Wage and Employment Effects of Workplace Representation - A 'Right to Co-Manage' Model

Abstract

This paper introduces a two-stage union-oligopoly-council model of wage and employment determination wherein at the first stage wage is negotiated through collective bargaining and at the second stage employment in each firm is co-determined by the employer and its works council. We provide a full characterization of the model outcome for all parameter values of bargaining power and co-determination power. In particular, works councils always increase employment while their impact on wage can be non-monotonic. Overall, individual works councils’ pursuit of own workers’ interests may well harm the workers as a union.

Keywords: Workplace representation, union-oligopoly bargaining, firm-council codetermination

JEL Classification: J50, J54, L13