Non Standard Work In The Nordics Troubled Waters Under The Still Surface

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-503/ Most Nordic labour market and welfare state models are shaped around the notion of the standard full-time open-ended contract. However, the recent development in non-standard work (NSW) may challenge these institutions. In this TemaNord report, we analyse the recent development of NSW within the context of the Nordic models. We draw on Nordic Labour Force Survey data to map the recent development in the well-known forms of NSW, and through in-depth case studies, we explore emerging NSW practices and policy responses. There has been a fairly stable development in NSW across the Nordics, but the sector specific statistics and case studies display significant changes beneath this still surface. We find examples of novel policy responses to these developments, but the corona crisis also revealed gaps in the Nordic social- and employment protection regarding emerging forms of NSW.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-520/ Major changes in technology, economic contexts, workforces and the institutions of work have ebbed and flowed since well before the first industrial revolution in the 18th century. However, many argue that the changes we are currently facing are different, and that the rise of digitalized production will entirely transform our ways and views of working. In this collaborative project, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, researchers from the five Nordic countries have studied how the ongoing transformations of production and labour markets associated with digitalization, demographic change and new forms of employment will influence the future of work in the Nordic countries.

Whether through gig work, remote work, or platforms such as Uber, new technologies are reshaping the very fabric of employment relations. This handbook offers a comprehensive, international overview of how institutions, countries, and legal systems are responding to the technological disruption of the work world. Chapters outline the reform agendas driven by the International Labour Organization and the European Union and detail the public policy debates, litigation, and legal reforms that technological innovation has triggered around the world. This volume provides a post-pandemic assessment of how digitalization is affecting employment and employment relations and contextualizes current technological disruption with a long-term view of how labour and employment law could evolve further.

Available online: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:norden:org:diva-6158 Is labour law in the Nordic countries prepared to meet future challenges, or is there a need for adjustments and renewal? These questions form the backdrop for the analysis in this report. The Nordic systems of labour law are built on a binary divide between employees and the self-employed. As a main rule, employees are protected by labour law, while self-employed are not, and the employer is responsible for complying with the legal framework. If future labour relations make it harder to assess whether a worker is an employee or self-employed, and to decide who is the employer, this might undermine the efficiency of labour law regulations. The report analyzes the adaptability of the legal framework, and points at strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the study discusses how the identified challenges can be addressed, by suggesting avenues for legal development and reform. The report is the concluding analysis of Pillar VI in the project Future of Work: Opportunities and Challenges for the Nordic Models (NFoW), funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The book addresses how power and power resources remain important analytically as well as empirically dimensions for analysing contemporary capitalism. It provides a theoretical framework for studying, understanding, and explaining changes in the world of work and how that leads to changes in contemporary capitalist societies. Changes in the world of work are closely related to increasing inequality, growing social unrest, and societal polarisation. Hence the book seeks to deepen our understanding of how developments in the sphere of work have implication far beyond the direct impact on workers. The book focuses on how workers and unions utilise their various power resources to off-set the power advantage of employers and capital in the sphere of labour politics, which have crucial linkages with both cultural life, politics, and the market. Although workers’ and unions’ power and influence have been declining almost universally across the world, the argument in the book is that they still hold power resources that can challenge and sometimes alter outcomes in another direction than what employers and capital wants. Hence the theory can help understand the possibilities that workers and unions still have and how these resources affect the outcomes of the labour-capital struggle. A core contribution of the book is that it develops theoretical propositions about power resource theory, provides clear definitions of the core concepts as well as apply the power resource theory to a range of new or emerging topic fields like global value chains, minimum wages, and migrant workers.

Drawing on empirical work and secondary analysis from the UK and Finnish construction industries, this book contributes a deep-rooted analysis of construction industry harms that originate from corporate-industrialstate processes. The UK context arguably represents a classic ‘neoliberal’ system categorised by privatisation of services and minimal regulation, whereas Finland broadly provides a ‘social democratic’ alternative with its relatively strong national regulation and public sector oversight of industry. These concepts interlink strongly with the notion of state-corporate crime, since this perspective shifts attention away from individualistic explanations for crime and harm towards symbiosis between states and corporations. This book argues that existing explanations based on organised crime and individual ‘rogues’ are insufficient to account for the wider range and subtlety of harms that occur in construction, and therefore offers a unique perspective into organisational, industry, and state dynamics in this sector. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, organized crime, and those interested in harms in the construction industry.

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