Industrial Relations in the Context of Subcontracting. The Hungarian Case.

Traditional systems of workers’ representation have been challenged in the past few decades due to several factors. On the one hand, new, more participative management practices have decreased the perceived importance of collective representation and action for many workers; on the other hand, globalisation and new forms of subcontracting have led to the mismatch between the business environment and the traditional organisational models of trade unions combining company, industry and national level representation. The present research project aims to study how the system of industrial relations and workers’ representation evolves in the context of growing networks of subcontractors and aims to set up recommendations on how the industrial relations system could adapt more effectively to the changed business environment. The research project adopted a comparative perspective, insofar as three European countries participate in the project, Spain, Belgium, and Hungary. This paper presents the Hungarian part of the project.