Search

This edited volume examines how some OECD countries have adapted to new challenges in the labor market by evaluating and analyzing public programs implemented before, during, and after Covid-19. To gain a comprehensive understanding, the volume adopts a multidisciplinary approach, with chapters contributed by authors from diverse disciplines and academic and professional backgrounds.

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the United States and much of the developed world were rocked by three successive economic shocks, each one more severe than the one before. Real relief from these economic shocks, of course, can only come from a restored economy--with balanced strength across many sectors and regions. Safety-net programs can also help alleviate this suffering. They provide urgent financial help and, when properly designed, can assist, motivate, or nudge recipients to seek and accept new employment. When necessary, they can help recipients to learn new skills and engage in other socially preferred behaviors. That is, they can'activate'the unemployed and underemployed. Work and the Social Safety Net: Labor Activation in Europe and the United States describes how in the 1990s and early 2000s many European countries adopted policy reforms aimed at activating those recipients apparently able to work. These policy reforms were put to the test during the Great Recession and its aftermath. This volume reviews the experiences from both Europe and the United States during this period, and includes two chapters apiece on unemployment insurance, social assistance, disability, public employment services, and political economy. Work and the Social Safety Net identifies policies for activating recipients of safety-net programs while still preserving a strong social safety net--as a guide during the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and future downturns.

This agenda-setting book shows how freedom of movement has made the integration of Europe's labour markets a contentious issue, for example in the aftermath of the eurocrisis, where workers had to make great sacrifices to enable the currency area to function. It argues that the process of market integration in Europe has undermined the power and influence of European workers and generated significant human costs. In starting from the position of labour, this book offers an alternative approach which balances the needs of justice and efficiency. With appeal across a wide range of readers interested in economic integration, it provides lessons for policymakers in how to integrate Europe's member states to better protect workers and citizens.

The deterioration of employment conditions for an increasing number of employees in late capitalism has prompted researchers to find ways to conceptualise, as well as measure, these observed new tendencies. This book examines precarious employment in Europe through the economic crisis, drawing on two main sources: theories of how the financial and debt crisis coupled with labour market reforms to exacerbate precarity in the workforce; and data from the European Labour Force Survey from 2005-12, capturing various aspects of precarious employment. It also includes a detailed discussion of policy developments in a series of EU countries, with the aim of demonstrating how precarity has been directly linked with certain labour market reforms implemented both before and after the crisis. The authors conclude that the crisis and the labour market reforms represent significant pillars of the strategy used by states and employers to respond to the crisis, as well as promote their competitiveness agenda. The reduction of labour costs and the promotion of higher flexibility are the ultimate goals of that strategy, but the side-effects include an inability to provide high quality jobs to a growing number of people, especially young people. The authors also capture the extent of precarious employment, providing comparable evidence across EU countries.

Exacerbated by the Great Recession, youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted, precarious, and differentiated by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people's integration into employment, alongside the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify key policy challenges for the future related to NEETS, overeducation, self-employment, and ethnic differences in outcomes. This illustrates the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective. The mapping and extensive analysis in this book are the result of a 3½-year, European Union-funded research project (Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe, or STYLE; http://www.style-research.eu) coordinated by Jacqueline O'Reilly. With an overall budget of just under 5 million euros and involving 25 research partners; an international advisory network and local advisory boards of employers, unions, and policymakers; and non-governmental organizations from more than 20 European countries, STYLE is one of the largest European Commission-funded research projects to exist on this topic. Consequently, this book will appeal to an array of audiences, including academic and policy researchers in sociology, political science, economics, management studies, and more particular labor market and social policy; policy communities; and bachelor's- and master's-level students in courses on European studies or any of the aforementioned subject areas.

