Industrial Relations In The New Europe

‘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

The state of European integration is a contested issue raising many important questions: what is the impact of enlargement on the social standards in old and new EU Member States? Will public sector employment relations suffer from governments’ attempts to make their national economies more competitive? What are the prospects for a European Social Model? What influence can governments, employers and trade unions have on industrial relations that are changing with the European integration process? These are the issues that this book addresses on the basis of solid empirical evidence. The authors are expert researchers from Western and Eastern Europe, and their work comes at a timely moment for scientific and political audiences.

This book presents an evidence-based assessment of the impact of EU enlargement on industrial relations and social standards in old and new EU Member States. It combines chapters which give an overview of the process of enlargement/integration and comparative socio-economic data at EU and national level, with chapters that present an in-depth analysis of the impact of European integration on national industrial relations. These in-depth analyses cover both a number of old EU Member States in Western Europe and new Member States in Central and Eastern Europe. The book combines supranational European, Western and Eastern perspectives on the impact of European integration.

A combination of solid empirical data and critical theoretically informed analyses, Industrial Relations in the New Europe will be of great interest to researchers and students in various fields, including industrial relations, public sector employment relations, European Studies, socio-economic studies and political science.

Contents:

Preface

1. Industrial Relations in the New Europe
Peter Leisink, Bram Steijn and Ulke Veersma

PART I: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN MEMBER STATES
2. European Convergence and the EU Social Model
Kees Vos

3. Work and Employment Conditions in New EU Member States: A Different Reality?
Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead

4. European Labour Standards’ Impacts on Accession Countries: The Hungarian Case
László Neumann

5. Slovenia’s Integration in the European Market Economy: Gradualism and its ‘Rigidities’
Miroslav Stanojevic and Urban Vehovar

6. Consequences of Enlargement for the Old Periphery of Europe: Observations from the Spanish Experience with European Works Councils
Holm-Detlev Köhler and Sergio Gonzalez Begega

7. Testing Times: Remaking Employment Relations through ‘New’ Partnership in the UK
Mark Stuart and Miguel Martínez Lucio

8. The Only Game in Town? British Trade Unions and the European Union
Erin van der Maas

PART II: THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM
IDEAS IN EUROPE ON PUBLIC SECTOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
9. The End of an Era: Structural Changes in German Public Sector Collective Bargaining
Heiner Dribbusch and Thorsten Schulten

10. Reforming Employment Relations in the French Administration Services: Is the Status of Civil Servants an Obstacle to Efficient
HRM?
Olivier Mériaux

11. Staff Participation in the Administrative Reform of the Flemish Community
Christophe Pelgrims, Trui Steen and Nick Thijs

12. Public Management Reform and Employee Voice in UK Public Services
Geoff White, Paul Dennison, David Farnham and Sylvia Horton

13. Concluding Analysis
Peter Leisink, Bram Steijn and Ulke Veersma

Index