The global labour market: from globalization to flexicurity

As global power relations increasingly favour international capital, it becomes crucial for labour and employment lawyers to center their field in a supranational context. As long as wages, social security, and taxes remain national matters, states compete at this level in order to attract foreign investment. This does not bode well for employees or the self-employed. Most ameliorative measures come in the form of unenforceable ‘soft law’ guidelines and recommendations.

The conference recorded in this vitally important book confronts this losing battle of local responses to global challenges. The book reprints the papers submitted to that conference by twenty-three outstanding scholars from fourteen countries. Among the many critical issues they expose and discuss are the following:

• the proliferation of varieties of non-standard employment
• protection of migrant workers’ rights by regional organizations
• global and regional trends in the human resources function
• work training and education policy
• effectiveness of equality and non-discrimination standards
• involvement of employees in workplace decisionmaking
• the need for an equitable social safety net.

In the course of the discussion the authors examine cases from many countries, including not only EU Member States (both West and East) and the US, but also Japan, Chile, South Africa, and Indonesia.

With a focus on the nexus of multinational enterprises and international standards, the book provides both a sharp image of where labour law stands in today’s world—revealing serious social problems in a clearer light than is usually encountered—and a very valuable guide to directions to pursue and potential solutions, offered by some of the most engaged and committed minds in the field. It is a useful resource for legal workers in this ‘eye of the storm’ of globalization.

Contents:
Part I: Globalization
1. The End of Labour Law? - Roger Blanpain
2. The End of Labour Law in the Global Workplace Context? A South and Southern African Response - Marius Olivier
3. Global Capitalism and Rise of Non-Standard Employment: Challenges to Industrial Relations - Olusegun Oladeinde
4. Decent Work with a Living Wage - Michael J. Zimmer
5. Joblessness as a Major Challenge for Public Employment Services: Country Reports from Germany, Italy and Finland - Robert Arnkil, Germana Di Domenico and Regina Konle-Seidl
6. The Role of Regional Organisations in the Protection of Migrant Workers’ Rights - László Dux
7. Multinationals and Unionism in Indonesia: Case Studies of Two Multinationals in Indonesia - Riani Rachwati and Alex de Ruyter

Part II: Human Resources Management
8. Globalization and Human Resource Management: A Quantitative Analysis with British Establishment-Level Data (WERS 2004) - Stefan Zagelmeyer
9. Practices of Human Resource Management and Perceived Organisational Growth - Aviad Bar-Haim
10. Trends and Perspectives on the Human Resource Function in Europe Emerging from the Second Pan-European HR Barometer 2006-07 - Leonardo Sforza
11. Outsourcing of Labour and Promotion of Human Capital: Two Irreconcilable Models? Reflections on the Italian Case - Michele Tiraboschi

Part III: Flexicurity
12. A Labour Market Regime Beyond Flexicurity: Transicurity and Collective Job Transition Insurance on the Swedish Labour Market - Henrik Bäckström
13. Employment and Education Policy for Young People in the EU: What Can New Member States Learn from Old Member States? - Francesco Pastore
14. Politics of Labour Market Deregulation in Italy and Japan since the 1990s - Hiroaki Richard Watanabe
15. Prospects for the Regulation of Temporary Agency Work at the EU Level - Olga Rymkevitch

Part IV: Equal Treatment
16. Globalization, Equality and Non-Discrimination: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from the US on Diversity Programming - Susan Bisom-Rapp

Part V: Involvement of Employees
17. Employee Involvement in the Labour Market in Bulgaria: Which is the Way Forward after Accession to the EU? - Ekaterina Ribarova
18. The Right of Civil Servants to Collective Bargaining: The Case of Lithuania - Daiva Petrylaitė
19. The Influence of European Union Law on Employees’ Involvement in Poland - Dagmara Skupień

Part VI: Social Security
20. The Private Pensions System: Critique Based on the Chilean Case - Pablo Arellano Ortiz