Better work and life

EU Presidency conference on:

Better work and life: Towards an inclusive and competitive enlarged Union - 12-13 May 2003, Alexandroupolis, Greece

Co-organised by the Greek Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Rien Huiskamp

Huiskamp Research and Consultancy BV

Rien Huiskamp studied economic sociology at the Free University in Amsterdam. After graduation he became assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and was also visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and the Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick University, UK. He gained his PhD (1976) on a study of shop stewards in the British engineering industry 1830-1975. He left university to work for several years in personnel management.

In the early eighties he joined the Dutch Social Economic Council as a staff member, first full-time, later in a part-time capacity to become also associate professor, Department of Economics, Free University and columnist for 'Het Financieele Dagblad'.

In the early nineties, Huiskamp Research and Consultancy BV was established and he also became part-time tutor at the Dutch Open University on European industrial relations and Human Resource Management (1992-1998).

In his company Rien Huiskamp has carried out projects for:

• employers' federations at national level (VNO-NCW, MKB-NL) and industry level (docks, petro-chemical, banking)

• companies (ABN AMRO, Achmea, ECT, Heineken, Heinz)

• trade unions (FNV Bondgenoten, CNV)

• works councils (especially ICT-sector)

• research institutions (OSA, Stichting Management Studies, European Foundation, TNO-Work and Employment).

The main interest of these projects is the reform of industrial and employment relations at the individual, company and European level.

Recent English language publications

• Huiskamp R. 'Regulating the employment relationship: an analytical framework' in Ruysseveldt J. & Huiskamp R. & J. & Hoof van J.J. (1995), Comparative industrial and employment relations, Sage

• Huiskamp R. & van Riemsdijk M. (2001), 'Competitive consensus, bargaining on employment and competitiveness in the Netherlands, in Transfer', European review of labour and research, no 4 december

• Huiskamp R. & van den Toren J.P. (2001), 'National institutions in a EMU context: multifocal coordination in the Dutch metal industry', in T. Schulten & R. Bispinck (eds.), Collective bargaining under the Euro, experiences from the European metal industry.

• Huiskamp, R. (forthcoming), The employment relation in advanced market economies, Utrecht: Lemma