'This book makes a unique and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the changing nature of employment and its consequences for industrialized societies. It combines industry case studies, company case studies, and specific country case studies to paint a multi-dimensional picture of the spread of precarious employment and the responses by trade unions and other worker mobilizations. In addition, the astute theoretical chapters demonstrate how the trend toward precarization is reshaping power relationships in ways that have significant implications for individual security and well-being, collective agency and empowerment, societal equality and stability, and the vitality of democracy itself. Together these essays provide an exceptionally rich picture and insightful analysis of these important trends in contemporary industrialized societies.' - Katherine V.W. Stone, UCLA School of Law, US

This book makes a unique and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the changing nature of employment and its consequences for industrialized societies. It combines industry case studies, company case studies, and specific country case studies to paint a multi-dimensional picture of the spread of precarious employment and the responses by trade unions and other worker mobilizations. In addition, the astute theoretical chapters demonstrate how the trend toward precarization is reshaping power relationships in ways that have significant implications for individual security and wellbeing, collective agency and empowerment, societal equality and stability, and the vitality of democracy itself. Together these essays provide an exceptionally rich picture and insightful analysis of these important trends in contemporary industrialized societies.

This volume presents original theory and research on precarious work in various parts of the world, identifying its social, political and economic origins, its manifestations in the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Global South, and its consequences for personal and family life.

Employment has changed dramatically in the last few decades with the onset of neoliberal globalization. This change has become the objective of inquiry from different perspectives, such as development studies, labour economics or industrial relations, focusing on different units of analysis. The Political Economy of Employment Relations provides an exceptional contribution to existing literature by presenting alternative theory and practice on employment relations. It is within this critical theoretical intervention that solidarity economies emerge as a unique theoretical construct as well as a unit of analysis to expose the alternative paths that employment relations may resort to against the contemporary challenges of neoliberal globalization. This book analyses globalization, global economic crisis, and issues of work and labour from the point of view of the developing world, presenting local case studies from countries including the USA, India, Spain and Greece, and outlining alternative approaches to global challenges. This volume has relevance to those with an interest in industrial relations, sociology of work and occupations, labour economics and development economics.

World trade has expanded significantly in recent years, making a major contribution to global growth. Economic growth has not led to a corresponding improvement in working conditions and living standards for many workers. In developing countries, job creation has largely taken place in the informal economy, where around 60 per cent of workers are employed. Most of the workers in the informal economy have almost no job security, low incomes and no social protection, with limited opportunities to benefit from globalization. This study focuses on the relationship between trade And The growth of the informal economy in developing countries. Based on existing academic literature, complemented with new empirical research by the ILO And The WTO, The study discusses how trade reform affects different aspects of the informal economy. it also examines how high rates of informal employment diminish the scope for developing countries to translate trade openness into sustainable long-term growth. The report analyses how well-designed trade and decent-work friendly policies can complement each other so as to promote sustainable development and growing prosperity in developing countries.

This book uses the concepts of vulnerability and resilience to analyze the situation of individuals and institutions in the context of the employment relationship. It is based on the premise that both employer and employee are vulnerable to various social, economic, and political forces, although differently so. It demonstrates how in responding to those complementary institutional relationships of employer and employee the state unequally and inequitably favors employers over employees. Several chapters included in this collection also consider how the state shapes, creates and maintains through law the social identities of employer and employee and how that legal regime operates as the allocation of power and privilege. This unique and fundamental role of the state in defining the employment relationship profoundly affects the respective abilities and degree of resiliency of actual employers and employees. Other chapters explore how attention to the respective vulnerability and resilience of those who do and those who direct work in assessing the employment relationship can raise fundamental questions of social justice and suggest new avenues for critical engagement with labor and employment law. Collectively, these pieces articulate a framework for imaging what would constitute an appropriately "Responsive State" in the employment context and how those interested in social justice might begin to use the concepts of vulnerability and resilience in their arguments.

