The contractual work groups which emerged within Hungarian enterprises during the 1980's constitute an innovative restructuring of the organization of labour and allocation of wages. These worker initiatives go beyond simply responding to manager's expectations or the imperatives of labour markets, while at the same time avoiding bureaucratic regulation: they are part of a process that can be labelled "compensatory regulation," i.e. regulation based on principles of mutuality. These experiences, which are rooted in social relations, provide a base for accumulating social learning and can contribute not only to the resolution of crises but also to renewing society.