Industrial Relations in an Unstable Environment: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of industrial relations in the states of central and eastern Europe, and in particular in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The main contention is that these countries will be unable to sustain stable and coherent national systems of industrial relations. The reasons are, first, the disaggregation of employer and employee organizations in this region; and, second, the decentralization of economic management from the state to the enterprise. It is argued that these developments are undermining attempts by a number of CEE countries to develop tripartite for a in order to regulate their respective employment systems.