This new and extensively updated edition of Introducing Employment Relations draws on the most up-to-date research and contemporary examples to help students develop their knowledge, understanding and critical assessment of the main issues relating to employment relations. Essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates studying employment relations, human resource management, and business studies, Introducing Employment Relations contains a wealth of features designed to prompt students to critically reflect on how employment relations are regulated, experienced, and contested by organizations and employees; collectively or individually. Facilitating learning and prompting lively debates, such features include case studies, reflective segments, international perspectives, insights into practice, summary points, and end-of-chapter assignment and discussion questions. Whilst maintaining a critical focus to draw out the contemporary debates surrounding employment relations, this text is written in a lively, engaging and accessible style. This book is supported by a range of online resources, including: For students: Annotated web links Web case studies Updates to content relating to legislation, research, or policy Video links For lecturers: PowerPoint slides Case study guide A guide to end-of-chapter questions A guide to web cases

Within the context of social law, temporary agency work has always been subject of debate. The pursuit of more flexible forms of labour is at odds with maintaining decent labour relations. For that reason, ever since it was established, the UN organisation for labour issues, ILO, has focused on private work placement. In its early years it tended to prohibit or severely restrict private work placement, but gradually it came to acknowledge that, for instance, temporary agency work had positive aspects, and that a total ban was pointless. In 1997, this culminated in ILO convention 181, which was widely supported. This did not end the debate on non-standards forms of paid work. Which forms of work can be considered decent? How do they relate to human rights? What are the effects of globalisation? In the European context, too, (cross-border) temporary agency work has attracted extensive attention. Lastly, the Netherlands has its own, unique form of public-private regulation. The guiding principle in this book is whether Convention 181 still has value in this day and age. What are the developments in temporary agency work in the social domain? How do they relate to the wide range of flexible work forms that are increasingly catching up with temporary agency work? Decent flexibility is the challenge. Dr Fred van Haasteren (1949) started his career as a scientific associate at the Society and Enterprise Foundation (SMO). From 1978 onward, he worked in the Dutch temporary agency sector. In 1982 he became a board member of Randstad Nederland; in 1991 he became Vice-President of Randstad Holding. Among other things, he was also President of the platform of European temporary agency employers and of the global temporary agency employer umbrella organisation CIETT. He is still a board member of the Dutch Labour Standards Foundation (SNA) and an independent member of the NCP OECD. The social policy pursued by temporary employment agencies has always been at the centre of his activities.

Providing an overview of industrial development using a variety of different approaches and perspectives, the Handbook of Industrial Development brings together expert contributors and highlights the current multiple and interdependent challenges that can only be addressed by an interdisciplinary approach. Chapters discuss the existing issues faced by industry following both the digital and environmental transitions, highlighting their regional roots and the interplay with the wider institutional framework.

The concept of integrated project delivery (IPD) has evolved as a result of the need for highly expert teams of people to collaborate to deliver extremely complex projects, to manage expectations about delivery speed, changes in governance standards and to take advantage of and manage expectations raised by rapid advances in technology. All this demands effective change management. This is the first Handbook to contextualise and thematically explore the concept with an emphasis on rigorous practical and theoretical validation. The Handbook is divided into five sections, each with a focus on several interconnected themes including: An introduction to IPD concepts. The foundational elements and characteristics of IPD. People, culture and collaboration as key ingredients to successful and effective IPD. Technology and process aspects of relational contracting forms such as IPD. New and relevant perspectives to IPD that have received scant attention to date. Aspects and emerging issues that are rarely consciously considered in traditional project delivery due to the commercial imperative that drives firms and client organisations. The Handbook offers both discussions of these key themes, and also in-depth research into construction and other industry project procurement and delivery that spans decades. In addition, the Handbook presents ‘best’ and ‘better’ practice, but also includes insights into cutting-edge experimental developments in technology and practices where proof of concept is currently being developed into emerging practice. Contributing authors in this Handbook collaborate with the co-editors to draw together an integrated set of chapters that align to deliver a coherent narrative of the IPD concept. It is an invaluable reference for practitioners and academics alike, and useful as core course content for numerous degree programs of study and professional development courses.