Roger Blanpain – författare

Has European economic and market integration curtailed the autonomy of national industrial relations actors and institutions? Or has it reinforced their roles in securing much-needed economic adjustment? This important book offers a deeply-informed comparative perspective on these questions, drawing on empirical research on changing conditions within and beyond the EU. The book builds on papers presented at the 8th European Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association, held in the UK in September 2007. The authors are leading academic authorities from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

With detailed attention to such pervasive factors as the consequences of EU enlargement, the shift from manufacturing to services, changes in the gender composition and demographic profile of the labour force, and the growing influence of multinational companies, the authors address such issues as the following:

• response of national employment regulatory traditions to globalization, privatization, outsourcing and budgetary pressures;

• emergence of new forms of competitive advantage for both employers and employees;

• impact of EU-mandated information and consultation mechanisms;

• possibility of international union action and transnational solidarity;

• ‘flexicurity’ and the changing demographics of the labour force;

• gender democracy in trade unions;

• trade union mergers;

• statutory minimum conditions as an alternative to collective bargaining;

• regulation or culture change to promote equality;

• treatment of posted and migrant workers within increasingly transnational labour markets;

• growth in variable pay systems; and

• possible rebirth of vocational training systems and apprenticeships.

Offering in-depth comparative insights into the way in which national and international systems of employment relations are evolving rapidly in the face of cross-cutting pressures for change, this book illuminates a vastly complex state of affairs. In practical terms, its many insights into how current trends affect specific working conditions open the way to new initiatives in developing and maintaining a just and equitable employment relations regime for Europe and beyond.

In Europe, work has long been a symbol of full citizenship and today work is a fundamental goal of European social policy. However, although every person has the ‘right’ to work, it is becoming clearer all the time that unemployment is not due merely to a lack of encouragement to exercise this right, but (at least in part) to some deeper defects in the implementation of effective employment policies. As a contribution to defining the nature of these problems this important collection of essays targets the phenomena of multilevel governance, both vertical (European, national, regional, local) and horizontal (administrative institutions, trade unions, business representatives, NGOs), showing, with detailed analysis and data, how coordination or conflict between the various levels advances, or fails to advance, the goals of employment policy.

Regarding the EU, five EU Member States are examined– plus, for comparative analysis, the parallel Canadian federal model – with the authors addressing such concrete issues as:

The essays originated in a research meeting held at the Instituto Internacional de Sociología Jurídica at Oñati (Spain) in June of 2007. Some of the contributors, all employment law experts, discuss problematic aspects of the European Employment Strategy (EES) and its influence on the decentralization of employment policies and related elements of social protection. Other authors concentrate on ‘built-in’ multilevel problems resulting from existing constitutional and administrative structures, while a third group focuses on substantive approaches to employment policies within individual member states. The Bulletin contains updated versions of all papers.

In this book the degree of administrative, legal, political, and cultural intricacy involved in a serious engagement with multilevel governance of employment on the European model is put on full view. As a deeply informed analysis of how the idea of multilevel governance has played out within the political and administrative reality of Member States, the book will prove of enormous value to labour and employment law professionals anywhere, as the problems identified here have a global reach.

The auto industry is a prime example of globalisation in which multinational enterprises have developed networks, alliances, and cross-shareholdings across regions and nations. This important study—based on a three-year empirical research project in seven countries—focuses on employment relations in the auto assembly industry and shows that the influence of globalisation is tempered to varying degrees by institutional employment patterns at the local level. Twenty-one scholars and researchers representing all seven countries analyse the data, clearly describe the differences across both countries and firms, and offer conclusions and recommendations that greatly facilitate our understanding of the globalisation process at the level of human resources in industrial production. For each of the seven countries—two liberal market economies (the United States and Australia), two coordinated market economies (Germany and Sweden), and three Asian market economies (Japan, South Korea, and China)—the book describes five key issues in detail:

• work organisation;

• skill formation;

• remuneration systems;

• staffing arrangements and employment security; and

• enterprise governance and employee–management relations.

The authors offer in-depth comparative analysis of these central issues in the context of such overriding factors as corporate strategy, local institutional constraints and advantages, competitive pressures among automakers to capture emerging markets, power relations within firms, and the role that agency and interests play in shaping social action. Whether this book is used for its vast bank of information, or for its deeply-informed analysis, or for its far-reaching relevance to employment relations policy, it more than fulfills the urgent need to come to grips with the runaway impact of globalisation on employment relations. Anyone involved with labour and employment issues in any business, legal, or governmental setting will rely on its findings and insights for years to come.

