Date
2010
Notes
Présentée aussi à la FMA European Conference, en juin 2010 à Hamburg (Allemagne).
Dewey
Economie du travail
Sujet
Labor relations; Employee ownership; Employee representation; Family ownership
JEL code
G32; J52; J53; J54; J83
Conference name
2010 FMA Annual Conference
Conference date
10-2010
Conference city
New York
Conference country
Etats-Unis
Type
Communication / Conférence
Item number of pages
42
Abstract (EN)
We investigate the influence of founding-family ownership on labor relations using workplace-level data from France. Based on data from labor conflicts during 2004 in workplaces of listed companies, we find that family ownership significantly reduces the
duration and the percentage of employees involved in major conflicts as well as the likelihood that a workplace experiences a strike. These results are robust to different definitions of founding-family ownership and control for endogeneity. We also show that there is a significant reduction in the number of protected employee layoffs, sanctioned employees, individual law disputes handled by an employment tribunal, and the annual number of works
council or union delegate meetings when a family member serves as the CEO of the firm. We document the impact of employee ownership and representation on corporate boards of directors on labor relations and find a significant and negative relationship for dependent variables. Overall, these findings suggest that ownership structure is an important determinant of labor relations within firms.