The challenge of including youth in the labour market is a problem which many European countries are facing. Examining the transition from education to employment, Youth, Diversity and Employment combines insights from law and the social sciences to link the challenges and specific barriers facing young and vulnerable people today. Based on original research, this book presents ways in which social protection policies in Europe can utilise the synergy between redistribution and regulations to combat economic inactivity and exclusion of young people.Drawing on the experiences of Nordic countries, which represent cases of high theoretical and political relevance, and systematically examining the significance of social regulation on the employment opportunities for young adults, this book develops an original approach to social protection policies. This book focuses on ways to strengthen the demand for the work capacity of European youth, identifying principles which will make the best progress in policy making to assist youth transitions into work. Arguing that gender, ethnicity, and disability are increasingly important factors to consider, chapters reveal how to ensure that the full use of skills that young adults have can be brought to the workforce effectively.This book will be a valuable tool for students and scholars of social policy, sociology, employment and human rights law, and cultural studies, as well as for researchers, who will find the analytical framework and new data useful for future research into youth transitions, policy, and social protection policies.Contributors include: O.M. Arnardóttir, O. Bäckman, R. Halvorsen, M.J. Hotvedt, B. Hvinden, C. Hyggen, V. Jakobsen, K. Jokumsen, L. Kolouh-Söderlund, S. Kuivalainen, T. Lorentzen, S. Niknami, K. Nousianen, T. Olsen, E. Österbacka, J.G. Rice, M.A. Schøyen, L. Schröder, M. Seeleib-Kaiser, T.F. Spreckelsen, J. Tägtström, R. Traustadóttir, M. Ventegodt, E. Wadensjö

This edited volume examines the possible role of social dialogue and the social partners - and more generally industrial relations - in reducing inequalities. It addresses wage inequality as well as inequalities in the distribution of working time and access to jobs, training and career opportunities, social protection and pensions. Chapters give evidence from individual countries and a policy discussion at the European level identifies ways to carry out necessary transformations without generating further inequalities and social exclusion. Co-published with Edward Elgar Publishing.

In many EU Member States, the various economic crises of recent years provided grounds for a rarely equalled level of state intervention in the regulation of labour relations with an explicit aim: the decentralisation of collective bargaining. An extensive body of research – summed up and analysed expertly in the chapters of this very important book – reveals that the process of decentralisation has more often than not led to a situation where salaries and labour conditions are ever more frequently determined by direct negotiations between employer and employees, with the State becoming the sole guarantor of employee protection even as it encourages decreasing labour costs to ensure that companies remain competitive. The comparative approach offered in this book adds to this synthesis by providing examples of speci c recent developments in fourteen Member States and Turkey. Among the numerous topics and issues that arise are the following: – ‘opt-out'clauses that derogate unfavourably from sectoral agreement standards; – extension of the employer's unilateral decision-making power; – ‘memoranda of understanding'imposed by the ‘troika'(EU, ECB, and IMF); and – ‘stand-by arrangements'imposed by the IMF. However, notwithstanding the strong emphasis on changing the structure of collective agreements by shifting the centre of gravity closer to the company, research nds promise in the reconstituted support for sector-level agreements increasingly found among very small businesses, networked businesses, and work via digital platforms. This is the rst book to take stock of the current state of collective bargaining in Europe. It is an essential study for labour and employment law practitioners, and an exemplary analysis of immeasurable value to policymakers and academics in the eld.

Seit einem Vierteljahrhundert ist die Management Revue Plattform für Forschungsergebnisse der Verwaltungswissenschaft und Management Studies. Die Zeitschrift richtet sich in erster Linie an Autoren, die institutionelle Besonderheiten von Managementinfrastrukturen und Organisationen im europäischen Kontext untersuchen. Die Beiträge dieses Sonderband beschäftigen sich u.a. mit Personalführung, Arbeitsgeber-/Arbeitnehmerbeziehungen sowie Theoriebildung.Mit Beiträgen vonWolfgang Mayrhofer und Chris Brewster; Paul Boselie; Erik Poutsma, Paul E.M. Ligthart und Roel Schouteten; Ingo Singe und Richard Croucher; Walther Müller-Jentsch; Stefan Kirchner; Dudo von Eckardstein und Stefan Konlechner; Wenzel Matiaske; Jörg Freiling; Werner Nienhüser; Kirsten Foss und Nicolai J. Foss

Tania Bazzani analyses the relationship be tween the European Union (EU) employment policies and their domestic implementation through the open method of coordination. The first part of the book focuses on key concepts at the European level in active and passive labour market policies (LMPs) through their historical development. The second part of the book proposes an analysis of the EU employment policies implementation – in active and passive LMPs – in three Member States: Germany, Italy and Denmark. By highlighting the different and common tendencies in the last reforms in the field adopt ed by the mentioned Member States, the book deals with the pending issues in the European Union employment policies implementation and suggests possible solutions.

