Industrial Relations In The New Europe - Enlargement, Integration and Reform

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.

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Reviews:

‘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

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