Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph on the Netherlands not only describes and analyses the legal aspects of labour relations, but also examines labour relations practices and developing trends. It provides a survey of the subject that is both usefully brief and sufficiently detailed to answer most questions likely to arise in any pertinent legal setting. Both individual and collective labour relations are covered in ample detail, with attention to such underlying and pervasive factors as employment contracts, suspension of the contracts, dismissal laws and covenant of non-competition, as well as international private law. The author describes all important details of the law governing hours and wages, benefits, intellectual property implications, trade union activity, employers’ associations, workers’ participation, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, and much more. Building on a clear overview of labour law and labour relations, the book offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. It will find a ready readership among lawyers representing parties with interests in the Netherlands, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative trends in laws affecting labour and labour relations.

"This book gives employers a clear understanding of Dutch employment law, with practical and legal information on the hiring and firing of employees, terms and conditions of employment, workplace issues, and the rights of works councils. It offers practical guidance to in-house counsel and lawyers who deal with Dutch labour law and codetermination issues, and also serves to facilitate communication between foreign business persons and their Dutch counsel." "This is a handbook for Dutch employers, in-house counsel, and employment and labour lawyers representing foreign companies with business interests in the Netherlands." --Book Jacket.

European works councils will have to be established in companies and groups of companies of a significant overall size and with a significant presence in at least two different Member States. It is clear that the number of affected companies, undertakings or establishments and certainly the overall number of affected workers is very high. European works councils are therefore an important phenomenon in European industrial relations. Practitioners and academics the world over need a handy instrument providing easy access to information regarding the European Directive and its significance and implementation in Member States of both the EC and the EEA. This book provides such a tool with regards to Belgium. The national legislation of Member States remains of the utmost importance, even though the establishment of a European works council within a given Community-scale undertaking or group as such is not governed by national, in this case Belgian, law. The involvement of Belgian employees in the transnational information and consultation process will, to a large extent, be subject to Belgian law in those European works councils that are established in companies or groups with subsidiary establishments in Belgium. In those cases, for example, Belgian law determines who will represent the Belgian employees in the negotiations of the Special Negotiating Body, and Belgian law determines the protection of the employee representatives in terms of wages and dismissal, etc.In light of all this, a combined study of both the European Directive and the Belgian implementing legislative measures is warranted.

This study of the development and networking of European Works Councils (EWCs) presents the results of a research project conducted between November 1997 and November 1998 at the University for Applied Sciences, Fulda.

As the influence of labor unions declines in many industrialized nations, particularly the United States, the influence of workers has decreased. Because of the need for greater involvement of workers in changing production systems, as well as frustration with existing structures of workplace regulation, the search has begun for new ways of providing a voice for workers outside the traditional collective bargaining relationship. Works councils—institutionalized bodies for representative communication between an employer and employees in a single workplace—are rare in the Anglo-American world, but are well-established in other industrialized countries. The contributors to this volume survey the history, structure, and functions of works councils in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Canada, and the United States. Special attention is paid to the relations between works councils and unions and collective bargaining, works councils and management, and the role and interest of governments in works councils. On the basis of extensive comparative data from other Western countries, the book demonstrates powerfully that well-designed works councils may be more effective than labor unions at solving management-labor problems.

This book covers the key themes related to the introduction, growth development and future of European Works Councils: the European Works Council Directive itself, European Works Council Agreements, Employers' strategies for managing European Works Councils in practice and trade union strategies for the development of European Works Councils. The book features contributions from key writers in the field and covers both theoretical models and questions of practice.