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This discerning book provides a wide-ranging comparative analysis of the legal and social policy challenges posed by the spread of different forms of precarious work in Europe, with various social models in force and a growing ‘gig economy’ workforce. It not only considers the theoretical foundations of the concept of precarious work, but also offers invaluable insight into the potential methods of addressing this phenomenon through labour regulation and case law at EU and national level.
Labour law has traditionally aimed to protect the employee under a hierarchy built on constitutional provisions, statutory law, collective agreements at various levels, and the employment contract, in that order. However, in employment regulation in recent years, ‘flexibility’ has come to dominate the world of work – a set of policies that reshuffle the relationship among the fundamental pillars of labour law and inevitably lead to degrading the protection of employees. This book, the first-ever to consider the sources of labour law from a comparative perspective, details the ways in which the traditional hierarchy of sources has been altered, presenting an international view on major cross-cutting issues followed by fifteen country reports. The authors’ analysis of the changing hierarchy of labour law sources in the light of recent trends includes such elements as the following: the constitutional dimension of labour rights; the normative intervention by the State; the regulatory function of collective bargaining and agreements; the hierarchical organization of labour law sources and the ‘principle of favour’; the role played by case law in both common law and civil law countries; the impact of the European Economic Governance; decentralization of collective bargaining; employment conditions as key components of global competitive strategies; statutory schemes that allow employees to sign away their rights. National reports – Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States – describe the structure of labour law regulations in each legal system with emphasis on the current state of affairs. The authors, all distinguished labour law scholars in their countries, thus collectively provide a thorough and comprehensive commentary on labour law regulation and recent tendencies in national labour laws in various corners of the globe. With its definitive analysis of such crucial matters as the decentralization of collective bargaining and how individual employment contracts can deviate from collective agreements and statutory law, and its comparison of representative national labour law systems, this highly informative book will prove of inestimable value to all professionals concerned with employment relations, labour disputes, or labour market policy, especially in the context of multinational workforces.
With the onset of the recession in 1990, job security has moved to the forefront of labor market concerns in the United States. During economic downturns, American employers rely heavily on layoffs to cut their work force, much more than do their counterparts in other industrialized nations. The hardships imposed by these layoffs have led many to ask whether U.S. workers can be offered more secure employment without burdening the companies that employ them. In this book, Katharine Abraham and Susan Houseman address this question by comparing labor adjustment practices in the United States, where existing policies arguably encourage layoffs, with those in Germany, a country with much stronger job protection for workers. From their assessment of the German experience, the authors recommend new public policies that promote alternatives to layoffs and help reduce unemployment. Beginning with an overview of the labor markets in Germany and the United States, Abraham and Houseman emphasize the interaction of various government policies. Stronger job security in Germany has been accompanied by an unemployment insurance system that facilitates short-time work as a substitute for layoffs. In the United States, however, the unemployment insurance system has encouraged layoffs and discouraged the use of work-sharing schemes. The authors examine the effects of job security on the efficiency and equity of labor market adjustment and review trends in U.S. policy. Finally, the authors recommend reforms of the U.S. unemployment insurance system that include stronger experience rating and an expansion of short-time compensation program. They also point to the critical link between job security and the system of worker training in Germany and advocate policies that would encourage more training by U.S. companies.
In its Green Paper about the need for labour market reform, the European Commission argued that the increasing diversity of 21st century working relationships means that existing labour law is no longer adequate. This report brings together the evidence from a wide range f experts and representative bodies about these issues as they affect the UK labour market. It finds that the evidence does not support the Commission. The consensus is that the relatively light regulation of the UK labour market is advantageous and that problems of social disadvantage and structural unemployment are better addressed by measures aimed at tackling poor skills and social inequality rather than changing labour law. The report therefore recommends that efforts at EU level should focus on the promotion and sharing of good practice, rather than the introduction of new legislation.
