Industrial Relations In Europe

This up-to-date introduction to the changing nature and context of industrial relations in contemporary Europe shows how different national systems of industrial relations offer varying models of relations between employers and workers.

This is an edited collection of papers discussing what has happened to employers' and other business associations and trade unions in Western Europe during what are generally regarded as having been years of neo-liberalism and a decline of neo-corporatism.

First published in 1985 Industrial Relations in Europe examines the development of trade unions and their relations with the employers and employers’ organisations in a number of Western European countries in the 1980s. The shared characteristics of these systems are common heritage of political democracy, market economies, the right of employers to manage the business for which they are responsible and the right of employees to belong to unions which are free to bargain and to seek political goals which will advance the interests of their members. With case studies from Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Norway etc. the volume showcases the major structural changes brought about by technological, economic and social factors which had significant implications for trade unions and traditional patterns of industrial relations. A major response was the erosion of centralized processes of decision making and a return to the individual, local initiative and an increased interest in entrepreneurship. This book is a must read for scholars of political economy, industrial economy and economics in general.

Changing Industrial Relations in Europe is the second edition of the influential and widely used textbook, Industrial Relations in the New Europe. As with the earlier edition, the book will be a definitive text and reference for all students in industrial relations and human resource management looking at international issues.

'The collection deserves to be made accessible to readers, and the publisher should be congratulated on maintaining a steady stream of high-quality publications on the European subject.' - Steve Jefferys, Industrial Relations Journal

International debate has recently focused on increased inequalities and the adverse effects they may have on both social and economic developments. Income inequality, now at its highest level for the past half-century, may not only undermine the sustainability of European social policy but also put at risk Europe’s sustainable recovery. A common feature of recent reports on inequality (ILO, OECD, IMF, 2015–17) is their recognition that the causes emerge from mechanisms in the world of work. The purpose of this book is to investigate the possible role of industrial relations, and labour policies more generally, in reducing these inequalities.