The Industrial Relations and Employment Impacts of Multinational Enterprises

A first difficulty in our enquiry has been to arrive at a satisfactory and agreed definition of a multinational enterprise. From our interviews no view common to all parties emerged. Much depends on the particular issue involved (taxation, technology, competition, etc.) but even in the restricted field of industrial relations and employment it was not possible to find agreement. A useful approach therefore seemed to be to start from the basis of what industrial relations implies and from there attempt to identify in what way multinational enterprises could differ from domestic enterprises, thus isolating the contentious issues. A useful point of departure appeared to be the fact that industrial relations are a reflection of power relations between labour and management, the ability of each side to put checks on the other, with the government in some countries intervening periodically to influence the balance. In this context, central decision‐making and size of enterprise become significant. The interviews with the four parties revealed no consistent viewpoint on central control, with employers insisting that decisions on industrial relations and employment were entirely decentralised and the trade unions, while admitting that this was in a narrow sense true, pointing out that decisions which affected these two areas indirectly and importantly were taken centrally.