Industrial Relations in Multilingual Environments at Work (IR-MultiLing)

IR-MultiLing will research areas of understanding/misunderstanding and intended/unintended outcomes arising from language policy choices and whether the costs and benefits of linguistic diversity map differently for employers and managers than for employees. Researching with case studies in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain and the UK, it will develop a typology of multilingual work environments contrasting multinational and national/local organisations with different management and non-management linguistic experiences. It will consider whether workers lacking full linguistic access at work are treated differently in terms of their access to trade union participation and support. Where they are members of what are still Europe's largest civil society organisations, trade unions, the issue of who is appointed or elected to represent their interests is an important one. Supported by National Advisory Groups of social partners and other experts IR-MultiLing will add to industrial relations expertise in this little-researched area, develop recommendations for decision-makers and produce a training DVD aimed at trade unionists.

The project's objectives are:

• Establish the trends in the presence of multilingualism at work.

• Research the relationship between positive and negative experiences of multilingualism and the industrial relations workplace context.

• Develop an analytical framework to help explain strategic decisions by employers and trade unions on the issues of voluntarism or compulsion in relation to language training, the adoption of a universal language, and the toleration of multilingualism (dual/triple signage, bilingual line managers, etc).

• Complete an effective comparison of the contexts and outcomes across Europe’s biggest economies and present recommendations to employers, trade unions and policy-makers.

• Produce a training DVD/YouTube film for trade unionists showing different ways of overcoming the obstacles to participation by multilingual minorities.

The project's National Advisory Group:

• Audi Independent Trade Union, Gyor
  Laszlo Hamori

• Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  Laszlo Neumann (IR academic expert)
  Jeno Koltay (IR academic expert)

• Kopint-Tarki Institute for Economic Research Co.
  Agnes Hars (expert on migrant workforce)

• Vasas Trade Union, National Office
  Zoltan Szoke

• Vasas Trade Union, Mercedes-Benz, Kecskemet
  Szlavik Istvan

Co-funded by the European Union

This project is funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the CPS and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.