East-West labour migration, industrial relations and labour standards in a Swedish-Baltic context

Abstract

The right for European Union (EU) citizens to move freely across national borders within the EU is considered one of the EUs fundamental four freedoms and is itself a form of response to the need for regional competitiveness in the global economy. However, a possible downside of free movement is a purported downward gravitational effect on established labour standards in terms of wage levels, employment relationships and working environment conditions created by the growing availability of migrant labour originating from lower wage domains with inferior conditions and, at the same time, subject to exploitation in the labour process as vulnerable transnational workers. This project seeks an integrated theoretical and empirical approach in exploring the impact of East-West migration on the patterns of industrial relations, working environment, and welfare regimes from the point of view of both the sending and receiving countries within a regional migration complex, namely Sweden and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Keywords

European integration, Industrial relations, Labour standards/rights, Baltic labour, Posted Workers

Publications

A. Thörnquist (2016) Intra-European labour migration and low-wage competition: comparing the Danish and Swedish experiences across three sectors, Industrial Relations Journal 47(1): 62–78. DOI:10.1111/irj.12126 (published on line: 2 February 2016) With B. Refslund.

A. Thörnquist (2015) East-West Labour Migration and the Swedish Cleaning Industry: A matter of immigrant competition? TheMES, Themes on Migration and Ethnic Studies, No. 42. Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-115942

A. Thörnquist (2015) False Self-Employment and Other Precarious Forms of Employment in the ‘Grey Area’ of the Labour Market. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 31(4): 411-429. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-123933

A. Thörnquist (2013) False (Bogus) Self-Employment in East-West Labour Migration: Recent trends in the Swedish construction and road haulage industries. TheMES, Themes on Migration and Ethnic Studies, No. 41. Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press. (ISSN 1651-8306). http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-95803

C. Woolfson, (2013) Remitteringar till Baltikum – hållbara även på längre sikt? in A. Monti and V. Nordlund (eds) Det dolda biståndet? frågor och svar om migranters remitteringar. Stockholm: Global Utmaning. pp.55-57. http://www.globalutmaning.se/infor-gfmd-vet-du-vad-remitteringar-ar/skarmavbild-2014-05-09-kl-09-48-22

B. Likic-Brboric, Z. Slavnic and C. Woolfson (2013) Labour Migration and Informalisation: East meets West. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 33(11/12): 677-692.

C. Woolfson, (2012) The future of the construction industry: a Baltic view. Construction Labour Research News, No. 4: 30-33.

C. Thörnqvist and C. Woolfson, (2012) When tender turns tough: posted workers and the tendering regime in the Swedish construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 30(7): 525-533.

C. Thornqvist and C. Woolfson, (2011) “Dog den svenska modellen i Vaxholm? Laval-målets följder för den svenska arbetsmarknaden”, Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv, 3.

C. Woolfson, C. Thörnqvist and J. Sommers, (2010) The Swedish model and the future of labour standards after Laval. Industrial Relations Journal, 41 (4): 333-350.

J. Sommers and C. Woolfson, (2008a) Efter Laval: framtiden för europeiska arbetsvillkorpp. Socialistisk Debatt, 1: 33-46.

C. Woolfson, J. Sommers and C. Thörnqvist (2008b) Where next for European trade union rights? Construction Labour Research News, 3: 5-10.

C. Woolfson, (2007) Labour Standards and Labour Migration in the new Europe: Post-communist legacies and perspectives. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 13(2): 199-218.