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Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to consider the situation of workers' rights in the context of European Works Councils (EWCs) in the metalworking sector. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper examines the preconditions, forms and patterns of trade union transnational coordination under the regime of cross-border competition and, in particular, its transnational implications for employment regulation in multinationals in Europe. The paper is based on evidence from the metal sector at the European Union level in the direction of establishing a framework for transnational bargaining at company level in Europe. Findings -- The paper argues that workers' representation rights at the European level (EWCs) and their resources can be very important in supporting the trade unions' bargaining activity in a situation of cross-border negotiation in multinational companies. In the absence of a legal framework, the very recent engagement by the European trade union movement to coordinate bargaining across borders, while stipulating agreements at the European company level (European Framework Agreements) for common regulatory purposes, represents a "necessary" and "essential" -- although not "sufficient" condition -- for transnational collective bargaining. Originality/value -- The paper ties the formation of EWCs to the early European project of a "social Europe". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the nature of undeclared work in South East Europe and the rest of the European Union and in doing so, to evaluate critically the validity of depicting the character of undeclared work as being the same everywhere. Design/methodology/approach -- A 2007 survey of undeclared work is reported, conducted in 27 European Union (EU) member states involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews. This paper focuses on the results of the 2,432 interviews conducted in five South East European countries, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Slovenia. Findings -- In South Eastern Europe, more undeclared work is found to be waged employment and conducted by marginalised population groups out of necessity compared with other EU regions. Nevertheless, and similar to other EU regions, most undeclared work is conducted on an own-account basis, rather than as waged employment, for close social relations, rather than anonymous employers, and out of choice rather than necessity, although different mixtures prevail in different places and populations both within South Eastern Europe and across the EU as a whole. Research limitations/implications - This recognition of the multifarious work relations and motives involved in undeclared work, and different mixtures in varying populations, displays the need to move beyond treating undeclared work as everywhere the same and towards nuanced spatially sensitive representations. Practical implications -- Given the proportion of undeclared work conducted on an own-account basis and for closer social relations, this paper reveals that if South East European governments continue to seek its eradication, they will deter with one hand precisely the entrepreneurship and mutual aid that with another they are seeking to nurture. Originality/value -- This is the first evaluation of undeclared work in South East Europe and the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to introduce the employment relations context in South Eastern Europe from a variety of capitalism perspectives. Particular attention is accorded to the uneven nature of change at both the levels of institutions and practice. This is followed by a review of the individual papers that make up this special issue. Design/methodology/approach -- This paper is primarily a theoretical one, providing a review of the papers that make up this special issue and giving an overview of the foundation being provided. Findings -- While the term "transitional" has often been deployed to describe employment relations across the region, the process has been an extremely protracted one. There is little doubt that the nature and form of employment relations in the countries encompassed in this review is still coalescing, with further ruptures likely as a result of the 2009 depression. At the same time, the papers in this special issue point to long-standing continuities with employment. Research limitations/implications -- While the papers that make up this special issue may present the most recent research in the region, they also point to future areas for research. First, there is particularly little research that has been undertaken on peripheral areas of a generally peripheral region. Not only do we know very little about, say, Albanian employment relations, but we know little about employment relations in peripheral areas of large countries such as Turkey. Second, the 2009 depression is likely to accelerate trends to downsizing and insecure work, in the short term at least. Finally, there is a growing consensus that a sustainable economic recovery from the current crisis will depend, at least in part, on new social compromises both globally and regionally. Practical implications -- Employment relations in the region are undergoing an extended transition. In the short term, the most likely trend will be towards a further weakening of the bargaining position of employees, and towards more insecure working. However, a sustained recovery is likely to see a reversal of this, with employers being more likely to be forced to contemplate new social compromises. Originality/value -- This study applies the comparative capitalism literature to the South Eastern European region context. It also introduces some of the most recent applied research in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To ease adjustments in the labour market, many countries have softened their legislation since the 1970s by introducing flexible labour contracts or by making their use easier. The purpose of this paper is to document labour management of temporary contracts during the last 20 years in Belgium, compared to the situation in its neighbouring countries. The authors investigate the determinants of the use of flexible labour contracts and the consequences of their introduction on labour dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – A dynamic Probit is considered to model the use of fixed term labour contracts (FTCs) and standard dynamic labour demand equations are used to test the impact of labour contracts on the labour adjustment at the firm level, using a panel of around 8,000 firms during the period 1998-2005. Findings – The results indicate that some firms follow labour management based on a core (indefinite term contracts – ITCs) and a peripheral component (FTCs) and manage temporary contracts on a "permanent" basis, from a long run perspective. Estimates also confirm a much faster temporary contracts employment adjustment, while ITCs adjustment does not depend on whether firms employ FTCs. ITCs short-term employment elasticity with respect to wages suggests that workers protection against redundancies is strengthened when firms manage work organisation with both types of contracts. In contrast to ITCs, FTCs are used to meet unexpected demand shocks. