This edited volume explores the old and new "collective dimensions" of employment relations. It examines specific challenges stemming from new forms of work of the digital and sharing economy, such as measurement, monitoring, assessment, and remuneration of work, the protection of work-life balance, the impact of new technologies on health and safety, the adaptation of occupational skills to new work processes, and the responses to the digital restructuring of undertakings. It addresses a series of questions such as how the representational action of unions and works councils can adapt to the challenges posed by new production systems and whether the legislative framework needs to be reformed to ensure that digital workers enjoy the right to collective representation. This important collection offers readers a renewed theoretical perspective and justification of the role that the dialogue between workers (representatives) and companies could play in an increasingly complex world of work.

Contributing to the debate on work performance evaluation in a time of technological transformation, this book explores the impact of digitisation on production and organisation models, as well as on the rights and interests of the stakeholders involved. As organisations down-size, merge with other companies and become decentralised, the boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships are blurred and new models for the organisation and assessment of work performance have emerged. With these new models, innovative regulatory approaches are sorely needed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on theoretical concepts from organisation studies, human resource management, sociology and labour economics, this all-encompassing collection is not only essential reading for academics and students, but also for policy-makers and employers who are looking for innovative and practical solutions to the challenges of modern employment relations.

This edited volume explores the old and new "collective dimensions" of employment relations. It examines specific challenges stemming from new forms of work of the digital and sharing economy, such as measurement, monitoring, assessment, and remuneration of work, the protection of work-life balance, the impact of new technologies on health and safety, the adaptation of occupational skills to new work processes, and the responses to the digital restructuring of undertakings. It addresses a series of questions such as how the representational action of unions and works councils can adapt to the challenges posed by new production systems and whether the legislative framework needs to be reformed to ensure that digital workers enjoy the right to collective representation. This important collection offers readers a renewed theoretical perspective and justification of the role that the dialogue between workers (representatives) and companies could play in an increasingly complex world of work.

Contributing to the debate on work performance evaluation in a time of technological transformation, this book explores the impact of digitisation on production and organisation models, as well as on the rights and interests of the stakeholders involved. As organisations down-size, merge with other companies and become decentralised, the boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships are blurred and new models for the organisation and assessment of work performance have emerged. With these new models, innovative regulatory approaches are sorely needed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on theoretical concepts from organisation studies, human resource management, sociology and labour economics, this all-encompassing collection is not only essential reading for academics and students, but also for policy-makers and employers who are looking for innovative and practical solutions to the challenges of modern employment relations.

This book addresses the impact of Covid-19 on employment relations and provides a reconstruction and a critical assessment of the measures enacted worldwide to tackle the economic and social crisis triggered by the global health emergency. The pandemic has been a booster of critical issues that for years have been silently shaping society and the labor market and so it can represent an opportunity to relaunch a critical analysis on the future of work. Beginning from this assumption, this book collects contributions from different disciplines, including law, economics and organization theory. It covers topics such as the measures enacted to protect workers’ health and cushion the labour, the new inequalities that emerged during the pandemic and the strategies to construct a sustainable and human-centred development in the post pandemic scenario. It is highly relevant to scholars and students of organisation studies, resilience, the labour market and labour law.

Contributing to recent debate on the emergence of digital and agile work, this book explores the implications for labour and employment relations within and beyond organizational boundaries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach to the key issues and challenges of digitalization, this collection covers topics such as the gig economy, crowdworking and Industry 4.0. Theory and analysis are combined as the authors examine the impact of digital and smart work on organization, HRM and labour law. With comprehensive empirical evidence for those interested in understanding the more complex trajectories of today's transforming work relationships, this book will not only appeal to students and academics but also to policy-makers, trade unionists and employers' organizations.

This book, adopting a multidisciplinary approach, investigates the definition of autonomous work and the kind of protection it receives and should receive in a global perspective. The book advocates for the existence of genuine autonomous work to be distinguished from employment and false self-employment. It deserves specific attention from legislators in the view of removing any obstacles to the exercise of freedom of association and collective action at large. The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on the evolving notion of autonomy and its consequences on social protection, offering a theoretical frame from an organizational, political and legal point of view. The second aims at discovering new regulatory and protective horizons for autonomous work, in the light of blockchain, platform work, EU Competition Law, social security and liberal professions. Finally, the authors offer insights and recommendations on how to protect work beyond categories.

Labour and social security law studies have addressed the topic of the decline of the standard employment relationship mainly from the point of view of the growing number of atypical relationships. Only a limited number of studies have examined the issue from the perspective of the differentiation between core and contingent work. Such an examination is necessary as the increase in contingent work leads to complicated legal questions which vary between European states depending on the type of contingent arrangements that have become most prevalent. This book analyses, using a comparative approach, these different types of contingency from a national and EU perspective touching on the work relationship from a labour as well as a social security point of view. The aim of the book is to identify and analyse those questions adopting an innovative approach and to put forward proposals for safeguarding social cohesion within undertakings and European society.

Labour and social security law studies have addressed the topic of the decline of the standard employment relationship mainly from the point of view of the growing number of atypical relationships. Only a limited number of studies have examined the issue from the perspective of the differentiation between core and contingent work. Such an examination is necessary as the increase in contingent work leads to complicated legal questions which vary between European states depending on the type of contingent arrangements that have become most prevalent. This book analyses, using a comparative approach, these different types of contingency from a national and EU perspective touching on the work relationship from a labour as well as a social security point of view. The aim of the book is to identify and analyse those questions adopting an innovative approach and to put forward proposals for safeguarding social cohesion within undertakings and European society.

The safety obligation in any employment relationship, enshrined in numerous laws and regulations, must necessarily absorb advances in medicine and technology. The law of health and safety at work is perhaps best understood as an ongoing process engaged in the making of a dynamic and effective regulatory framework able to cope with an ever-changing work environment. This book, an in-depth survey of the current state of health and safety law in Europe represents the work of labour lawyers involved into the Pontignano International Seminars and into the European Working Group on Labour Law (EWL). The seventeen contributing labour lawyers provide national reports from ten EU Member States, along with a chapter on EU law relating to health and safety and a concluding comparative analysis. Among the topics examined are the following:; the concepts of 'health', 'danger', and 'risk'; employers' obligations to inform, evaluate, and monitor; rights and duties of workers' representatives with regard to health and safety at work;; the obligation to carry out a systematic work environment management; reintegration efforts required from the employer and employee; instruments available to help the employer in the proper fulfilment of safety obligations; the interaction between health and safety regulation and the social security system; labour inspection;; civil, administrative and criminal liability of the employer; specific legislation regarding pregnant women; protection of other vulnerable groups; moral harassment or 'mobbing'; sexual harassment; work-related stress;; the concept of penibilite au travail; effect of a company's hierarchical structure on liability; and domestic workers and home-workers.