With the forces of globalization as a backdrop, this pathbreaking casebook develops labor and employment law in the context of the national laws of nine countries important to the global economy -- U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, China, Japan and India. National materials are contextualized by coverage of international labor standards promulgated by the International Labor Organization, as well as the principles that emerge from two regional trade arrangements -- the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union -- and TNC's self-regulatory efforts. Instructor...

This work presents the discussion highlights and papers from the 28-29 April 1997 Conference held by the Euro-Japan Institute for Law and Business in Leuven-Belgium. The work from this lively, focused conference covers the most significant recently-passed legislation, starting with the European Works Council Directive of 22 December 1994, and ending with the Treaty of Amsterdam presented in June 1997. The bulk of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union focuses on the European Works Council Directive currently in force throughout all EU Member States and the EEA...

Inevitably, numerous international regulations and conventions pertaining to labour and social security have followed in the wake of the onrush of economic globalisation, greatly augmenting the considerable legal regime developed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) during the mid and late twentieth century. It is clearly time to codify this now vast body of law. This groundbreaking book presents as complete and up-to-date a codification as possible of international labour and social security law, with texts of the most important documents and direct...

Questions central to both the legislative debate and to this book include:
- How will the information and consultation rights be organised?
- What can be learned from the experience of the European Works Council Directive (1994), now that more than 600 EWCs have been established by agreements between management and labour?
- What is the role of trade unions and collective bargaining?
- What role can employees play in the exercise of managerial prerogative?
- How does the European Works Council relate to the European Company Statute?
- How will the presence of employees'...

In recent years, a number of company bankruptcies in Europe - particularly in the Netherlands - have exposed serious gaps in the securing by law of reparations due to employees. As matters stand, employees - who were dependent upon the bankruptcy not only for their income but also for their employment and social security - have little to expect in terms of payment of arrears of pay, protection against dismissal, continued employment in the event of a business transfer, or participation rights. This work opens this far-reaching and hugely important issue by comparing employee rights in...

A generation ago, temporary work was practically outlawed. During the 1950s, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) clearly stated (in request to a question from the Swedish government) that temporary agency work was prohibited by ILO Convention 96 regarding fee-charging placement. Trade unions, of course, were in complete agreement, both because temporary work arrangements undermined the situation of permanent workers and deprived the temporary workers themselves of equal treatment guarantees. Yet persistent employers, always ready to find ways around this prohibition, have gone from...

No one denies that the institution of collective bargaining between workers and employers has been a powerful tool for social dialogue. Without our history of effective collective bargaining there would be no mutual understanding, no industrial peace, no constructive cooperation between social partners. Yet there is a feeling today that this history has drawn to a close; that our post-industrial world demands something different, something our tradition of collective bargaining and collective agreements cannot give us. What information and insight can we gather to verify or challenge this...

Two legitimate statements in search of legal doctrine: An employee must have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The efficient operation of the company must be safeguarded. As a lawyer considers each of these assertions, a significant region of incompatibility emerges. In the context of the use of information technology systems in the workplace, a collision of rights is exposed that has engendered a virtual battleground in the theory and practice of labour law. This remarkable and timely book draws together all the strands of law in this controversial area, both de facto and de jure. Its...

Do core labour standards exist in todays global economy? If so, what are they? And most importantly, how effective are they? In this book two outstanding labour law scholars answer these questions in a definitive manner. In deep and convincing detail they demonstrate that, although insufficiently legally binding instruments governing employment and labour exist beyond the national level, a significant body of international soft law has developed that does in fact carry great weight. Blanpain and Colucci identify four major sources of this soft law - the UN Global Compact of 1999, the ILO...