Comparativism is no longer a purely academic exercise but has increasingly become an urgent necessity for industrial relations and legal practitioners due To The growth of multinational enterprises And The impact of international and regional organizations aspiring to harmonize rules. The growing need for comprehensive, up-to-date and readily available information on labour law and industrial relations in different countries led to the publication of the International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, In which more than 70 international and national monographs have thus far been published. This book, Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies, goes a step further than the Encyclopaedia in as much as most of the chapters provide comparative and integrated thematic treatment. The aim is to describe the salient characteristics and trends in labour law and industrial relations in the contemporary world. This book is obviously not exhaustive, with respect to the coverage of countries and topics. The authors limit themselves mainly to the industrialized market economies. The book is divided in three main parts: an introduction relating to methodology and documentation, including the use of Internet. The second part concerns international actors, like the International Employerrsquo;s Organisations And The International Trade Union Movement, As well as Human Resources Management. The third concerns the sources of regulation, concentrating on International and European Labour Law, as well as on Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises and describes also the rules in case of conflict of laws. The last part deals with international developments and comparative studies in not less than 15 chapters. The IXth edition, will like the previous editions, serve as a textbook and reference work to facilitate the task of teachers and students of comparative labour law and industrial relations. it will also provide labour lawyers with the necessary insights to cope with a world which is increasingly international.

The protection of jobs and labour law standards achieved by employees in the past has been under pressure from neoliberalization forces for many years. The focused perspectives evident in this original collection of essays go a long way toward clearly de? ning where labour law and social security law must set their sights in order to preserve fair and productive employer-employee relations in the new world of work. Distinguished researchers study the changing realities confronting the labour market, in public policy as well as in industrial relations. Issues and topics include the following: – integration of immigrants into industrial relations; – the social situation of migrant workers; – new phenomena brought by the digital age; – temporary agency work; – harmonizing family and working lives; – sport and labour law; – the role of European Works Councils; and – social and labour reforms. Throughout this book, the contributors emphasize the changing role of the state and reform agendas. Although the central focus is on Europe, there is an abundance of comparative detail, allowing for global application. As a matchless, up-to-date overview and analysis of how new and emerging forms of employment and industrial relations impact employee security, this book will be warmly welcomed by practitioners, academics, and policymakers concerned with ensuring the persistence of fair and viable standards in labour and social security law.

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.

This collection draws together contributions from leading Australian and international labour law scholars, based on papers delivered at a conference to mark the 21st birthday of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law at the University of Melbourne. Collectively, the contributions provide an account and exploration of labour law scholarship's evolution over the last two decades, and its future trajectory. They explore a number of enduring and emerging themes in labour law, including:The Foundations of Labour Law ScholarshipFrom Labour Law to Labour Market RegulationLabour Law, Equality and Human RightsEffectiveness and Enforcement in Labour LawSidestepping the Law Through Legal StructuresInternational and Comparative Labour Law PerspectivesThe Future of Work and Labour LawThe book offers conclusions about the progress that labour law scholarship has made in facing fundamental changes in the organisation of capital, work and labour markets, as well as suggesting ideas for how labour law might continue to evolve to meet new challenges.

Comparativism is no longer a purely academic exercise but has in creasingly become an urgent necessity for industrial relations and legal practitioners due to the growth of multinational enterprises and the impact of international and regional organisations aspiring to harmonise rules. The growing need for comprehensive, up-to-date and readily available information on labour law and industrial relations in different countries led to the publication of the International Encyclo paedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, in which more than 40 international and national monographs have thus far been published. This book on Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations goes a step further than the Encyclopaedia: some 15 of the 21 chapters pro vide comparative and integrated thematic treatment. They aim to describe the salient characteristics and trends in labour law and in dustrial relations in the contemporary world. Our work is, however, more than a set of papers written by individual authors. Twelve of the nineteen contributors, the associate editor, and the publisher were able to meet to discuss the chapters, carefully evaluating, reviewing and co-ordinating our collaborative efforts. The meeting was exceptionally informative and productive. It was sponsored by and took place at Insead (Fontainebleau) with the additional support of the Catholic University of Leuven and Kluwer Publishers. I thank them for their courtesy and assistance. The book is obviously not exhaustive so far as countries and topics are concerned.