Tania Bazzani analizza l´implementazione nazionale delle politiche europee per l´occupazione attraverso il metodo aperto di coordinamento. La prima parte del libro mette in luce i concetti-chiave in tema di politiche attive e passive del mercato del lavoro a livello europeo, tracciandone l´evoluzione storica. La seconda parte propone un´analisi dell´implementazione delle politiche europee – attive e passive – in tre Stati membri: Germania, Italia e Danimarca. °°Evidenziando i tratti comuni e le particolarità nazionali delle recenti riforme adottate dai paesi presi in considerazione, Tania Bazzani affronta alcune delle attuali sfide delle politiche europee e suggerisce possibili soluzioni.°°

The conditions for non-EU migrant workers to gain legal entry to Britain, France, and Germany are at the same time similar and quite different. To explain this variation this book compares the fine-grained legal categories for migrant workers in each country, and examines the interaction of economic, social, and cultural rationales in determining migrant legality. Rather than investigating the failure of borders to keep unauthorized migrants out, the author highlights the different policies of each country as “border-drawing” actions. Policymakers draw lines between different migrant groups, and between migrants and citizens, through considerations of both their economic utility and skills, but also their places of origin and prospects for social integration. Overall, migrant worker legality is arranged against the backdrop of the specific vision each country has of itself in an economically competitive, globalized world with rapidly changing welfare and citizenship models.

Terms such as'Social Europe'and'European Social Model'have long resided in the political and regulatory lexicon of European integration. But in recent years, and in spite of the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU social profile has entered a profound period of crisis. The ECJ judgments of Viking and Laval exemplify the unresolved tension between the EU's strong market imperatives and its fragile social aspirations while the ongoing economic crisis, while the various'bail out'packages are producing a constant retrenchment of social rights. The status quo is one in which workers appear to shoulder most of the risks attendant on making and executing arrangements for the doing of work. Chapters in this book advocate a reversal of this trend in favour of fair mutualization, so as to disperse these risks and share them more equitably between employers, the state, and society at large.

Challenging the widespread view of the continental model of social protection as a «corporatist-conservative» system, this book stresses the creative thrust of the two major institutions of the Bismarckian tradition: the social contribution that finances the socialised wage, and the qualification system that liberates workers from the labour market. These institutions have come under attack over the past two decades via European Employment Strategy policies aimed at imposing the Beveridgean model. And the European Union is using the current economic crisis to justify stepping up this reform process. The conceptual framework proposed in this volume provides the basis for a critical examination of the interrelated developments in European integration and national policies on employment and social protection. As well as contributing to a sociology of monetary resources, it highlights the emancipatory potential of the continental tradition of the socialised wage, and demonstrates the negative implications of the European Union-led reforms.

Flexicurity is a European labour market policy adopted in 2007 within the European Employment Strategy. This policy aims at combining the ongoing flexibilization of employment relations with the traditions of the European welfare state. This book examines and summarizes thirty empirical studies in flexicurity written by the author in 2004 and 2010. The book provides empirical evidence of increasing labour flexibility accompanied by a decline of social security. The author also shows that the countries with higher flexibility are more affected by the crisis. This is a serious warning against improper implementation of flexicurity and its one-sided use in favour of employers.

