Labour Relations and Participation Rights in Supranational Organisations

The project investigates supranational organisations entrusted with a European public mandate that are exempt from the legislative and judicial authority of individual states while also remaining outside any equivalent supranational framework governing employment relations. This institutional autonomy extends beyond the substantive responsibilities defined by an organisation’s mandate. It also encompasses its internal employment regime, including individual and collective employment rights and the available avenues of judicial redress in employment and staff matters.

These arrangements substantially curtail the rights of employees and restrict the capacity of staff representative bodies to act effectively. They consequently impede the development of institutionalised procedures for interest accommodation, negotiation and conflict resolution. Any comprehensive reform of the underlying legal framework would require the unanimous agreement of all contracting states involved and therefore appears unlikely in the foreseeable future. A regulatory enclave has thus emerged within Europe in which the legal and social standards endorsed by the European Union are not fully implemented within the organisations themselves.

Conceived and directed jointly with Hermann Kocyba at the Institute for Social Research (IfS) in Frankfurt, the project examines the labour regimes prevailing in the organisations under study. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which these organisations manage highly heterogeneous workforces composed of employees with different professional backgrounds, contractual statuses and national origins.

The study explores how employees experience and interpret these institutional conditions, which claims to representation and participation they articulate, and how professional cultures and professional self-conceptions shape these claims. A further research focus concerns the relationship between work demands, labour relations and the public mandate of the respective organisations, particularly where administrative, regulatory and scientific functions intersect.