ABSTRACT
The literature on European integration emphasizes that the European Union has decreased the autonomy of national governments. The European states are largely embedded in the same internal market, and the room for national policy-making is restricted and shrinking with every new stage of integration. Classifications of national labour relations systems often set Scandinavia and the British Isles apart from most of continental Europe. Two criteria are commonly used to make this distinction: the degree of institutionalization of the labour relations actors and of collective bargaining, and the role of the state in shaping labour relations and labour conditions. The comparison of government involvement in working time reduction confirms the distinction between the Scandinavian and the other Germanic systems and the Latin systems. Labour relations and labour conditions in the former are practised and managed by employer-trade union bargaining. In case of nationwide agreements, the national government may be involved but the main responsibility rests with the national confederations.
