Improving Workplace Quality

A consensus has developed in workplace studies around the concept of ‘well-being at work’ in an awareness that such apparently distinct aspects as health and safety, discrimination, labour market integration, and work-life balance converge in the workplace and are best treated as one complex phenomenon. This important book offers twelve contributions by distinguished international scholars from a range of disciplinary domains, providing an in-depth analysis of ongoing changes in the world of work and their impact on personal well-being.

The contributors place specific workplace experiences in a comparative perspective, examining policy and regulatory initiatives and judicial rulings at national, regional, and international levels. The case studies are drawn from Italy, France, the United States, Russia, and developing countries. The essays examine recent legal developments in such topical issues as:

• – atypical and non-standard work;
• – child-care leave;
• – company-level welfare provisions;
• – disability;
• – harassment;
• – low-wage workers and employment benefits;
• – misperception discrimination;
• – public policy in care services;
• – unemployment and mental health; and
• – work/family conciliation policies.

Providing a detailed overview of recent developments in policy and jurisprudence in a comparative perspective regarding discrimination, work-life balance, and workers’ integration into the labour market – as well as a guide to best practices in promoting well-being at work – this book will prove indispensable to labour and employment law practitioners, as well as to work organization, occupational medicine, mental health, and human resources professionals.