Contemporary Employment Relations – serie

Temporary employment contracts are now commonplace in business. However the move towards such employment structures has a significant, and hitherto little understood impact on 'the psychological contract' between employee and organizations. This book is amongst the first to tackle this problem. With detailed research findings from seven countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and (for a non-European perspective) Israel, it presents an integrated model of the effects of temporary work. The model incorporates key recent trends, including the expansion of non-permanent employment as a persistent form of employment flexibility, the increasing importance of the psychological contract, and the diversity of the European labour market as a result of state legislation. By presenting the results of an overview of the research literature on this contemporary labour market trend this book is of real value to researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

This book investigates the interplay of the recent transformation of working life and the growing appeal of political right-wing populism and extremism in Europe. It explores the individual and collective reactions and the strategies people develop in order to come to terms with socio-economic change. It raises the question of whether, and to what extent, changes in the employment system and in working life contribute to making people receptive to xenophobia, nationalism and racism. Based on an eight country study using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, this volume makes a significant contribution to the deeper understanding of the subjective reactions to socio-economic change and its political reverberations.

This edited collection provides an understanding of the range of learning that is enabled by trade unions, and the agendas around that learning. It comes at an important time as, in the UK, recent years have seen significant new opportunities for unions' involvement in the government's learning and skills policy. At the same time, trade unions have had to cope with declining membership and changing employment patterns, and thus have a keen interest in defining their role in contemporary employment relations and in pursuing strategies for union renewal. Therefore, in order to explore these dynamics, a strong feature of the book is its drawing together of informed, research-based contributions from the fields of training, skills and education, and of industrial relations. International and historical perspectives are included in order to better understand the contemporary issues. There are important conclusions for policy-makers, practitioners and researchers.

Can democracy only survive if it is participatory? Is participatory democracy a prerequisite for sustainable development? Are trade unions the most appropriate body through which such aims can be implemented? These critical questions are tackled in Gérard Kester's book, Trade Unions and Workplace Democracy in Africa, which applies an unparalleled depth of research to these issues as they impact African nations, including: Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Rigorously structured, it sets the background of the research and the underlying theory, before presenting the learning experiences within different countries and the the broad implications of the research findings for policy making on democratic participation.

Child labour is a serious and contentious issue throughout the developing world and it continues to be a problem whose form and very meaning shifts with social, geographical, economic and cultural context. While the debate about child labour practice in developing countries appears to be motivated by growing competition in labour intensive products brought about by globalization, studies on this issue are both sparse and lopsided. This important book aims to shed light on this debate by documenting the experience of South Asian developing countries which have experienced rapid income and export growth. Based on evidence from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, this volume aims to improve our understanding about the link between trade, growth and child labour practices, as well as management of child labour in developing countries.

There is a developing crisis of social democratic trade unionism in Western Europe; this volume outlines the crisis and examines the emerging alternatives. The authors define 'social democratic trade unionism' and its associated party-union nexus and explain how this traditional model has been threatened by social democracy's accommodation to neo-liberal restructuring and public service reform. Examining the experience of Sweden, Germany, Britain and France, the volume explores the historical rise and fall of social democratic trade unionism in each of these countries and probes the policy and practice of the European Trade Union Confederation. The authors critically examine the possibilities for a revival of social democratic unionism in terms of strategic policy and identity, offering suggestions for an alternative, radicalized political unionism. The research value of the book is highlighted by its focus on contemporary developments and its authors' intimate knowledge of the chosen countries.