The eight outstanding authors who have collaborated in this endeavour represent the highest levels of interaction among scholars, social partners, and EU institutions involved in the European Social Dialogue. This book is the final product of their Brussels conference in October 2002, organised by the Social Law Department of Ghent University. Their deeply informed contributions respond to such probing questions as the following:
- Does the much-talked-of European social model really exist?
- Are effective collective agreements feasible under the current EC Treaty?
- Is the conclusion of collective agreements negotiation or legislation?
- Can a viable compromise be achieved between the often contradictory aims of competition law and social policy?
The discussions include incisive analyses of relevant law and legal theory - pertinent EC Treaty provisions and directives, decisions of the Community's courts, existing and potential collective agreements - as well as declarations of the social partners and from Community institutions. The text of the work programme drawn up by ETUC, UNICE, and CEEP in November 2002 is reproduced in full.

Whether through gig work, remote work, or platforms such as Uber, new technologies are reshaping the very fabric of employment relations. This handbook offers a comprehensive, international overview of how institutions, countries, and legal systems are responding to the technological disruption of the work world. Chapters outline the reform agendas driven by the International Labour Organization and the European Union and detail the public policy debates, litigation, and legal reforms that technological innovation has triggered around the world. This volume provides a post-pandemic assessment of how digitalization is affecting employment and employment relations and contextualizes current technological disruption with a long-term view of how labour and employment law could evolve further.