'Commodifying institutions': vertical disintegration and institutional change in German labour relations. (February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Holst, Hajo
• Is Part Of: Work, employment & society. Volume 28:Number 1(2014:Feb.)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2014-02
• Subjects: call centres -- economic sociology -- Germany -- institutional change -- labour relations -- metalworking -- outsourcing -- telecommunications -- temporary agency work -- vertical disintegration; Industrial sociology -- Periodicals; Work -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; 306.36
• DOI: 10.1177/0950017012464423
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0170

Abstract

The article analyses the impact of vertical disintegration on German labour relations. Previous research argued that the proliferation of outsourcing, divestment and non-standard employment results in a 'dualism' between a core of secure workplaces and a growing fringe of precarious jobs. Evidence from two key sectors, metalworking and telecommunications, however, suggest that this clear-cut division is replaced by a fragmented landscape of labour relations. In terms of institutional change, the analysis reveals a specific form of incremental transformative change, namely a shift in the meaning of formally stable legal-political institutions. Even in the allegedly stable core areas, the institutions of labour relations are gradually transformed from market-constituting institutions to market-dependent variables. Vertical disintegration plays an important role in this process of institutional commodification. It not only moves the core–periphery boundary; it is also deployed to subjugate collective bargaining, workplace co-determination and the utilization of labour law to firm-level economic calculations.