Industrial Relations and European Integration: Trans-and Supranational Developments and Prospects

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The completion of the Single Market and the launching of the European Monetary Union during the 1990s have been accompanied by processes of socio - economic restructuring and major changes in the structure and forms of governance within the dynamic multi - level EU system. The patterns of reaction and adaptation of national industrial relations systems to these EU - developments are discussed under the heading of "Europeanisation" of national IR - systems. The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties have extended - to a certain degree - the scope for legislative and coordinated activities by the EU in the fields of social, labour - market and employment policies. These basic legal and political decisions have created new avenues for the development of transnational industrial relations and the establishment of new arenas for EU - level interaction, including social dialogues between the social partners.

This volume focuses on these newly emerging dimensions of cross-border, transnational and EU level industrial relations.

It comprehensively covers the existing and developing dimensions of cross-border and EU level industrial relations
European Works Councils; Sectorial Social Dialogues; multi-sectoral Social Dialogue; transnational coordination of collective bargaining; European employment policy and the involvement of the social partners; industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe and their integration into EU -level structures.

The volume aims to present the actual empirical and theoretical state of research in the respective fields and to contribute to both the academic and the political debate on preconditions, dynamics, limits and prospects of an emerging industrial relations system at EU -level.

Author Biography
About the Editors
Hans-Wolfgang Platzer, Prof. Dr, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany and Berndt Keller, Prof. Dr, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Constance, Germany

SYNOPSIS

Eight contributions from Keller (U. of Konstanz), Platzer (U. of Applied Sciences, Fulda) and other scholars consider the effects of European integration on industrial relations. The volume opens with an exploration of developments in the three main institutional settings of EU-level industrial relations: multi-sectoral Social Dialogue, sectoral Social Dialogue, and European Work Councils. Other contributions assess policy developments in the areas of collective bargaining and European employment policy. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Manfred Weiss