This article examines the different discourses of trade unions and employers on quality of employment in Spain. The study takes a qualitative approach, using discussion groups to obtain discursive information about the meanings of quality, assessments and the different strategies employed by social agents. Trade unions use the 'quality discourse' as a reason to examine and reconstruct their current role, extending their main concerns and paradigms from those which defend workers' interests to those which consolidate their criticism of a reprehensible Spanish employer class. Employers' discourse, on the other hand, is aimed at highlighting the market's productive purpose, and sustaining their privileged position in labour management, whilst disassociating and distancing themselves from the employment decisions they make.
The 2016 Eurofound report Mapping key dimensions of industrial relations defines industrial relations as the collective and individual governance of work and employment. It identifies four key dimensions. Industrial democracy, based on the direct and indirect participation rights of employers and employees in the governance of the employment relationship, the autonomy of both sides of industry as collective organisations and their collective capacity to influence decision-making. Industrial competitiveness, based on an economy with a consistently high rate of productivity growth and good performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To be competitive, it is essential to promote research and innovation, information and communication technologies, entrepreneurship, competition, and education and training. Industrial competitiveness, based on an economy with a consistently high rate of productivity growth and good performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To be competitive, it is essential to promote research and innovation, information and communication technologies, entrepreneurship, competition, and education and training. Quality of work and employment, based on career and employment security, health and well-being, the ability to reconcile working and non-working life, and the opportunity to develop skills over the life course. However, the interpretation, application and implementation of these key dimensions depend on the stakeholders' affiliation and their national industrial relations system. Therefore, the report stresses the usefulness of further developing this conceptual framework, especially for cross-country comparisons and mutual learning processes. To this end, a first assessment of existing data sources and indicators was carried out. The current study is a continuation of this work, with the aim of further fine-tuning the set of indicators. It also assesses how and to what extent the conceptual framework of the key dimensions of industrial relations can be applied to the national level.
Previous Eurofound research has identified four key dimensions of industrial relations: industrial democracy, industrial competitiveness, social justice, and quality of work and employment. This report seeks to build a set of indicators to measure country performance in industrial relations in terms of these four dimensions and to develop a typology of industrial relations systems, enabling a cross-country analysis of trends. The report focuses particularly on industrial democracy, seen in this context as the core dimension of industrial relations and the most desirable model of work and employment governance.
