Developments In Employment Relations Research Articles

Varieties of Precarity: How Insecure Work Manifests Itself, Affects Well-Being, and Is Shaped by Social Welfare Institutions and Labor Market Policies

Precarious Lives addresses one of the most important developments in employment relations in the neoliberal era: increase in labor precarity and the subsequent decline in employee well-being. Drawing on data on social welfare institutions and labor market policies in six rich democracies, the author shows that work is less precarious, and workers are happier, when institutions and policies provide job protection, and put in place support systems to buffer job loss.

Employment relations and growing income inequality: Causes and potential options for its reversal

The growth of income inequality is now recognized to be one of the most important developments in employment relations of our time. While inequality has increased in many parts of the world, it has been most pronounced in the United States. We review the factors that have been suggested to cause the growth in inequality and, given these multiple causes, suggest a set of actions that might begin to reverse this trend. We give special attention to the changes in the employment relationship related to labor market institutions – including unions and other forms of worker representation, wage regulations and enforcement, and safety net policy – while also accounting for explanations and proposals that focus on technology, skills and education, and globalization. Additionally, we argue that emerging forms of organizational restructuring are becoming increasingly important to the study of inequality and its remedies.

Greg Bamber, Russell Lansbury and Nick Wailes (eds) International and Comparative Employment Relations: Globalisation and Change

[Extract] The fifth edition of International and Comparative Employment Relations (the first was published in 1987) is more than an update of the fourth edition, as were the second and fourth editions more than updates of the first and third. Each remains a labour studies resource in its own right. Greg Bamber, Russell Lansbury and Nick Wailes have added 17 new authors of the country studies and three countries – Denmark, India and China – to their fifth edition (gone is Sweden), in which they categorise the country studies within a new conceptual framework. Unlike in the fourth edition, there is no concluding chapter to 'review and synthesise' the development of employment relations of the country chapters.

Employment relations in the banking and automotive industries in Germany

This article discusses how both globalisation and corporate governance influence the German coordinated model of employment relations. It outlines recent developments in employment relations in the German automotive and banking industries with a particular focus on skills, staffing and pay systems. It argues that while various changes have taken place in employment relations in both industries, they remain largely within the coordinated framework. Not all the changes are directly associated with globalisation. Rather, an increasing focus on shareholder value in corporate governance has also contributed to these changes.

Trends and Developments in Employment Relations and the World of Work in Developing Countries

This article takes as its starting point the fundamental changes in the past two to three decades in labour market institutions and processes in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The article examines two critical forces in the evolution and development of employment relations in many of these countries: the transformation from dictatorship to democracy and the globalization of national economies. The author provides an outline of the forces at play and their implications for employment relations; it considers public policy responses and their effect on workers and employers’ organizations. It then examines the changing nature of collective bargaining, the most critical benefit of unionization. Finally, the article discusses the role of national-level social dialogue and its contribution to social and economic policy making.

Contract labour mobilisation in Chile's copper mining and forestry sectors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of recent developments in employment relations in Chile, focusing on recent episodes of contract labour mobilisation in the forestry and copper mining sectors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a consolidation of existing evidence from a range of primary, secondary and tertiary sources.FindingsThe paper demonstrates the inadequacy of Chile's employment relations institutions to protect vulnerable workers and shows the capacity of contract workers to overcome such limitations by recurring to mobilisation. It argues that contract labour mobilisation rather than a shift left in government seems to offer a more plausible explanation of current developments in Chilean employment relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper identifies salient issues but further research is necessary to understand the actual social processes of collective action involved in recent episodes of contract labour mobilisation.Practical implicationsThis information could contribute to better policy making, better management of the employment relationship, and informing the revitalisation of labour movements.Originality/valueThere are few studies on contract workers' collective action particularly in developing countries, and a contribution is made to critical debates on the sustainability of Chile's neoliberal socio‐economic and employment relations system.

From Core to Periphery? Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade‐based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition primarily has induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core‐periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density and fragmentation and an unfavorable public‐policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and interunion coordination. We also argue that the government has not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve th e Philippines into a higher‐value‐added exporter.

Research Developments in Employment Relations and Diversity: A British Perspective

The paper argues that the success or otherwise of diversity policies is (partly) dependent on their relation with the prevailing employment system. Changes in the British employment system under the New Labour government are reviewed, with particular reference to their implications for diversity, especially gender equality, issues. Some of the main areas of current policydebate are considered, including the `business case' approach. The problems for policy remain, however, particularly in the gendered nature of the components of the employment system, including industrial relations and HRM institutions and structures. Implications for future research are explored.

The Queensland Public Sector: Recent Developments in Employment Relations

With the incumbent Labor government embracing a recentralisation of industrial relations, public sector agencies in Queensland are experiencing a dramatic shift in the framework of employment relations. This paper discusses the approach of the previous Coalition government to managing the public sector workforce and the emerging approach of the Labor government. The comparison of contrasting governmental approaches to public sector employment relations throughout the 1990s suggests that successive governments have balanced very differently the three main pressures they have faced: political, managerialist and industrial relations.

Industrial relations in a changing world

In the short space of this article I can do no more than paint, with a broad brush, an impressionistic picture of the development of employment relations, confining myself to the advanced “market” economies, ie the OECD countries. There is nothing new about employment relations, and one might wonder why, with 200 years of industrial life behind us, we have not evolved a stable model; and further, that we have such a variety of decidely less than perfect models, many of which are showing clear signs of stress.