The Collective Dimensions Of Employment Relations

This edited volume explores the old and new “collective dimensions” of employment relations. It examines specific challenges stemming from new forms of work of the digital and sharing economy, such as measurement, monitoring, assessment, and remuneration of work, the protection of work-life balance, the impact of new technologies on health and safety, the adaptation of occupational skills to new work processes, and the responses to the digital restructuring of undertakings. It addresses a series of questions such as how the representational action of unions and works councils can adapt to the challenges posed by new production systems and whether the legislative framework needs to be reformed to ensure that digital workers enjoy the right to collective representation. This important collection offers readers a renewed theoretical perspective and justification of the role that the dialogue between workers (representatives) and companies could play in an increasingly complex world of work.

This edited volume explores the old and new "collective dimensions" of employment relations. It examines specific challenges stemming from new forms of work of the digital and sharing economy, such as measurement, monitoring, assessment, and remuneration of work, the protection of work-life balance, the impact of new technologies on health and safety, the adaptation of occupational skills to new work processes, and the responses to the digital restructuring of undertakings. It addresses a series of questions such as how the representational action of unions and works councils can adapt to the challenges posed by new production systems and whether the legislative framework needs to be reformed to ensure that digital workers enjoy the right to collective representation. This important collection offers readers a renewed theoretical perspective and justification of the role that the dialogue between workers (representatives) and companies could play in an increasingly complex world of work. Tindara Addabbo is Full Professor in Economic Policy in the Marco Biagi Department of Economics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy and member of the Scientific Committee of the Marco Biagi Foundation. Edoardo Ales is Full Professor of Labour Law at the Parthenope University of Naples, Italy and member of the Scientific Committee of the Marco Biagi Foundation. Ylenia Curzi is Associate Professor of Organisation and Human Resource Management in the Marco Biagi Department of Economics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy and member of the Scientific Committee of the Marco Biagi Foundation. Tommaso Fabbri is Full Professor of Organisation and Human Resource Management and Dean of the Marco Biagi Department of Economics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy and member of the Scientific Committee of the Marco Biagi Foundation. Olga Rymkevich is a senior Researcher in Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the Marco Biagi Foundation at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Iacopo Senatori is Assistant Professor of Labour Law at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy and member of the Scientific Committee of the Marco Biagi Foundation.

'Besides a well-written introduction by the two editors, the book presents seventeen other chapters, some by well-known writers on the subject or related social sciences. . . This is a substantial resource book for scholars and students of comparative ER, especially for those who look towards the evolution of ER in the new economic world that is in formation, and in a comparative perspective. . . the book contains intellectually stimulating analyses of employee relations realities across the globe. . . Scholars belonging to different disciplinary perspectives, from which ER has been studied in the past, will also find in it a good reference material of comparative analyses. . . The publishers too deserve accolades for their professionalism and first rate copy-editing and production.' – Debi S. Saini, Vision – the Journal of Business Perspectives 'The book is a comprehensive volume of studies on employment relations in a wide variety of settings. . .an enriching compendium.' – Silvia Florea, Management of Sustainable Development The Research Handbook of Comparative Employment Relations is an essential resource for those seeking to understand contemporary developments in the world of work, and the way in which employment relations systems are evolving around the world. Special consideration is given to the impact of globalisation and the role of multinational corporations, including their consequences for the fate of workers' rights under existing national systems of employment relations (ER) regulation. This Handbook is unique in taking an explicitly comparative approach by discussing ER developments through a series of paired country comparisons. These chapters include a wide selection of countries from all regions, looking beyond those that are frequently discussed. The expert contributors also examine comparative issues from a range of perspectives, including industrial and employment relations, political economy, comparative politics, and cross-cultural studies. These impressive features make this important reference tool the most comprehensive of its kind. Academics and students in final-year undergraduate and postgraduate courses interested in employment relations will find this compendium enriching and insightful.

This major new textbook provides a concise introduction to employment and industrial relations. Unlike many other textbooks, this adopts a comparative approach, examining the changing nature of employment practices in relation to the processes of globalization, and engaging critically with the literature on Human Resource Management. By taking account of the international dimension of employment relations, this book is at the forefront of new developments in the field. The thematic approach of Comparative Employment Relations makes it distinctive from the country-by-country studies of this topic. Jack Eaton synthesizes recent work in the field to establish a basis for further study in the most important areas of industrial relations, including Japanese-style employment practices; comparative collective bargaining; the rules of employment and routes to skill formation; collective labour law; globalization and transnational companies. He concludes by examining the prospects for comparative employment relations. By equipping students with a set of useful concepts and perspectives, this book will give them the confidence to explore the now extensive international literature on employment management, and to utilize the methods of comparative analysis in their own work. This book will be essential reading for second- and third-year undergraduates studying business, management, economics and the sociology of work and industry.

This original book is a wide-ranging, radical and highly innovative critique of the prevailing orthodoxies within industrial relations and human resource management. It covers: central problems in industrial relations the mobilization theory of collective action the growth of non-union workplaces and the prospects and desirability of a new labour-management social partnership an historical account of worker collectivism, organization and militancy and state or employer counter mobilization a critique of postmodernism and accounts of the end of the labour movement Containing a detailed examination of the evolution of industrial relations, it argues that the area is often under-theorized and influenced by the policy agenda of the state or employers, and will prove informative reading for students of industrial relations.

Suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of industrial and employment relations, personnel and human resource management, this work offers an original, accessible, and critical approach to understanding employment relations.

Provides a new thematic treatment of key employment relations issues. Includes : collective bargaining, worker disability, the return to work, alternative dispute resolution, managerial misclassification and violations of overtime law, new developments in performance-based pay, and retirement from work and managing one's own money.

This analysis of the changing process of union-employer collective bargaining represents the first-person views of some of the most prominent figures in U.S. labor relations. Based on a series of addresses and discussions at the Institute of Collective Bargaining, each part of the book contains two chapters that sharply contrast the views of representatives of labor, business, government, and other "third parties." The contributors discuss fundamental domestic and international economic and political trends, as well as the most salient contemporary issues, including inflation, unemployment, automation, productivity, foreign trade, multinational corporations, government intervention, and worker alienation.