Bøger i Travail & Societe/Work & Society serien

Ever since the ¿golden age¿ of labour peaked around 1970, organised labour has been progressively weakened in Europe and elsewhere. The end of the era of welfare state expansion and increasing levels of social security constitute a potential threat to social cohesion in Europe. Concern about labour interests and social inclusion is very much an issue in the Europe of the early 21 century. This is the main theme of this volume, which includes original and interesting articles dealing with conditions and developments in trade union organisation and conduct in the representation of workers¿ interests. Industrial and occupational changes have not only threatened the traditional strongholds of trade unionism but also compelled unions to apply new strategies in representing their interests. Another focus of the book is political regulation of the labour market: the relevant articles highlight the failures and successes of the European Employment Strategy with special emphasis on activation schemes and overall strategies for establishing a shared commitment in Europe to achieving sufficient competitiveness by means of a flexible labour market.

In most of the EU¿s fifteen Member States sectoral collective bargaining is an important process, if not the principal means of regulating relations between employers and employees. Yet the sectoral level of social dialogue has long been neglected at Community level, coming a poor second behind cross-industry social dialogue. The tide now seems to be turning, and a formally recognised social dialogue has been established in more than thirty sectors. The authors of this volume consider recent developments in these sectors, providing a quantitative and qualitative overview as well as some more detailed analysis of particular sectors. This volume is original in that it is based on a systematic collection of documents produced by the European sectoral and cross-industry social dialogue, along with a hundred or so interviews with the relevant players. Some of the main questions raised by the authors include: what is meant by sectoral social dialogue? How does it differ from crossindustry social dialogue? What type of negotiations take place? What are the aims and strategies of employers¿ organisations? Are the agreements implemented and, if not, why not? What difference has EU enlargement made in this area and what else might change? Is it possible to devise a typology of sectors? Without claiming to have definitive answers for all these questions, this volume offers some useful food for thought at a time when sectoral social dialogue is tentatively asserting its position Europewide.

In Europe, as well as in other industrialized economies all over the world, employment relations have undergone profound transformations over the last decades. Large numbers of workers have been displaced, involuntarily employed part-time, or hired on temporary employment contracts. The increasing flexibility in the staffing of organizations is experienced, by many employees, as a threat to the continuation of their employment relationships. A growing body of research suggests that such job insecurity can be of fundamental importance from the occupational health perspective as well as the managerial, due to its effects on employees¿ work attitudes and well-being. This book addresses the nature of job insecurity and investigates its consequences for individuals, the organizations they work for, as well as their labor unions. It also examines whether factors associated with union membership help employees to cope with employment uncertainty. The book is based on a European project involving Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Both individuals and organizations alike are harmed by the increased insecurity that prevails in working life today. By identifying and explaining those factors which result in job insecurity, and examining how the experience affects individuals, organizations, and unions, the authors wish to expand the body of knowledge concerning job insecurity. Such knowledge can lead to a greater focus on this phenomenon within working life, and result in greater effort being put into understanding how preventative measures can be implemented in the future.

Throughout the industrialised world trade unionists are reforming their organisations as part of a strategy to adjust to new labour market, economic and political circumstances. This volume examines the role of merger activity in this process of reform. The book identifies the pattern of merger activity, the factors that promote its development and its impact on union structure and governance. Most merger activity is shown to originate in some adverse environmental change, such as membership decline. Furthermore, there is little evidence to suggest that mergers have improved union performance in the recruitment, retention and organisation of members, although, in some cases, the reform of systems of membership participation has been facilitated. The shift away from industrial unions has been accelerated by merger involvement, which has also brought into question the role of confederations where the number of affiliated unions has declined markedly. The book comprises two sections. The first section examines the merger process in ten countries (Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, UK and US). The second section comprises three ¿horizontal¿ chapters in which authors of the national chapters develop themes that emerge from the national chapters in comparative perspective.

