Introduction Debates on labour market and industrial relations convergence in the EU have been concerned mostly with two types of possible convergence: between liberal and co-ordinated market economies, and between East (new member states) and West (old member states). This paper argues that the most striking process of convergence, if a partial one, has actually occurred between South and East...

This paper outlines evolutions in the underlying logic of corporatist policymaking in Western Europe. Starting from the discrepancy between the observable decline in the power of organised labour on the one hand, and the persistence of corporatist concertation as a mode of policymaking on the other, the paper outlines the remaining incentives for governments to involve trade unions and employer...

Does union membership increase sickness absence from work and, if so, by how much? And which specific channels does this effect operate through? Using UK Labour Force Survey data for 2006-2008 we find that trade union membership is associated with a substantial increase in the probability of reporting sick and in the amount of average absence taken. This result can be largely attributed to the ...

kecarassembly plants which have adopted `lean production' trading with `lean' parts suppliers? Or are they using suppliers as buffers and as sources of low cost labour? This paper examines these questions empirically by using official statistics in the UK, US, Germany and Japan. In the UK, there is evidence of parallel reduction in inventories at suppliers and assemblers in the 1980s, but also ...

The paper analyses the links between a binding minimum wage and union bargaining. A dual labour market model is developed where the rst sector outcome is characterised by bargaining between unions and rms, while in the second sector rms have to pay a statutory minimum wage. It is shown that a minimum wage increase has negative employment e ects only if the bargaining outcome is described by the...

The membership profile of Finnish trade unions has changed from male-dominated industrial workers to female-dominated service and public sector who are more highly educated. labour market is strongly divided into female male occupations sectors, these intersectional differences play an important part in the differentiation developmental paths. erosion mainly due rapid growth independent unemplo...

This afternoon, the government published revised regulations under Section 75 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012. The government has hastily re-written these regulations, the first draft of which would have forced commissioners to open just about every part of the NHS up to private sector competition. Howls of protest from grassroots [2] groups [3], healthcare professionals [4], all the [5] R...