The project will provide knowledge on structural reasons why employers and workers join collective organisations and why they do or not reach collective argeements. Colossus also targets policies and strategies to sustain collective organisations. Finally, Colossus studies the implementation of collective organisations and argeements.
The project is financed by NRC and headed by Institute for social research, and comprises three work packages.
- WP1 studies structural reasons why employers and workers join collective organisations and why they do or not reach collective argeements. We conduct novel qualitative and quantitative data collections among Norwegian employers to confront this perspective with Norwegian data. We merge this survey with knowledge from administrative linked employer-employee data to get a comprehensive analysis of what type of firms join employer organisations (EO). We complement the study of EO with analyses of trade unions (TU). Finally, we study determinants of collective agreements. The work package is explicitly comparative, comparing Germany, Norway, US and UK.
- WP 2 studies policies and strategies to sustain collective organisations. Using information about the campaigns for TU membership, who were affected and when, as well as its content, we evaluate how successful these campaigns have been in a Norwegian contexts. In the second part of this work package, we study the effects of government subsidies of TU and EO membership.
- WP3 studies the implementation of collective organisations and agreements. In the first sub-project, we follow firms involved in conflict regarding the implementation of collective argeements handled by the National Mediator of Norway. We follow them before and after conflict, comparing them to similar workplaces and their employees on firm and worker outcomes such as productivity, worker turnover, wages and sick leaves, In the second sub-project, we study worker representatives to identify the benefits and costs of taking such a role.
