Globalisation and ER
Two views on how globalisation impacts on employment relations:
1. Simple globalisation approach
– economic pressures associated with globalisation will result in a convergence of employment relations policies and practices
• “race to the bottom” in terms of wages and labour standards as mobile capital seeks lowest labour costs
• governments lose autonomy in policy making and can no longer guarantee labour rights
• Instead, legislation to accelerate decentralisation and deregulation of the labour market and to attract capital investment
2. Institutionalist approach
– Despite common economic pressures associated with globalisation, diversity in national patterns of ER will persist
• existing ER institutions mediate and filter those pressures, and will do so differently in different countries
The Varieties of Capitalism approach
• Main features of the approach
• Applying the VoC approach to ER
• VoC, globalisation, and the convergence/divergence debate
• Limitations of the approach