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the growing literature on the impact of the introduction of new flexible contracts on the labour demand at the firm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper aims at providing evidence on the impact on employment of outward foreign direct investment, particularly from developed countries into low-wage countries, which is a major concern in many developed countries. Design/methodology/approach – The effects of foreign production undertaken by Belgian foreign-oriented companies on employment in Belgium are investigated by performing econometric tests for complementarity or substitution between home and affiliate employment. The data are from the Amadeus database and consist of a sample of 254 Belgian parent companies with foreign affiliates in low-wage and other high-wage European countries during the 1999-2007 period. Findings – The results show that, given the size of parent production in the home country, Belgian multinational enterprises with foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries tend to employ more labour at home the more they produce in the host country. This probably reflects the needs of foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries for management and supervisory services from parent companies. Another explanation might be that Belgian outward FDI is largely vertical. In contrast, no evidence is found about employment reallocation between parents and affiliates operating in lower-wage European countries. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence on overall effects on employment in Belgium of its outward foreign direct investment for the period 1999-2007, i.e. using the most recent data available. In contrast to many other studies, statistical diagnostic tests were carried out to choose the appropriate model to best fit the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper uses a unique survey of Roma and non-Roma in South Eastern Europe with the aim of evaluating competing explanations for the poor performance of Roma in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach -- Following a descriptive analysis, econometric models are employed to identify the determinants of educational achievement, employment and wages for Roma and non-Roma. Limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) methods are employed to control for endogenous schooling and two sources of sample selection bias in the estimates. Non-linear and linear decomposition techniques are applied in order to identify the extent of discrimination. Findings -- The key results are that: the employment returns to education are lower for Roma than for non-Roma whilst the wage returns are broadly similar for the two groups; the similar wage gains translate into a smaller absolute wage gain for Roma than for non-Roma given their lower average wages; the marginal absolute gains from education for Roma are only a little over one-third of the marginal absolute gains to education for majority populations; and, there is evidence to support the idea that a substantial part of the differential in labour market outcomes is due to discrimination. Research limitations/implications -- The survey data employed do not include information on hours worked. In order to partially control for this, the analysis of wages is limited to employee wages excluding the self-employed. Practical implications -- Explanations of why Roma fare so badly tend to fall into one of two camps: the "low education" and the "discrimination" schools. The analysis suggests that both of these explanations have some basis in fact. Moreover, a direct implication of the lower absolute returns to education accruing to Roma is that their lower educational participation is, at least in part, due to rational economic calculus. Consequently, policy needs to address both low educational participation and labour market discrimination contemporaneously. Originality/value -- This is the first paper to attempt to econometrically distinguish between discrimination and educational explanations of Roma disadvantage in the labour market in Central and Eastern Europe. The survey data employed are unique and appropriate for the task. Unusually for analyses dealing with returns to education, the LIML econometric approach employed controls for both endogenous schooling and two sources of sample selection bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of different family policy systems in Europe and evaluate their impact on the employment strategy of mothers with care responsibilities for dependent children. Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines a typology of family policy regimes in Europe – covering the 26 countries. A typology based on a cluster analysis of macro indicators of family policy – coverage of childcare, effective parental leave and spending on family policies. The cluster analysis is based on data from OECD family data base. Then follows an analysis of the impact of the different family policy regimes on mothers' employment strategies when they return into gainful employment, based on data from the European Social Survey, 2008. Findings – The authors have identified four different family policy models: extensive family policy, long parental leave, family care, and cash for care. For each of the models, different strategies are found for take up of employment for mothers with dependent children. Originality/value – The paper includes 26 European countries, thereby covering the East and Central Europe, which is not the case in most welfare typologies. Furthermore, the authors distinguish clearly in the analyses between the institutional dimension and the outcome – mothers' employment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to address the generic research question of how promising management practices such as total quality management (TQM) initiatives affect employee relations in South Eastern European (SEE) countries by focusing on managers' professional lives. In particular, this study focuses on the effects of TQM programmes on middle managers' (MMs') career prospects and job security. Design/methodology/approach -- A multi-modal research approach was applied based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 1,800 middle managers from 73 service organizations in both the public and private sectors participated in the research (19 and 54 respectively). Findings -- The implementation of TQM programs was found to have a positive impact on MMs' careers and job security. Nevertheless, it was related mostly to the "hard", rather than the "soft", side of TQM. The strong impact of TQM practices on MMs' responses to various aspects related to their physical work, as compared to the small impact of the "soft" side, implies a more pragmatic view of restructuring of the employment relations covenant due to the application of management models in SEE region. Research limitations/implications -- The business literature has presented limited measurement tools for the "soft" and "hard" aspects of TQM. This paper provides a new, more reliable, and valid measurement of both sides of TQM. More research is required in order to further verify the use of such a measurement tool. Practical implications -- Managers should be aware of a somewhat more linear path to career progression and job security through the use of "hard" quality management practices while anticipating less importance to be given to concepts such as empowerment and employee involvement. Originality/value -- This study expands our understanding of how industrial relations can be formed from the application of promising management practices. In particular, it argues that managers' familiarity with the "hard" side of TQM seems to both positively and negatively influence career development and job security, while being influenced by employment sector and educational background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- While forms of non-standard employment (which include part-time work and temporary employment) have received active promotion in recent years, possible negative effects emerging