Employee Relations in the Periphery of Europe

The Unfolding Story of the European Social Model

E. O'Hagan

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780333947272
• eBook ISBN: 9780230512399
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book examines the manner in which the EU affects employee relations systems in economically peripheral European countries, specifically Ireland and Hungary. It asks whether the EU offers peripheral countries the opportunity to modernise their industrial relations. The EU dynamically promotes core-like employee practices, and national actors energetically attempt to implement the prescribed initiatives, yet little success has been achieved in modernising production techniques in peripheral economies. O'Hagan argues that the EU implements an unofficial development policy which it pressurises States to adopt. These initiatives amount to the frequently referred to European Social Model (ESM), which, she argues, can cause difficulty for policy makers because it is ill-defined, vague and contradictory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Employee Relations in the Periphery of Europe
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The costs of Europe: Why do small economically peripheral economies join Europe?
• 2 Theories on European integration: Integrating theories
• 3 The European social model in economic peripheries
• 4 The European union and national legal systems
• 5 The European union and national wage systems
• 6 The European union and national training systems
• 7 Summary and conclusions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Subject Index