https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680118790818 European Journal of Industrial Relations 1–17 © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0959680118790818 journals.sagepub.com/home/ejd Dealing with austerity and migration in the northern European cleaning sector: Social partner strategies to strengthen wage floors Sissel Trygstad Fafo, Oslo, Norway Trine P Larsen Københavns Universitet, Denmark Kristine Nergaard Fafo, Oslo, Norway Abstract Industrial cleaning shares some common features across countries. Institutions for collective wage regulation are fragile, the market is highly price-sensitive and skewed competition has exerted pressure on wages and conditions. Increased cross-border mobility of labour and enterprises after EU enlargement brought new sources of competitive pressure, which was amplified by the subsequent economic crisis. We study changes in collective regulation in industrial cleaning in Denmark, Germany, Norway and the UK since the turn of the century, and find that the social partners have responded differently to the challenges. We discuss these responses in the light of national differences in industrial relations regimes and the regulatory tools available for the organized actors. Keywords Denmark, Germany, industrial cleaning, industrial relations, Northern Europe, Norway, soft and hard regulations, UK, wage floor Corresponding author: Sissel Trygstad, Fafo, PB 2947 Tøyen, 0608 Oslo, Norway. Email: sissel.trygstad@fafo.no 790818EJD 0 0 10.1177/0959680118790818European Journal of Industrial RelationsTrygstad et al. research-article 2018 Article