Abstract
This thesis is a study of contemporary labour relations in Cyprus and
is based on case studies from the hotel, the banking and the
construction industries. Labour relations are approached
holistically, examining both the context and the content of labour
power utilisation as well as its broader impact and significance on
society as a whole. The thesis focuses on employment practices and
work organisation but also includes within its analytic frame, the
institutional and political factors involved, management and trade
unionism. The workplace is approached as a site of power relations
whereby social identities and divisions occur and authority is both
established and contested. Thus labour and trade union organisation
is examined at the workplace level and analysed from the workers'
perspective, taking into account the experience of hierarchies and
resistance, and the experience of cooperation and conflict.
The
study is located in a nationally specific context, situating the
contemporary state of labour relations in Cyprus in the historical
course of development and local particular conditions of the island.
The colonial legacy, the ethnic conflict and the division of the
country and the rapidity of modernisation have impacted substantially
on both the industrial relations and the class structure of the
society. On the other hand, international forces, trends and
phenomena in the era of globalisation such as flexibility in and the
deregulation of the labour market, increased capital and labour
flows, neo-liberal
discourses and trade union decline constitute the broader coordinates
of the labour process. These facts and schemata are both examined in
the light of empirical data from Cyprus and used to explore and
explain issues of contemporary labour organisation and class
composition.
Theoretically and politically the thesis is situated within a general
Marxian framework that is informed both by the conflict school of
industrial relations and the tradition of class composition studies.
Workers' resistance and class conflict, the means through which
class is being composed, is seen not only as a political by-product
of the labour process but ontologically at its centre and
conceptually at its heart. Thus the thesis also includes references
to and can be used in broader discussions in and of the Left and
concludes with a characterisation of the challenges and the prospects
of the labour and trade union movement in Cyprus.
CHAPTER
ONE: Theoretical and historical context and the research
problem......................13
1.1. Aims, scope and rationale of the
research.......................................................................13
- Reviewing the main/relevant literature: theoretical and conceptual framework.............14
1.2.1 The significance of labour and labour
research..........................................................
1.2.2. Employment and workplace
relations........................................................................
1.2.3. Trade unionism and the labour
force..........................................................................
1.2.4. Class and class
struggle..............................................................................................
1.3. Reviewing the main/relevant literature: historical
context..............................................28
1.3.1. Conceptualizing the modernization
process.............................................................
1.3.2. The formation of the Cypriot
working
class.............................................................
1.3.3. Political and ideological
cleavages...........................................................................
1.3.4. Ethnic conflict and the seeds of
division..................................................................
1.3.5. 1948 as the key moment of class
struggle and a historical turning point.................
1.3.6. The establishment of the national
industrial relations system..................................
1.3.7. The servicisation of the economy,
immigration and the entry into the EU..............
1.4. The research
problem......................................................................................................50
1.5. The structure of the thesis and the
argument...................................................................51
CHAPTER
TWO: Methodology and
fieldwork............................................................................55
2.1. Choice of sources and
methods.......................................................................................55
2.2. Ethical
considerations......................................................................................................60
2.3. The seven case
studies.....................................................................................................61
2.3.1. The
hotels..................................................................................................................
2.3.2. The
banks...................................................................................................................
2.3.3. The construction
sites................................................................................................
2.4. Experience, fieldwork data and writing
up......................................................................73
CHAPTER
THREE: The deregulation of employment
relations................................................78
3.1. The erosion of collective
bargaining..............................................................................78
3.1.1. The refusal to make or recognise collective
agreements..........................................
3.1.2. The evasion or exclusion of workers from
existing collective agreements..............
3.2. Personal
contracts............................................................................................................82
3.2.1. Flexibility for
employers...........................................................................................
3.2.2. Inability of a trade union
response............................................................................
3.3.
Subcontracting..................................................................................................................87
3.3.1.
Rationale....................................................................................................................
3.3.2.
Practice......................................................................................................................
3.4.
Undeclared
work...............................................................................................................91
3.4.1. Informal
economy.....................................................................................................
3.4.2.
Super-exploitation.....................................................................................................
3.5.
Trade union response to the deregulation of employment
relations..................................95
CHAPTER
FOUR: The decline and transformation of trade
unionism.....................................96
4.1.
