in cases of corporate insolvency, and conflicts between EU competition law and social policy in the collaborative economy.
