This unique ebook focuses on the development of 'free trade unions' in the former Soviet block countries. The contributors are writing from their own experiences, they lived in the 'old regime' and took part in the changes of the late 1980s' which ended the 'socialist experiment' and opened the...

The transition from school to work: a European perspectiveIn general, a person's employment and educational biographies do not alwaysrun smoothly and in only one direction. Interruptions often occur, or theindividual may begin to move in different or new directions

The article examines decision‐taking in European construction companies. It confirms the increasing importance of MNEs in the industry. The extent to which corporate decision‐taking on human resource matters in construction MNEs is distinctive and is examined. Construction MNEs show an...

Two general viewpoints on workplace “partnership” as a union strategy are identified: it is seen as either a potentially effective strategy for restoring union influence, or as fatally flawed. Discusses the determinants of robust union‐management partnership relations in order to assist...

This paper argues that a new theory of community industrial relations is needed that recognises fewer boundaries between work and family. The theory needs to recognise a mutual exchange between the traditional “actors” in the industrial relationship (unions, employers and the government) and...

The industrial relations tradition values empirical analysis and research usable for policy making. Considerations about epistemology and ontology and their consequences for the research are not integrated in the tradition. Just as daily research only very seldom relates to higher‐level...

The paper examines the context and characteristics of partnership arrangements currently emerging between employers and unions at the workplace level in Britain. Case studies of 11 firms involving interviews with managers and trade union officials revealed two broad types of arrangement. Those...

This paper focuses on the employment practices of both multinational corporations (MNCs) and large national competitors in the German fast‐food industry, such as Burger King, Pizza Hut, Nordsee, McDonald’s, Churrasco and Blockhaus. The paper poses a number of questions. Have the activities...

This paper undertakes a comparative study of two large UK clothing plants in the 1990s with earlier twentieth century studies of clothing workshops undertaken in the late 1950s by Cunnison and Lupton, and in the late 1970s by Edwards and Scullion. Traditionally the clothing industry is...

The issue of non‐standard forms of employment has sparked controversy in Greece. At the same time the expansion of atypical employment has been identified by policy makers as a central component of economic policy in combating high unemployment. However, there is a marked absence of empirical...