Publications

In 2001, new legislation in Poland established regional social dialogue
commissions, involving representatives of regional trade union and employers'
organisations, regional government and the national government. The role of
the 16 commissions is formally a consultative one, but participation in their
work is, on the whole, highly regarded by the social partners and by the
authorities. This article examines the development of the regional
commissions, which were subject to important legislative changes in 2002, and
their current position in 2003, drawing on recent research into their impact.

At the end of 2002, three-quarters of Dutch employees were covered by
collective agreements containing childcare arrangements. However, in 2003, in
anticipation of new childcare provision legislation due to come into force in
2005, employers are cutting back the proportion of childcare costs that they
meet under such agreements. At the same time, the cost of childcare is
increasing as market forces take hold in the childcare sector and labour
costs rise because of the abolition of state-subsidised employment and wage
increases for regular staff.

The comparative supplement in this issue of EIRObserver examines the subject of overtime in 19 European countries: the 15 EU Member States, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Slovakia. It outlines the following aspects: the regulation of overtime through legislation and collective agreements; the level of overtime working; and the positions, strategies and debates of the industrial relations actors. Working time also features as a topic in this issue relating to cases in Spain, Finland and Italy. EIRObserver is the bi-monthly bulletin of the European Industrial Relations Observatory. It contains an edited selection of feature and news items, based on some of the reports supplied for the EIROnline database over each two-month period, in this case for May and June 2003. In addition to this, EIRO conducts comparative research on specific themes.

In June 2003, a Spanish court issued its judgment on the 'Ardystil syndrome',
one of the country's worst occupational health disasters, which resulted in
six deaths and over 70 serious illnesses among employees in textile printing
companies in Valencia in the early 1990s. The long-awaited ruling found that
the employers concerned were clearly responsible, and that the public
authorities failed to fulfil their role as a guarantor of safety.

In June 2003, after five months of negotiations, the Confindustria employers'
confederation and the three main trade union confederations (Cgil, Cisl and
Uil) signed a pact aimed at relaunching development, employment and
competitiveness in Italy. The agreement focuses on research, training, the
South of Italy and infrastructure, and seeks to influence the government's
future economic policy.

Agriculture remains an important part of the Dutch economy, accounting for
around 10% of GDP . The sector is currently undergoing major changes in terms
of production, markets and technology, with important implications for
employment. This article examines industrial relations in agriculture,
looking at the social partners, the unique system of bipartite 'commodity
boards', collective bargaining and the key issues of casual labour and health
and safety.

In May 2003 after only three rounds of talks, the Mining, Chemicals and
Energy Industrial Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie, IG
BCE) and the German Federation of Chemicals Employers' Associations
(Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) signed a package of new collective
agreements for the 580,000 or so employees in the German chemicals industry.
The package includes: a new pay agreement; an amendment to the working time
agreement; a new collective agreement on training; and a new agreement on
increasing the number of apprenticeship and training places.

Foresight is an important tool in policy analysis, and encompasses a wide spectrum of methods and approaches. This handbook tackles the major questions that have to be considered in embarking upon knowledge society foresight. It does so largely in a question-and-answer format. The handbook is neither an essay on knowledge society foresight nor is it simply a toolkit of ways to think about long-term futures. It is a guide to foresight and to making decisions to undertake activity in the field. It is illustrated with some examples drawn from relevant activities around the world, while a series of annexes provide more discussion, essays and resource materials for those wishing to pursue matters more deeply.

In 1997, the European Council called for a high-level group to examine the economic and social implications of industrial change. With the full support of the European Parliament, Commission and social partners, it proposed the creation of the European Centre on Monitoring Change (EMCC) within the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EMCC’s mission is to cast a spotlight on the economic and social developments that drive change in the European economy. It highlights changes resulting from shifts in technology, work organisation, production and business models, legislation, working practices and the labour market. Using research and analysis, EMCC provides companies, the social partners, public authorities and European institutions with the data and qualitative information they need in order to manage the consequences of such change.

During recent years, two developments on the Bulgarian labour market have
caused particular concern among the authorities and social partners - the use
of hired labour without a signed employment contract, and the widespread
practice of employers paying social insurance contributions only on the basis
of the national minimum wage, rather than on employees' actual pay. The
present government has recently introduced two new inter-related measures -
both long demanded by trade unions - adding to the efforts of previous
governments to reduce the extent of these two problems. The National Council
for Tripartite Partnership (NCTP) has agreed these measures, which are:
mandatory registration of employment contracts with the National Social
Security Institute (NSSI); and the introduction of minimum social insurance
thresholds, higher than the national minimum wage and set at different levels
for the various economic sectors and the occupations.