The aim of this book is to explore and reflect upon preconditions of a specific European social dimension, or more specifically of a European social citizenship. Welfare and social policies in Europe are deeply entrenched in state histories; the success of the welfare state stems from its ability during a fairly long historical period to unify social citizenship, full employment, mass education and a functional industrial relations system. The historical connection between welfare regimes built upon the nation state, and popular democracy founded in party voting, makes the deepening and widening of a common European project a highly risky undertaking and an open process with a radically uncertain outcome. The dilemma in the form of uneasy relationships among national welfare regimes and the evolutionary process of increased market integration ¿ driven both by market forces (globalisation) and the European Union as a political project ¿ is well known and has been demonstrated by different commentators. Every step of deepening market integration in Europe tends to threaten and put pressure on the existing national welfare regimes. As their own populations generally support them, the legitimacy of the EU is at risk. The book analyses the prospects of a coordinated social dimension at the European level, matching the market integration, and what role the concept of citizenship can play in such a scenario.

In recent years, new and more intrusive surveillance technology has found its way into workplaces. New medical tests provide detailed information about workers¿ biology that was previously unthinkable. An increasing number of employees work under camera surveillance. At the same time, computers allow for a detailed monitoring of our interactions with machines, and all this information can be electronically stored in an easily accessible format. What is happening in our workplaces? Has the trend towards more humane workplaces been broken? From an ethical point of view, which types and degrees of surveillance are acceptable, and which are not? From a policy point of view, what methods can be used to regulate the use of surveillance technology in workplaces? These are some of the questions that have driven the research reported in this book. Written by an interdisciplinary group of researchers in Computer Ethics, Medical Ethics and Moral Philosophy, this book provides a broad overview that covers both empirical and normative aspects of workplace privacy.

Reference is often made to small companies, but little is known about them, especially regarding industrial relations. How can small companies be defined? Is their small size a sufficient feature for them to be considered the same? If they are different from each other, what makes them so? Is the distinction between them and other companies ¿ big ones ¿ relevant? In what way is life organised in such units, where employer and employees are in very close contact with each other? In order to answer these questions, the authors of this innovative book carried out surveys together in France, Sweden and Germany. They met employers, employees, union members and industrial relations specialists. Comparisons of these three national cases show that small companies do have common features that transcend frontiers. They do, however, also have national characteristics. They, therefore, warrant being analysed and understood in something other than merely negative terms. It thus appears that small companies are not so far off resembling big ones...

This book aims at deepening our understanding of concrete, topical developments in the growth of social partnership economies. Inspired by the theory of ¿policy learning¿, it discusses the impact of potential triggers, such as wars and economic crises, on the development of consultative arrangements, questioning how policy adjustments came about and what exactly made them possible. What is the space for policy learning in institutional environments that are notorious for immobility and path-dependency? Different national case studies analyse the origins and development of different social practices and relations between the state and social partners with regard to the organisation of the economy and the labour market within Western Europe. Special emphasis is given to Belgium, the «quintessential European state», and to the Netherlands, the home of the illustrious «polder model» in the 1990s. Several studies highlight the role of social pacts and planning as expressions of effective social partnerships.

Equity in health is endorsed by most governments. But there is no progress in reducing the relative differences between different socioeconomic groups linked to the professional status. There are obvious reasons for class differences that include poverty, low education and certain life style factors. But do we know the true background of the differences? Why do blue-collar workers have less favourable health than white-collar workers? Is it due to selection of unhealthy workers to bad workplaces or due to the working conditions? This volume provides an overview of the importance of working conditions for social class differences in health. The magnitude of social class differences in health and the importance of working conditions for these differences are described for seven European countries and Massachusetts, USA. In a summary chapter conclusions are drawn regarding to what extent social class differences in health can be explained by working conditions. An agenda for future research is presented.

The aim of this book is to explore the preconditions of a European political economy. The establishment of the monetary union and the European Central Bank constitutes a major step towards greater economic, social and political integration between the Member States of the European Union, and is therefore a momentous event in European history. What do the historically given preconditions of a European political economy mean in practice and theory in terms of future possibilities? With a historical perspective on European monetary integration, from the strains in the dollar-based Bretton Woods order in the 1960s and earlier, the Werner Plan around 1970, and the internal market in the 1980s to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, future prospects of EMU are discussed. The book is based on the reflections of a working group at the European University Institute in Florence in operation from 1999 to 2001. The fifteen chapters are organised in clusters on the historical and conceptual setting, on financial institutions and economic theory, on social practices and legal framework, and on future prospects. Historians, philosophers, economists, political scientists and sociologists contribute to this interdisciplinary attempt to come to terms with both the preconditions and the prospects of EMU.