General and industrial trade
unionism............................................................................96
4.1.1.
Efficiency.................................................................................................................
4.1.2.
Structure...................................................................................................................
4.2.
Organizational difficulties in general trade
unionism..................................................102
4.2.1. Communication with and integration of
immigrant workers...................................
4.2.2. The limited appeal of trade unionism
amongst precarious workers.........................
4.3.
From the function of class mobilisation to the function of
personalised service..........107
4.3.1. Distance between organisation and
membership.....................................................
4.3.2. Continuing relevance of trade unionism and
the power of trade union leadership...
4.3.3. Individualism and
collectivism..................................................................................
4.4.
The politics of social
partnership..................................................................................112
4.4.1. Class
compromise......................................................................................................
4.4.2. Integration into the
state............................................................................................
CHAPTER
FIVE: Management and hierarchies at
work.........................................................118
5.1.
Human resource management and the management of
work........................................119
5.1.1. The middle
managers...................................................................................….........
5.1.2. Authority and
control................................................................................................
5.2.
Gender and ethnicity in the labour
process...................................................................123
5.2.1. Gendering and ethnicisation of
jobs..........................................................................
5.2.2. Discrimination and its
challenge...............................................................................
5.3.
Social cleavages in the labour
force...............................................................................128
5.3.1. Occupational and sectoral
identities...........................................................................
5.3.2. Age and
seniority........................................................................................................
5.4.
Differentials of power: skills, pay and social
networks................................................132
5.4.1. Skills, experience and
productivity...........................................................................
5.4.2. Social relations and
networks....................................................................................
5.4.3. Salaries and
wages.....................................................................................................
CHAPTER
SIX: Class composition and political
implications..................................................137
6.1.
Workers and
work.........................................................................................................137
6.1.1. The act of
work...........................................................................................................
6.1.2. The time of
work........................................................................................................
6.1.3. Segmentation at
work.................................................................................................
6.2.
Workers and their
interests............................................................................................143
6.2.1. Ideological
orientations..............................................................................................
6.2.2. Structural
realities.......................................................................................................
6.2.3. Political
prospects.......................................................................................................
6.3.
Workers and
authority...................................................................................................150
6.3.1. Resisting
management.........................................................................................…...
6.3.2. Resisting
work............................................................................................................
6.4.
Workers against
capital.................................................................................................152
6.4.1. Collective
action........................................................................................................
6.4.2. Precarious
subjectivities............................................................................................
6.5.
Class beyond
ethnicity...................................................................................................160
CHAPTER
SEVEN: A note on labour relations and the working class north of the
green line and some preliminary comparisons with the
south.....................................................................162
7.1.The
unique and exceptional state of north
Cyprus.........................................................162
7.1.1. Historical and political
context...................................................................................
7.1.2. Economy and
society..................................................................................................
7.2. Labour
conditions..........................................................................................................167
7.2.1. Turkish Cypriot and immigrant
workers...................................................................
7.2.2. The informal economy and
super-exploitation..........................................................
7.3. Trade unions and
politics...............................................................................................173
7.3.1. Upholding living and working
standards..................................................................
7.3.2. Communal identity: class and
ethnicity
revisited......................................................
CHAPTER
EIGHT:
Conclusions.................................................................................................178
8.1. Summing up: bringing the thesis
together.....................................................................180
8.2. Looking forward: problems and prospects of the labour movement
in Cyprus............183
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AND SOURCES: Data and
References.......................................................187
Primary
sources:...............................................................................................................................187
A:
List of Interviews
taken.....................................................................................................................
B:
Newspapers and internet sites
examined...........................................................................................
C: Archival sources, statistics and official documents
cited:.................................................................
D: Press articles and other primary sources
cited:..................................................................................
Secondary sources
cited:..................................................................................................................192
Books,
Journal articles,
Reports:............................................................................................................
the whole thesis is on-line here
The study of employee and employer relations mentione here in the blog is quite genuine and real. The facts mentioned here are very true. Employer and labour relations are the kind of most unpredictable relations in an organisation. They effect each other in both good as well as bad manners. To increase the productivity of work and to have maximum output, management have to make every possible effort so that there employee are happy and are able to perform well.
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