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The crisis and national labour law reforms: a mapping exercise

Published: 7 June 2012
Google translate: 

Dear Colleagues

Please find below notification of a new working paper from ETUI. The working paper itself is available in English. Translations in French, German and Spanish will be available shortly.

Regards



NEW ETUI Working paper 2012.04

The crisis and national labour law reforms: a mapping exercise

written by Stefan Clauwaert and Isabelle Schömann (ETUI Senior Researchers)



This ETUI Working Paper maps the labour law reforms in various European countries either triggered by the crisis or introduced using the crisis – falsely – as an excuse. Such reforms generally render existing labour law provisions more flexible and loosen minimum standards, shifting the emphasis to soft law (deregulation).

In some countries it consists only of piecemeal although significant deregulatory measures, while in others it involves far-reaching overhauls of the whole labour code. Furthermore, in several countries fundamental changes are being made to industrial relations structures and processes which might jeopardise social dialogue and collective bargaining there.

The authors critically address this large-scale deregulation of labour law currently taking place, in particular the lack of democratic foundations underlying the reforms and their negative impact on fundamental social rights and workers’ protection.

Download here the full text of the Working paper in English. French, German and Spanish translations are in preparation and will be available soon.



The working paper is also complemented with an Annex providing an analysis of the reforms on a country by country basis. These country studies will be regularly updated and are available for free download in English only on the ETUI website. A more user-friendly presentation with information per country will be made accessible soon on the Social legislation section of the ETUI website.