How can the EU's community of welfare states adapt their public policies to economic globalization? What happens when the economic and social aims of the EU come into conflict? This book examines the developing legal regimes and regulation of public services in the UK and other European countries. Public services are examined though a case-study of the complex area of public employment services. These are job-placement and vocational training services which aim to maximize employment and minimize unemployment within EU member States' Active Labour Market policies. Employment services are at the centre of a complex web of rules in both hard and soft forms of law deriving from the EU, national public law and from private, and at times contractual, agreements. They also lie at the crossroads of a series of trends in regulation, and priorities have been inspired by an array of conflicting policy rationales. These policy rationales include the establishment of an open and competitive European internal market, the establishment of an efficient welfare state, the scaling down of state administrative machinery, the fulfilment of core public service responsibilities, and the creation of public-private partnerships. Public employment services provide a highly informative and novel case study of the interaction and conflict between the economic and social aims of the EU and between regulation at national and supranational levels, and the changing forms which this regulation has taken.

Employment services are at the centre of a complex web of rules deriving from the EU, national public law and from private agreements. This book examines the law and regulation of public services through case studies of the public employment services in EU member states.

Recoge: 1.Preface by Mr. Allan Larsson - 2. Modernising Public Employment Services to support the European employment strategy, a Communication from the Commission(1998/641) - 3.Joint Mission Statement of Public Employment Services in Europe(EU/EEA) - 4.Memorandum of Understanding between, the Public EMployment Services of the EEA for the development of the EURES network.

1. Origins and historical evolution. 2. The Changing labour market 3. Role, functions and resources of the public employment service 4. Job -broking 5. Labour market information 6. Administration of labour market adjustmment programmes 7. unemployment benefits and the public employment service 8. organising and managing the service9. the PES and other organizations.

European employment law is becoming increasingly important. Its impact upon domestic law of the Member States in fields such as fixed-term employment contracts, collective redundancies or industrial action, is growing. This volume therefore covers the complete scope of European employment law: its foundations in EU primary law and its various sources in EU secondary legislation, as well as the growing body of case law of the European Court of Justice.00The book begins by providing an overview of the relevant fundamental rights, fundamental freedoms and competences of the European Union in the field of employment law. A systematic presentation of the conflict of law rules in European Employment Law then follows: the Rome I and Rome II-Regulations, the Posting of Workers Directive and the Brussels Regulation on the recognition and enforcement of judgements. Subsequently, the author focuses on individual labour law which, at the EU level, is principally composed of rules on non-discrimination, the protection of safety and health and working time; rules on atypical forms of employment (part-time, fixed-term and temporary agency work) and special groups of employees (mothers, parents, young people); as well as legislation concerning employment protection in situations of collective redundancy, business transfer and insolvency. This is followed by a discussion of collective labour law issues. Particular attention is given to the European Works Council and the rules on employee involvement in the European Company, the European Cooperative Society, and the European Private Company, and to employment law rules contained in the Directive on cross-border mergers.

The 'full-time job' is no longer an option for many people seeking employment. It has been replaced by an ever-expanding plethora of 'atypical' employment relationships designed by employers to streamline their operations and/or take advantage of information communications technology. Numerous labour law issues arise, demanding urgent attention. How should law and policy best address these challenges? This incomparable and timely book explores this contentious topic in depth, presenting ten penetrating essays on aspects of the topic by leading European authorities followed by reports on new forms of employment in thirty-five European countries Full-scale analysis of new forms of employment, their characteristics, and their effects on working conditions and the labour market includes such issues as the following: - employment relationships with more than one employer; - discontinuous and/or intermittent work; - work based on networking arrangements; - labour pooling; - crowdworking and crowsourcing; - lack of worker representation; - rights for vulnerable migrant workers; - removal of wage and hours threshold; - false self-employment; - non-payment of 'small' amounts (e.g., holiday pay); - portage salarial; - voucher-based work; - ICT-based mobile work; - organizations offering specific administrative services; - need for safety nets for workers; and - existing and potential monitoring and control mechanisms. Relevant EU Directives and national legal frameworks regarding new forms of employment are fully discussed, with an emphasis on recent trends and proposed solutions. This volume raises awareness of the problems generated by new emerging forms of employment and provides some answers and insights, including lessons to be learned from current developments. In particular, the authors' bringing to light of issues that have not been sufficiently addressed so far under European law will be welcomed by labour law practitioners, company legal counsel, human resources professionals, and academics in the field.

On cover: Employment and society

During the past few decades, industrialized countries have witnessed a progressive crisis of the regulatory framework sustaining the binary model of the employment relationship based on the subordinate employment/autonomous self-employment dichotomy. New atypical and hybrid working arrangements have emerged, challenging the traditional notions of, and divisions between, autonomy and subordination. This in turn has strained labour law systems across industrialized countries that were previously based on the notion of dependent and subordinate employment to cast their personal scope of application. Nicola Countouris advances ideas for a new dynamic equilibrium in employment law to accommodate this evolution, providing a comparative account of the development of the employment relationship in four key European countries - the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

Across Europe, market mechanisms are spreading into areas where they did not exist before. In public administration, market governance is displacing other ways of coordinating public services. In social policy, the welfare state is retreating from its historic task of protecting citizens from the discipline of the market. In industrial relations, labor and management are negotiating with an eye to competitiveness, often against new non-union market players. What is marketization, and what are its effects? This book uses employment services in Denmark, Germany, and Great Britain as a window to explore the rise of market mechanisms. Based on more than 100 interviews with funders, managers, front-line workers, and others, the authors discuss the internal workings of these markets and the organizations that provide the services. This book gives readers new tools to analyse market competition and its effects. It provides a new conceptualization of the markets themselves, the dilemmas and tradeoffs that they generate, and the differing services and workplaces that result. It is aimed at students and researchers in the applied fields of social policy, public administration, and employment relations and has important implications for comparative political economy and welfare states.