The 18 essays in this volume concentrate on the issues surrounding workers' participation, the area of industrial relations uppermost in Marco Biagi's thinking at the time of his assassination in March 2002. The trend toward ever greater employee involvement in managerial decision-making has been growing in Europe for over a decade, to a significant extent as a result of Biagi's work. From the start, he clearly discerned that the key to quality of work was worker participation. This book stands not merely as a homage, but as evidence that Biagi's assassination will not affect the progress he was making. In what amounts to an integrated series of recommendations for further European legislation on workers' participation in industrial relations, the authors analyse and evaluate the following: experience gained from implementation of the European Works Council Directive and the European Company Statute Directive; implications of the new Directive on Information/Consultation in National Undertakings and of the European Forum on the Financial Participation of Workers; and experience in a variety of national contexts, including those of Japan, Italy, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Poland and Slovenia. In the final analysis, employee involvement - when it is a genuine commitment on the part of all stakeholders - is seen as a sharing of cultural values that successfully reconciles efficiency and social justice. Those who believe this is a goal worth achieving, for reasons both economic and social, will recognize in this book a valuable contribution.

Since the 1980s, a social dialogue has been in progress concerning industrial relations on a European level. The publication of the first Report of the European Commission on Industrial Relations marks the general acceptance that European Union policy is no longer merely attempting to harmonize national regimes in this area, but focusing instead on the pursuit of such basic aims as keeping workers healthy and safe, ensuring that their interests are represented, and providing some protection from economic uncertainty. In this book 15 scholars and policymakers from six European countries explore the territory of industrial relations in Europe as it now stands. The important questions for which they provide in-depth materials include: How far has "Europeanization" progressed in this field? In what ways does the monetary union affect industrial relations? To what extent is the evolving European policy a "pact" between the national employers and trade union organizations? What subtle variations persist in the theme of worker security versus labour market flexibility? What is the "new style" of collective bargaining? Is the power of the state government in industrial relations beyond EU intervention?; How will the Nice Charter of Fundamental Rights affect industrial relations? What kinds of labour law and social security legislation may be expected in the near future? How is the globalization of the market economy affecting wages and working time? And how does the prospect of EU enlargement to the East affect industrial relations policy?

The rapid proliferation everywhere of non-standard work arrangements, and the dramatic transformation of labour markets that inevitably follows, raise crucial questions about the future of labour law in national and regional contexts. Is labour law being called upon to perform the new function of promoting employment and actually creating jobs? Is it moving away from its original mission of protecting people at work, and instead protecting and fostering employability? How are labour law regimes in various countries reacting to this pressure? To what extent are they redirecting their focus? Are they in fact resisting the pressure to change and impeding the progress of job creation policies? These are among the vital questions addressed at an international conference organised in Modena, Italy, in April 2000 by the International Club Meeting of Labour Law Periodicals, an informal forum linking a number of reviews from around the world under the auspices of The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (IJCLLIR). This book records the work of this discussion, offering the contributions of outstanding scholars from ten countries in all five continents. In particular, "Job Creation and Labour Law" highlights the ongoing debate between those who believe that legislative employment protection has little or no effect on overall employment and those who insist it is an essential factor in ensuring the continuity of a competent and adequate workforce. Scholars, practitioners, lawmakers, and others interested in the changing state of labour law will appreciate the expert authorship and truly international perspective of this insightful work.