from these forms of employment have not been high on the agenda. This paper, accordingly, aims to compare workers with non-standard contracts and those with standard contracts in relation to transitions out of employment into unemployment, inactivity, household/care activities and education/training. Country differences in outcome are expected due to varying regulations of standard and non-standard employment and different reasons for resorting to forms of non-standard employment. Design/methodology/approach -- The comparison covers four countries, namely Denmark, Germany, the UK and Spain. The segmentation theory is tested by analysing mobility patterns on the basis of the European Community Household Panel data. Event history analysis methods are used. Maximum likelihood multinomial regression models are calculated on the event history data in order to assess competing exits (unemployment, inactivity, household/care and education) between non-standard and standard workers. Findings -- The risk of temporary workers exiting employment is greatest by far in Spain, but also evident in the other countries: casual employment is even more volatile than fixed-term employment. Concerning part-time workers, downward transitions to inactivity and/or household/care are much more frequent than among full-time workers, and this is true even in Spain and Denmark where part-time employment is not traditionally used to combine work with family activities. The expectation that there would be no differences in exits to unemployment - insofar as employment protection legislation applies to both full-time and regular part-time workers - proves true only for Denmark and Germany. Originality/value -- In contrast to most papers on the segmentation potential of non-standard employment this paper is comparative. Furthermore, it uses event history methods and places a special focus on potentially employability-enhancing "sideways transitions" to education/training measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to examine whether employers' opinions and expectations regarding workers' retirement age are in line with the ideas of the EU-Member States' governments to increase the participation of older workers and to postpone the transition from paid work into retirement at the end of the labour market career. Design/methodology/approach -- A comparative survey was used among employers from five European countries: Greece, Hungary, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Findings -- The authors found that most employers are reluctant in supporting later retirement. Part of this reluctance is the result of the perception that an ageing work force is a burden rather than a boom to organizations. Originality/value -- This study shows that there still is a discrepancy between the aims formulated at the level of the European Union and member state countries with respect to stimulating the labour force participation of older workers and the attitudes of individual employers. In particular, the fact that employers perceive alternative solutions to the challenges of an ageing and shrinking workforce, other than delaying retirement, suggests that most employers will not be a major driving force for extending the working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to offer a typology of temporary workers, based on their motives for accepting their work arrangement, which includes voluntary, involuntary and stepping-stone motives, and relate this typology to various individual and work-related variables. Design/methodology/approach -- Latent class analysis of 645 European workers was used to construct a typology of temporary workers. Variation of individual and work-related variables between types of temporary workers was analyzed using ANOVA. Findings -- The analyses suggest that there are three types of workers: involuntary temporary workers highlight the involuntary motive and the stepping-stone motive; the stepping-stone type stresses the stepping-stone motive only, and the non-involuntary group disagrees with all three motives. Moreover, the groups differed significantly on important work-related variables such as occupational position, tenure, employability, and work-involvement. However, differences in individual variables were limited. Research limitations/implications -- The research puts forward a more complex typology of temporary workers than is usually suggested. Moreover, the study shows a non-involuntary group for which temporary employment can become a trap, and hence these workers should be targeted by future policy and interventions. Originality/value -- The research offers a typology of temporary workers, which is founded on motivation theory, and existing research on motives for accepting temporary employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which the quality of the jobs of low-skilled young workers is affected by the structure of education and training systems in various European countries. It focuses on the differences between countries providing fairly general education (internal labour market (ILM) contexts) and countries offering more specific vocational education (occupational labour market (OLM) contexts). Design/methodology/approach — Logistic regression analyses. Findings — It is found that low-skilled young workers are worse off in OLM countries than in ILM ones, with respect to employment in a permanent job, employment in a non-elementary job and participation in continuing vocational training. However, in OLM countries low-skilled young workers are less often involuntary part-time employed than those in ILM countries. With regard to participation in continuing vocational training, the ILM-OLM contrast is larger in manufacturing than in services; regarding employment in a permanent job the reverse is true. Originality/value — It is shown that the labour market position of low-skilled young workers is affected by the structure of education and training systems in various European countries. The upgrading of the skills demanded in the European ‘knowledge economies’ will therefore have less severe consequences for low-skilled young workers in ILM countries than in OLM countries, since the acquisition of occupationally specific skills is organized differently between the two institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Activation policies in most Western countries have discovered the private tool of contract and in a short period of time the contract has penetrated the whole domain. Among the forerunner countries contracts in different forms, collective as well as individual, have become the central steering instrument. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on what this change can and does entail for the individual job seeker on benefit. Job seekers are no longer expected to passive undergo treatment but expected to contribute actively to one's own return into the labour market. The main rationale behind this shift is the idea that working with contracts increases the level of involvement and, therefore improves results over time: results in terms of better motivated clients, more focused policymakers, providers and frontline workers delivering client-orientated services. Design/methodology/approach - Using qualitative research the article maps the different types of contracts using empirical material from eight countries. Findings - The findings are presented in the form of the practical potentials and pittfalls of contracts for the individual. Originality/value - A major added value is the multidisciplinary approach used by the authors; the phenomenon of contracts is analysed from a social science and a legal point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]