Employer occupation of regulatory space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in liberal market economies

• Published in: Work, employment and society Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 21 - 39
• Main Authors: Dundon, Tony, Dobbins, Tony, Cullinane, Niall, Hickland, Eugene, Donaghey, Jimmy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2014; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Commercial regulation; Decision making; Economic regulation; Employee relations; Employees; Employers; Employment; Energy resources; EU directives; Europe; European Union; Government regulation; International organizations; Labor Policy; Labor regulations; Liberalism; Liberalization and institutional change: article; Liberals; Management consulting; Market economies; Market Economy; Markets; Occupations; Power; Regulation; Space; Studies; Transnationalism; Voluntarism; Workers; Workplaces; Europe; employment regulation; employee voice; space; European Information and Consultation Directive
• ISSN: 0950-0170; 1469-8722
• DOI: 10.1177/0950017012466688

This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of 'regulatory space' by building on Lukes' multiple faces of power to better understand how employment regulation is determined across transnational, national and enterprise levels. The research proposes an integrated analytical framework on which 'occupancy' of regulatory space can be evaluated in comparative national contexts.