Sport is life, fun, passion but also business. It is not easy to draw a bright line between sport as an economic activity and sport as a crucial cultural element of society. In Europe, the stakes are prodigious from either perspective. On the one hand, sport represents 4% of the GDP of the European Union; on the other, there are in the EU more than 800,000 sport clubs with more than 70 million members. In numerous ways, the former depends on the latter, giving rise to a plethora of subtle tensions. For decades the EU institutions have struggled with the legal issues that arise from these tensions, and the debate has come to be encapsulated in the complex concepts of the ‘sport exception’ and the ‘specificity of sport.’ Now, the pending Reform Treaty, if ratified, will finally provide a legal basis for a Community action in the field of sport.

This new collection of essays presents nine well-informed and insightful analyses of the ‘specificity’ debate from several distinct points of view. The book reprints the papers presented by outstanding academics as well as representatives of the sport world at a conference on the ‘Future of Sport in the European Union’ held at the Catholic University of Brussels in December 2007. The authors examine the legal and political issues related to the latest developments at the EU level, and their impact on the sport organisations, in order to better understand the future of sport and to answer the questions which will inevitably arise from the new situation.

Among the topics arising in the course of the presentations are the following:

As an analysis of the future directions of EU sport law, this book provides an in-depth assessment of the impact of current policy changes. At a time when a new European treaty is being drafted, and when new questions on sport are being referred to the European Court of Justice, these cogent analyses of European law applicable to professional sport will be of great value to professionals concerned with sport in any of its guises.

As global power relations increasingly favour international capital, it becomes crucial for labour and employment lawyers to center their field in a supranational context. As long as wages, social security, and taxes remain national matters, states compete at this level in order to attract foreign investment. This does not bode well for employees or the self-employed. Most ameliorative measures come in the form of unenforceable ‘soft law’ guidelines and recommendations.

The conference recorded in this vitally important book confronts this losing battle of local responses to global challenges. The book reprints the papers submitted to that conference by twenty-three outstanding scholars from fourteen countries. Among the many critical issues they expose and discuss are the following:

• the proliferation of varieties of non-standard employment;

• protection of migrant workers’ rights by regional organizations;

• global and regional trends in the human resources function;

• work training and education policy;

• effectiveness of equality and non-discrimination standards;

• involvement of employees in workplace decisionmaking; and

• the need for an equitable social safety net.

In the course of the discussion the authors examine cases from many countries, including not only EU Member States (both West and East) and the U.S., but also Japan, Chile, South Africa, and Indonesia.

With a focus on the nexus of multinational enterprises and international standards, the book provides both a sharp image of where labour law stands in today’s world—revealing serious social problems in a clearer light than is usually encountered—and a very valuable guide to directions to pursue and potential solutions, offered by some of the most engaged and committed minds in the field. It is an indispensable resource for legal workers in this ‘eye of the storm’ of globalization.

Not all labour law and industrial relations scholars agree on the efficacy of the comparative approach – that the analysis of measures adopted in other countries can play a constructive role in national and local policy-making. However, the case deserves to be heard, and no better such presentation has appeared than this remarkable book, the carefully considered work of over 40 well-known authorities in the field from a wide variety of countries including Australia, France, India, Israel, Peru, Poland, and South Africa. The volume contains papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the Marco Biagi Foundation at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in March 2008.

The essays shed light on how various jurisdictions are dealing with such unsettled (and unsettling) issues of employment in a globalized world as the following:

In addition, national experts present reports on specific developments in Spain, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Chile, and Venezuela.

In its detailed investigation of labour and employment issues far beyond the confines of the nation-state, this book stands alone. The range and depth of the studies relating to the protection of workers’ rights, and the great variety of countries represented in geographical, linguistic, and political terms, make this book of far-reaching value to labour law and industrial relations specialists worldwide.

Comparativism is no longer a purely academic exercise but has increasingly become an urgent necessity for industrial relations and legal practitioners due to the growth of multinational enterprises and the impact of international and regional organizations aspiring to harmonize rules. The growing need for comprehensive, up-to-date and readily available information on labour law and industrial relations in different countries led to the publication of the International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, in which more than 70 international and national monographs have thus far been published.