Individual Contracts And Workplace Relations

While it can be said that the use of collective labour agreements has greatly expanded during the last decade, it is hard to deny that their power to protect employees has diminished considerably and continues to weaken. An understanding of the factors that have contributed to this fundamental change in economic and social conditions is of crucial significance if we are to preserve an equitable balance in the employer-employee relationship. The eleven papers reprinted here were originally presented at the 16th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Brisbane in July 2002. Each paper is organized around the following considerations for the particular country in question: factors determining the role of collective agreements; factors determining the regulatory power of collective agreements toward the employment contract; factors limiting the regulatory power of collective agreements; degree of fredom of the parties to shape the employment contract; and future prospects for collective agreements as a means of regulating the employment contract. Underlying issues of decentralization, minimum standards, decreasing unionization, unemployment, and the growing individualization of the employment contract are addressed by all the authors. The countries covered are Australia, Belgium, Canada (Quebec), Greece, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Switzerland.

This book explores the conceptual framework of European employment law, focusing on understanding the law's construction of employment relationships. The book draws on extensive comparative research of the legal architecture of employment relations in national legal systems and EU law to analyse the traditional model of the contract of employment and the difficulties of using the traditional model to frame modern working relationships. The authors then present a new model of the foundations of employment relationships, based on the concept of a personal work nexus, and explore the potential of their model to shape the future development of employment law. Throughout the book, the authors analyse the interaction of domestic and EU employment law, and discuss the possibility of future legal harmonisation in the area. They conclude by exploring the potential for a common framework for European employment law, in the context of broader debates surrounding the harmonisation of European private law.

The relationships between workers and firms are changing worldwide. Nowhere is this more evident than in the psychological contracts of employment - that is, the obligations workers owe to their employer, and vice versa. Psychological Contracts In Employment contains the cross-national perspectives of organizational scholars from 13 countries to examine how societies differ in the nature of psychological contracts in employment and how global business initiatives are bridging these differences. The author team assembled by Editors Denise Rousseau and René Schalk includes social scientists with deep knowledge of the particular societies they describe, and whose personal scholarship involves psychological contract phenomena locally as well as abroad. Readers of Denise Rousseau′s award-winning book Psychological Contracts in Organizations (Sage, 1995), will welcome the extension of this ground-breaking work into the global arena. Both the introductory and concluding chapters, written by the editors, provide several themes to structure and frame the book′s content. Every chapter in this volume maintains a clear focus on the importance of a cross-cultural perspective on psychological contracts for today′s managers, social scientists, and public policy makers.

Individual Employment Law has been significantly revised and updated to include legislative and caselaw developments from 2000 to 2008. It gives an overview of employment contracts and employment relationships as they are dealt with both by common law and statute, including human rights issues, occupational health and safety, and industrial standards legislation. The book treats obligations of both employers and employees, the enforcement of employment rights in multiple forums, and contains an in-depth examination of termination of employment.

The Employment Contract in Transforming Labour Relations provides a world-wide analysis of the changing role of the contract of employment in modern societies. The central question in this book is whether the contract of employment still serves its traditional purpose in a period marked by the so-called `globalisation of the economy' with the concomitant calls for flexibility in and deregulation of the labour markets in capitalist countries. Highly regarded authors from a number of European countries, as well as Japan, Australia and the United States, have contributed to this exciting comparative exercise which provides vital reading for anyone interested in the restructuring which labour relations must undergo to meet the demands of a newly emerging (post) industrial society.

Once employees knew they'd be paid properly for working nights and overtime and couldn't be dismissed on a whim. Unions made sure of this. Now employees are being asked to do their own bargaining, one on one. Employers and government claim that this will lead to higher productivity, while unions and church groups cry foul. What is really going on? The push for individual contracts for employees overturns a century of collective efforts to create basic rights and a 'fair go' in Australian workplaces. David Peetz peels away the layers of corporate and government doublespeak that surround this most heated issue to uncover what is really happening in relations between employers and employees. He explains who benefits from individual contracts and who doesn't, and how this will change the way we work. He locates individual workplace contracts in a wider debate about whether we are moving away from collective ideals towards individualistic values. From offices to shops, schools, hospitals and mines, individual contracting affects every single employee in Australia. Brave New Workplace is compelling reading for anyone who wants to understand the brave new world of work. 'This is a timely and important book. The Australian Government is promoting individual contracts as the way forward for all Australian workplaces. David Peetz's research demonstrates clearly that individual contracts are the antithesis of modern, productive employment relationships.' - Greg Combet, ACTU Secretary 'David Peetz dissects the workplace world of dog eat dog with forensic skill. This book is essential, accessible reading for those who want to understand what individualism in the workplace means for workers and for Australian society.' - Associate Professor Barbara Pocock, author of The Work/Life Collision