Social relations and adjustments to the crisis: a comparative Franco-British microstatistical analysis.

Summary In this comparative study on France and Great Britain, the authors analyze the links between industrial relations and adjustments (in staffing and wages) in the face of the 2007-2008 crisis, based on two highly comparable establishment-level surveys, one British (WERS), the other French (REPONSE), collected in 2010-2012. Despite the different contexts (composition of the productive fabric, temporality and impact of the crisis), the links between social relations and adjustment strategies appear to be similar (union presence is not sufficient to prevent adjustments). The differentiation of industrial relations systems does not therefore explain the differences in adjustment patterns observed at the macroeconomic level.