재무성과 및 노동조합의 전략적 참여와 사업장내 노사협의회 활성화에 관한 연구

An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Strategic Involvement of Unions and Works Councils Activities at Workplace

본 연구는 사업장내 노사협의회 활성화 정도가 재정적 상태와 노동조합의 특성에 따라 달라질 것으로 보고, 한국노동연구원(KLI)에서 실시한 사업체패널조사(WPS2009) 자료를 활용하여 재무성과 및 노조의 전략적 경영의사결정 참여와 사업장내 노사협의회 활성화의 관계를 검정하였다. 분석결과, 첫째 산별노조와 비교해서 기업별 노조의 경우 사업장내 노사협의회의 운영수준이 더 높게 나타났다. 둘째, 동종업체 평균과 비교하여 재무성과가 높을수록 사업장내 노사협의회 운영수준은 높게 분석되었다. 또한, 통계적 유의성이 검정되지 않았지만 재무성과가 양호할수록 노사협의회 개최횟수는 줄어드는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 국내외 공장이전에 대한 노조의 참여와 노사협의회 개최횟수의 회귀관계는 '엎어진 U자 형태'의 곡선적 관계가 검정되었다. 한편으로, 사업장내 노사협 의회 운영수준에 대한 국내외 공장이전 의사결정에 노조참여의 회귀관계는 통계적 유의성은 검정되지 않았지만 '바로 세운 U자 형태'의 곡선적 관계로 나타났다. 본 연구의 검정결과는 사업장내 노사협의회 활성화에서 응답자의 주관적 판단이 토대가 되어 평가된 사업장내 노사협의회의 운영수준과 노조의 전략적 참여의 관계는 객관적 지표로 산출된 노사협의회 개최횟수(즉, 사업장내 직접비용과 관련)의 경우와 서로 분리되고 있다는 점을 시사한다고 볼 수 있다. 기업차원의 경영전략에 대한 근로자참여와 사업장내 노사협의회 활동이 한 방향화(통합)되기 위해서 향후연구에서는, 우선적으로 경제적 및 사회적 관점이 고려된 사업장내 노사협의회 활성화의 타당화된 척도가 마련되어야 할 것이며, 다음으로 노조와 사업장내 노사협의회의 관계에 대한 개념 설정과 이에 관한 실증연구가 다양하게 지속적으로 이루어질 필요가 있을 것으로 보인다.

Declining union membership and increasing individualism in Korean society have led to alternative models of collective representation being as a device through which unions may gain a workplace presence, or as a part of a union marginalization process. In countries like Germany, where unions colonized most works councils, and the two worker's interest representation institutions then developed symbiotically, works councils may be linked to a high level of unionization(Western, 1999). But most developed countries such as the UK and the USA, where empirically based reports refer to the negative effects joint consultative committee on trade unionism. Therefore, there has been considerable international interest in works councils or joint consultative committees and their relations with unions in recent years(Addison, Bellman and Koelling, 2004; Brewster, Wood, Croucher and Brookes, 2007; Frege, 2002; Lee, Lee and Sung, 2013). However, the relationship between works councils and unions remains relatively under researched(Frege, 2002; French, 2001; Lee, Lee and Sung, 2013). The relationship between works councils and unions is a problematic issue because their functions and concerns both differ and overlap. Works councils represent all of an organization's employees, whereas unions are membership-based organizations. The distinction may create key difficulties for unions. First, works councils may appear more representative of the workforce than unions. Second, as union membership has declined, works councils have increasingly contained non-union representatives. This has led to discussion of how far the representation gap can be narrowed by alternative forms of employee representation(Brewster et al., 2007). Although industrial democracy or labor-management partnership is realized through a multi-level relationship(Katz, Kochan and Colvin, 2008; Kochan and Katz, 1988; Kochan and McKersie, 1986; Lee and Lee, 2005), including union representation at firm or industrial level and direct employee involvement via works councils at workplace level, still we know little about the specific relationship between unions and works councils and how it influences the latter's functioning and effectiveness. Current research outcomes are inconclusive. For instance, one empirical study on the relationship between works councils and economic consequences found that greater employee involvement is associated with high worker productivity, but found no significant influence of works councils on firm profitability(Klein and Lee, 1997). In contrast, a different study found that non-union employee representation has a positive effect on profit, but found no significant influence of non-union employee representation on labor productivity(Nho, 2009). There may, in fact, be a reverse-causality between works councils and economic consequences. In order to examine a relationship between works councils and unions, data from the Korean Workplace Panel Survey(2009 survey-conducted by the Korean Labor Institute) was applied to examining the relationship between strategic involvement of unions and activities of works councils at workplace, which deduced from the councils/employee involvement model established by Freeman and Lazear(1995). Furthermore, this study also examined the influence of economic performance on the level of works councils' activities at workplace, following the model employed in an empirical study on large Japanese firms(Morishima, 1992). The results of the current empirical study indicate as following: First, the economic performance has a positive effect on the operation level of works councils. Second, the strategic involvement of unions about plant (re)location have a reversed U-shaped relationship with the number of works councils meetings per a year in the workplace. Yet, no such significant curved influence of strategic involvement of unions about plant (re)location on the operation level of works councils at the workplace.