Comparative European studies highlighted how the neoliberal and austerity reforms, imposed in Southern Countries corresponded to a strategy of internal devaluation, which ignored national specificities and provoked the erosion of employment regulations and collective bargaining institutions (Schulten and Müller, 2013; Marginson, 2014; Van Gyes and Schulten, 2015; Cruces et al, 2015; Koukiadaki et al, 2016; Campos Lima, 2017). In our presentation we will look at the sector variegated effects of “internal devaluation” (Rodrigues et al., 2016) in Portugal, hypothesizing that they are associated with the sectoral impacts of liberalisation and of financialization, with the sectoral impacts of economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008, and with the characteristics at sector level of industrial relations institutions and relative capacities of the actors, in particular organized labour. Furthermore, we hypothesize that sectoral variation, as hypothesized by Streeck (2009), might have been related with employers interest on keeping some degree of coordination. Having into consideration this background, this paper will examine the sector effects of the process of internal devaluation, by looking at the reconfiguration of industrial relations institutions and at the dynamics and outcomes of collective bargaining at sector level, between 2000 and 2018, in Portugal. We will present the first results of a comparative extensive analysis comprising six sectors (Banking, Telecommunications, Metal, Clothing, Construction, and Hotels and Restaurants) and the first results of three in-depth case studies (to extract from that sample), with contrasting patterns in terms of employment and industrial relations and contrasting impacts in terms of internal devaluation.

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