Temporary work agencies: Triangular disorganization or multilevel regulation?

In this article, we compare the evolution of industrial relations and collective wage regulation arrangements in the temporary agency industries of Sweden, Germany, Norway and the UK. Within a framework of institutionalization and institutional change, we examine how the strategic choices made by key actors, principally employers, confronted by market deregulation, EU enlargement and EU-level regulation, have affected the form and strength of collective regulation. We draw conclusions on the extent to which existing national institutional structures have been transferred to the industry, transformed or subjected to incremental change.