The renowned international labour law scholars contributing to this incomparable volume use the term ‘game changers’ to refer to evolutions, concepts, ideas and challenges that are having, or have had, major impacts on how we must understand and approach labour law in today’s global economy. The volume derives from an international conference organized by the Institute for Labour Law at the University of Leuven, Belgium in November 2017. This initiative is pursued in the spirit and with the methods of the late Emeritus Professor Roger Blanpain (1932–2016), a great reformer who continuously searched for key challenges in the world of work and looked as far as possible into the future, engaging in critical reflection and rethinking the design of labour law. While seeking to identify the main game changers, the authors explore new pathways and answers which may help to understand and shape the future of work. This is the 100th of Kluwer’s Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, a series Professor Blanpain launched nearly fifty years ago. The contributors address, and reflect on, such vital issues and topics as the following: – the ‘gig’ economy; – core labour law values; – freedom of association; – non-standard employment; – the rise of the service sector; – employment and self-employment; – the European Pillar of Social Rights; – app-based work; – algorithms as controls in the workplace; – collective bargaining rights and the right to strike; – the role of temporary employment agencies; and – termination of the employment relationship. There are also chapters devoted to specific issues in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Estonia, China and the United States. Roger Blanpain consistently reminded us that labour relations are power relations. Although this book shows that the power balance is tipped towards employers in today’s world, what is nevertheless very clear is that labour law can play a crucial role in re-enlivening equitable outcomes, fairness, decent work and social justice in our contemporary and future societies, and that academia can help to understand, guide and shape that future. For this reason, this book will be invaluable to professionals in labour relations, whether in the academic, policy or legal communities.

Employee relations in national contexts are significantly influenced not only by material forces but also by cultural and linguistic factors that are often highly nationally specific. In this innovative book, culture and language are analysed in terms of how they affect employee relations internationally, demonstrating the importance of recognising and understanding these elements in the face of increasing globalisation.

It cannot be denied that in recent decades, for many if not most people, work has become unstable and insecure, with serious risk and few benefits for workers. As this reality spills over into political and social life, it is crucial to interrogate the transformations affecting employment relations, shape research agendas, and influence the policies of national and international institutions. This single volume brings together thirty-nine scholars (both academics and experienced industrial relations actors) in the fields of employment relations and labour law in a forthright discussion of new approaches, theories, and methods aimed at ameliorating the world of work. Focusing on why and how work is changing, how collective actors deal with it, and the future of work from different disciplinary angles and at an international level, the contributors describe and analyse such issues and topics as the following: new forms of social protection and representation; differences in the power relations of workers and political dynamics; balancing protection of workers’ dignity and promotion of productivity; intersection of information technology and workplace regulation; how the gig economy undermines legal protections; role of professional and trade associations; workplace conflict management; lay judges in labour courts; undeclared work in the informal sector of the labour market; work incapacity and disability; (in)coherence of the work-related case law of the European Court of Justice; and business restructurings. Derived from a major conference held in Leuven in September 2018, the book offers an in-depth understanding of the changing world of work, its main transformations, and the challenges posed to classical employment relations theories and methods as well as to labour law. With its wide range of insights, analysis, and reflection, this unique contribution to the study of industrial relations offers an authoritative reference guide to scholars, policymakers, trade unions and business associations, human resources professionals, and practitioners who need to deal with the future of work challenges.

This Handbook is a comparative treatment of employment relations, providing frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding trends in different parts of the world.

Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Germany gives the reader a broad understanding of German labour law covering all important aspects. The book deals with the sources of labour law, individual employment relationships, collective bargaining, remuneration, working conditions, and dispute settlement.