The Modernization of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in a Comparative Perspective

Not all labour law and industrial relations scholars agree on the efficacy of the comparative approach – that the analysis of measures adopted in other countries can play a constructive role in national and local policy-making. However, the case deserves to be heard, and no better such presentation has appeared than this remarkable book, the carefully considered work of over 40 well-known authorities in the field from a wide variety of countries including Australia, France, India, Israel, Peru, Poland, and South Africa. The volume contains papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the Marco Biagi Foundation at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in March 2008.

The essays shed light on how various jurisdictions are dealing with such unsettled (and unsettling) issues of employment in a globalized world as the following:

• competing paradigms in international business theory;
• major business site selection;
• atypical employment contracts;
• risks for employment posed by operations on the financial markets;
• workfare/flexicurity programmes;
• the fear of social dumping;
• legitimization of employee representatives’ cooperation at transnational level;
• the ‘rights’ rhetoric of the neoliberal agenda;
• workplace-level evidence of outsourcing consequences;
• social security protection and the informal economy; and
• occupational health.

In addition, national experts present reports on specific developments in Spain, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Chile, and Venezuela.

In its detailed investigation of labour and employment issues far beyond the confines of the nation-state, this book stands alone. The range and depth of the studies relating to the protection of workers’ rights, and the great variety of countries represented in geographical, linguistic, and political terms, make this book of far-reaching value to labour law and industrial relations specialists worldwide.