The Role of the Social Partners in the German and Danish Systems of Employment Relations - Research Paper Example

The paper “The Role of the Social Partners in the German and Danish Systems of Employment Relations” is an informative example of the research paper on human resources. Germany and Denmark share some common features starting from being coordinated and regulated economy. The first role and source of similarity are that of association and adoption of the concept of the tripartite collective bargain. The main framework of the employment relation framework is a tripartite collective bargain by social partners. However, in most cases, government intervention is restricted. This means that both countries have adopted the concept of self-regulation by unions and employers federation. Under this self-regulation, the partners have the free will of determining their engagement framework. The underlying notion for this is on the premise of consensus building. In this premise, the government believes that employee unions and employers can find a solution to industrial relations problems afflicting them. Moreover, in this context, each party sees others as associates and not a source of antagonism and friction. This has led to the development of close working relations between employers and unions.

Further, under the role of collective bargaining, social partners address matters relating to wages. Under this, they fix the level of wages, and their periodic increases. In Germany, the agreement done at the enterprise level cannot supersede those done at the sector level. The next role of the social partners during collective bargain is to specify the framework of wage payment systems. The last role of the social partners during a collective bargain that is similar in these countries is in umbrella agreements. This regulates all other conditions of employment like work hours, insurance, annual leave, and termination of employment among others.

While in the initial year's unions and employers were divided on the best approach between centralization and decentralization of operations and coordination of agreements, in later years it has tended to lean towards ‘centralized decentralized system’. The role of social partners has been the development of a localized level of agreement that is in sync with national industry-wide agreements. This is normally done at the enterprise or firm level. In this case, they are seen to have embraced neo-liberalism approach towards employment relations. Moreover, to strengthen the role of association by unions and employers, in both countries they have established strong relations at the enterprise level by opening up steward’s shop and setting cooperation committees. This has led to the growth of much-needed flexibilities.

Differences
One of the parting points between the two countries in terms of roles is in regulation. In Denmark, regulation operates within the framework of the collective bargain and not within the legislative framework. This makes their employment relations as one of the most flexible ones in the world. However, for Germany, the opposite is true for the social partners during any collective bargain process.  Germany has high levels of juridification. The juridification is based on Acts like the Works Constitution Act, the Co-Determination Act, and the Act on Collective Bargaining. The other difference in terms of the roles of social partners is in the administration of unemployment benefits. In Denmark, this is done by unions rather than the state. This kind of approach was established way back in 1907. This has enabled the unions to commend huge following and power. On the other hand, in Germany, the unemployment benefit is administered by the state and the unions have no sole role in it.

Effectiveness of the System and Lessons Learnt
From the above observation, the approach taken by these countries of seeing the union and employers as partners is a wise concept. This has helped reduce the friction between the two as they do not view each other with a lot of mistrust but see each other as critical in creating a conducive employment environment. This approach helps in easing stand-offs and hardline stands. This is because it causes a paradigm shift from traditional thinking that employers are superior since the employees depend on them for their survival to an integrated approach in strategic personnel/ human resource management that sees employees as critical to the success of a firm and economy at large. This shows that unions and employers can work together with little government intervention to create an effective employment environment devoid of antagonism for all.