Employment relationship

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) announced in April 1997 that "absenteeism" - the non-attendance of workers who are expected to be at work - had cost UK business GBP 12 billion in 1996; an average of GBP 533 for every employee. Just prior to the CBI announcement, the Manufacturing

The publication of an assessment commissioned by the National Assembly's Finance Commission, and the campaign for the May/June 1997 general election, have reopened the debate in France on the content and efficiency of the Robien law, which seeks to encourage working time reductions and

A frequently repeated statement in discussion on industrial relations is that temporary employment will be much more common in the future. This assumption is refuted in a recent report from the National Labour Market Board (Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen,AMS).

Over 1995-7, certain collective agreements in Spain have allowed employers to recruit workers at lower wages than workers in the same job grade who are already employed by the firm (the "dual pay scale"). Companies' objectives in reducing labour costs and workers' objectives in creating employment

Total Quality Management (TQM) has been a leading development of the 1990s in Britain. Surveys find that almost three-quarters of organisations claim to have formal quality programmes, which are believed to work by increasing employees' interest in their jobs and their understanding of how their

The German chemical industry enjoys a long tradition of successful consensus-based industrial relations. In spring 1996, the bargaining partners concluded a "solidarity pact" in the form of a package of regional and national collective agreements. The agreements ran for 12 months and covered 590,000

Employers and unions want to reduce the amount of temporary recruitment and the number of types of employment contract. They also want to increase their freedom to negotiate labour market issues through collective bargaining. These are the key issues in the current debate over a new round of labour