The current economic and financial crisis erupted several years ago. Its effects impacted deeply upon society, in which legal rules and social patterns have developed to enable the establishment of civilisation, justice and peace. Over time it has become more and more obvious that policy, financial and economic actors have adopted austerity measures as a main tool to solve the ensuing problems, and that these measures have hit social policy standards sometimes dramatically. Recent analyses have dealt with several aspects of this issue. This book focuses on one important element: the impact on collective labour law. It seeks to add to the debate by presenting mainly legal arguments derived from different sources and backgrounds, examining the EU and 'Troika' measures, the economic and political background and the sometimes dramatic consequences of austerity measures on democracy, collective bargaining and the right to strike. Against the framework of EU law, the relevant ILO Conventions, (Revised) European Social Charter and European Convention on Human Rights provisions, the non-compliance of these measures is analysed and demonstrated. The book is also dedicated to procedural questions, and in particular, how legal approaches may be used to challenge austerity measures.
What role will the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights play in the future for labour law in the European Union Member States? How could it affect industrial relations in these states? These are crucial questions to which a group of eminent European labour law professors and researchers seek to offer some answers in their new book European Labour Law and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. To recall the story behind the Charter: in December 2000, this text was not enshrined as an integral part of the new EU Nice treaty, but was merely "proclaimed", to the disappointment of many, so that its legal status remained ambiguous. The draft future Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe is clearer, insofar as it incorporates the Charter as its Part II, thereby giving it a binding character - but nobody knows whether, or when, this Treaty-Constitution will actually see the light of day and, if it does, in what shape. Yet now, as the discussions about a future EU constitution are regaining momentum, the European Court of Justice has also had its word on the role of the Charter. It has declared that "the principal aim of the Charter is to reaffirm rights" which are legally binding due to their provenance from other sources recognised by EU law (Case 540/03, European Parliament v. Council, decided 27 June 2006). The thus strengthened Charter includes core labour law and industrial relations provisions, covering matters such as freedom of association, collective bargaining and collective action, information and consultation within the undertaking, fair and just working conditions and protection in the event of unjustified dismissal. The book European Labour Law and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is a detailed commentary on the provisions of the Charter which guarantee these and other fundamental rights that are binding upon the EU institutions and the Member States. The commentary throws light on the potential of the EU Charter to shape the future labour law of Europe, an understanding of which is important for labour lawyers and industrial relations professionals, as well as for academics and policy makers in the Member States and in the EU institutions.
This volume, comprising three parts and ten chapters, all of them peer-reviewed essays, arises from the work of the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. Its focus is on labour and social security law. The chapters, written by distinguished legal researchers associated with Swedish universities, provide insight into a range of topical and important developments, seeking new and interesting perspectives. Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1995, and EU law and European law perspectives have been well integrated into Swedish labour law and social security law research. Within the European Social Model and the European Welfare State, Sweden (and to some degree the other Nordic countries as well) can be said to represent a specific system, as regards both labour law and industrial relations and social security law. In terms of influential comparative typologies or models (naturally 'flawed' by a certain element of vagueness and simplification, but also very helpful in analytical and pedagogical respects), Sweden has been described as a representative of, inter alia, a Nordic legal family, a Nordic labour law model, a social-collectivist industrial relations system, a consensual industrial relations system, a social-democratic welfare state regime, a Scandinavian social security law system (a 'sub-group' of the Beveridge system), and a coordinated market economy. But since 1995 EU law and European law perspectives have been extensively integrated into existing Swedish labour and social security law, and the chapters in this book go a long way in illustrating the far-reaching and multifaceted ways in which Swedish law has been 'Europeanised'.
The labour laws of European democracies all underwent major transformations in the seven decades after the Second World War. Following reconstruction, these laws became an essential element in the building of welfare states; in the 1980s and 1990s they were the target of neo-liberal deregulation; and at the beginning of the 21st century new 'flexible' labour laws have attempted to integrate economic and social policy. This book, a sequel to 'The Making of Labour Law in Europe- A Comparative Study of Nine Countries up to 1945' (ed. B Hepple), compares the similarities and differences in the ways in which EU Member States reflected and shaped these general developments, in the context of economic, social and political changes over the period 1945-2004. Note: the Publishers are issuing a reprint of the first volume, 'The Making of Labour Law in Europe - A Comparative Study of Nine Countries up to 1945' to coincide with publication of the sequel. The great strength of the collection is on the focus on context, with chapters looking at developments in labour market trends and structures of worker represntation.