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Questo contributo mette in evidenza le problematicità derivanti dagli effetti della tecnologia digitale sulla democrazia. Tre sono i temi principali che vengo affrontati. Il primo è legato al controllo di sistemi tecnologici avanzati nelle mani di una élite che rischia di aumentare il suo potere e la sua influenza sulle masse di utenti e consumatori che utilizzano le nuove tecnologie. Il secondo tema, direttamente connesso al primo, riguarda la fiducia del pubblico verso le istituzioni democratiche a seguito dell'entrata in campo di sistemi di comunicazione digitale di massa, che spesso sono portatori di disinformazione e notizie false ('fake news'). Il terzo tema, è quello del 'capitalismo della sorveglianza', che si lega alle relazioni industriali e di lavoro, nel senso che esamina le implicazioni che questo comporta per la democrazia, intesa come partecipazione diretta e indiretta dei lavoratori sui luoghi di lavoro.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on research on the strategies of inequality at the workplace level of multinational corporations within the context characterized by the weakening of traditional bargaining and representation structures. Through which specific strategies multinational corporations foster inequality across different workplaces across borders and how do trade unions in Europe respond to it?


Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a conceptual one and it is based on existing qualitative comparative research developed by the author.


Findings
The regulatory regime of organized and governed labor markets and employment relationships is undermined by the employment relationships becoming increasingly unstable in most industrialized countries in Europe. The breakdown in the collective structures for employment regulation, particularly collective bargaining, has led to growing insecurity and inequality among working people. At the workplace level of multinationals inequality is fostered by strategies of flexibilization and benchmarking which force trade unions to negotiate concessions regarding the working conditions of different workers. Trade unions are seeking effective responses to increasing labor market instability and inequality. The paper argues that the transnational regulation of employment relationships through the European Framework Agreements (EFAs) can serve the purpose of constraining benchmarking, while containing workplace inequality.


Originality/value
This paper offers an in-depth view that the EFAs can constrain the multinationals' strategies of benchmarking and workplace inequality. This is because EFAs can potentially spread across countries the positive gains of local negotiations where unions are able to negotiate on employment protection to other local subsidiaries where unions may struggle to do so.

This article argues that labour market institutional differences need to be taken more into account to explain the diversity in restructuring processes undertaken by multinational companies (MNCs) within national contexts in Europe. Using an in-depth case study analysis of 12 international corporations affected by diverse restructuring processes in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden, local social partners' responses to change are seen to be shaped within their national frameworks. However, more variation is found among (and within) national labour market systems, which implies a dynamic version of institutional variations.