The impact of crisis and restructuring on employment relations in banking: The cases of France, Luxembourg and Romania

Abstract

This article discusses the dynamics of collective bargaining in the management of restructuring, drawing on the example of the banking sector in France, Luxembourg and Romania. We show that the organized decentralization of the corporatist or statist models of France and Luxembourg helped sustain employment relations systems and cushion crisis effects. Bargaining outcomes included internal mobility and training. In Romania, by contrast, disorganized decentralization meant that solutions were left to the company level and to market forces.