ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how localised interpretations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) impact Austrian labour and work-related welfare arrangements. A discourse analytic approach is used to explore how traditional welfare state actors, i.e. trade unions, employers, and the state interpret CSR and thereby influence the negotiation process on welfare policies regarding labour and employment issues, such as occupational health and safety, adequate material rewards and vocational training. While employer organisations interpret CSR as voluntary, employee representatives perceive CSR as mandatory. These opposing interpretations of CSR illustrate that its meaning and impact depends on who drives the discourse. Proponents of the two discourses define CSR in line with their ideological positions to achieve political goals. The employer organisations strive to weaken existing labour and work-related welfare arrangements. The employee representatives, in contrast, engage in CSR in order to promote a CSR narrative which sustains the existing status quo and thereby secures high levels of employment protection. The implications of CSR on corporatist policy-making are thus locally and temporarily contingent, resulting in the introduction of new or modification of existing labour and work-related welfare arrangements.