Since the mid-1990s European welfare states have undergone a major transformation. Relative to the post-war years, today they put less emphasis on income protection and more on the promotion of labour market participation. This book investigates this transformation by focusing on two fields of social policy: active labour market policy and childcare. Throughout Europe, governments have invested massively in these two areas. The result, a more active welfare state, seems a rather solid achievement, likely to survive the turbulent post-crisis years. Why? Case studies of policy trajectories in seven European countries and advanced statistical analysis of spending figures suggest that the shift towards an active social policy is only in part a response to a changed economic environment. Political competition, and particularly the extent to which active social policy can be used for credit claiming purposes, help us understand the peculiar cross-national pattern of social policy reorientation. This book, by trying to understand the shift towards an active welfare state, provides also an update of political science theories of social policy making.

In recent decades, Western nations have increasingly implemented encompassing welfare state reforms that try to establish equality through social programs and governmental intervention rather than direct redistribution of funds. In this book, Christoph Arndt examines the political ramifications of reforming deeply entrenched welfare states through a careful comparative analysis of four European countries that recalibrated their system of social protection under social democratic governments. Arndt discovers that the'third way'has produced a setback for social democrats and that the nature and scale of this setback is contingent on each country's electoral system.

Description based on print version record.

This fascinating book presents an in-depth study of the particular combination of unemployment insurance, employment protection and active labour market policies prevalent in seven European countries.Currently, European governments are being challenged to find an optimal social policy strategy that fosters'flexicurity', whereby a flexible, well-functioning labour market is achieved, while protection for workers is maintained. The contributors explore the formal laws and regulations, as well as the administration and implementation of social policy, paying special attention to the role of the social partners. A detailed country comparison shows that the combination of social policy instruments is important to labour market performance, but that multiple optimal mixes already appear to exist.The Labour Market Triangle will prove invaluable to academics in the field of policy research, including economists, sociologists and political scientists. Policy advisers and practitioners in the field of social policy, as well as representatives of trade unions, employers associations and political parties will find this multidisciplinary book of great interest.

Industrial issues are often inextricably linked with labour market concerns and policy approaches that attempt to consider production and employment separately are inherently flawed.'This controversial statement sums up the heart of this important book. With contributions from such scholars as Keith Cowling, Malcolm Sawyer and Michael Kitson, Industrial and Labour Market Policy and Performance covers such topics as:• the increasing inequality between rich and poor• the links between innovation, competition and collaboration• education, skills formation and human resource managementThe evidence-led nature of the book will make it an important and useful read for students and academics involved in labour economics, industrial economics and industrial policy. The controversial findings of many of the chapters and its readable style will also appeal to informed policy commentators as well as policy-makers themselves.

This book examines the manner in which the EU affects employee relations systems in economically peripheral European countries, specifically Ireland and Hungary. It asks whether the EU offers peripheral countries the opportunity to modernise their industrial relations. The EU dynamically promotes core-like employee practices, and national actors energetically attempt to implement the prescribed initiatives, yet little success has been achieved in modernising production techniques in peripheral economies. O'Hagan argues that the EU implements an unofficial development policy which it pressurises States to adopt. These initiatives amount to the frequently referred to European Social Model (ESM), which, she argues, can cause difficulty for policy makers because it is ill-defined, vague and contradictory.

Vingt sept chercheurs dressent un bilan des mutations du travail en Europe. Le travail à temps partiel, le travail intérimaire, les petits boulots, le travail à domicile informatisé, le faux travail indépendant etc… constituent le quotidien pour une immense majorité d'européens. quelle place notre société fait-elle au travail? Bradé, il se soumet au bon vouloir d'une logique économique sur laquelle il n'a pas de prise.

This book, edited by S.G.B. Henry and Dennis J. Snower, examines the high unemployment that has plagued five European countries- France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom- for more than a decade. Its methodology focuses on the mechanisms that prevent employers and employees from adjusting promptly to changing market opportunities. Chief among these mechanisms are outdated economic structures, the power of labor unions, rising nonwage labor costs, and the disparity between unemployed workers and available jobs. Although cross-country differences indicate that there is no common cause for joblessness in Europe, the book discusses a unique characteristic of the European labor market- that unemployment not only rises during recessions, but does not fall when economic weaknesses are overcome.