Dualisation as Class Conflict: The Case of Labour Market and Vocational Training in Germany

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Chiara Benassi, Niccolò Durazzi
Anno di pubblicazione 2021 Fascicolo 2021/159
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 19 P. 31-49 Dimensione file 248 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2021-159002
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Popular accounts of labour market reforms in Western Europe have identified a process of dualisation over the last three decades, whereby service sector employ-ment has been deregulated while workers in the core manufacturing sector still en-joy high levels of employment protection and high wages. Two different labour market logics are thought to be in place between core and peripheral sectors and to co-exist in a stable equilibrium nurtured by the co-incidence of interests between capital and labour in core manufacturing sector, who jointly acted to safeguard workers in core sectors at the expense of peripheral service sectors. Building on the case studies of labour market and vocational training reform in Germany, this ar-ticle challenges this account. It is argued that processes of dualisation are best conceptualised as the contested outcome of a political conflict between capital and labour. Dualisation is not a stable equilibrium but rather the result of bargain-ing processes between employers who push for liberalization and unions who try to prevent it or - at least - mitigate it.

Gli studi sulle riforme del mercato del lavoro in Europa occidentale hanno individuato un processo di dualizzazione negli ultimi tre decenni, in cui l’occupazione nel settore dei servizi è stata deregolamentata, mentre i lavoratori del settore manifatturiero sono rimasti più tutelati e con salari più elevati. Si ritiene che esistano due diverse logiche del mercato del lavoro tra il settore centrale e quello periferico e che coesistano in un equilibrio stabile alimentato dalla coincidenza di interessi tra capitale e lavoro nel settore manifatturiero centrale, che hanno agito congiuntamente per salvaguardare i lavoratori dei settori centrali a scapito dei settori periferici dei servizi. Basandosi sui casi studio della riforma del mercato del lavoro e della formazione professionale in Germania, questo articolo mette in discussione questa tesi. Si sostiene che i processi di dualizzazione sono meglio concettualizzati come l’esito contrastato di un conflitto politico tra capitale e lavoro. La dualizzazione non è un equilibrio stabile, ma piuttosto il risultato di processi di contrattazione tra datori di lavoro che spingono per la liberalizzazione e sindacati che cercano di prevenirla o - almeno - di mitigarla.

Keywords:Dualizzazione, formazione professionale, Germania, sindacati, mercato del lavoro

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Chiara Benassi, Niccolò Durazzi, Dualisation as Class Conflict: The Case of Labour Market and Vocational Training in Germany in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 159/2021, pp 31-49, DOI: 10.3280/SL2021-159002