Sisson, Keith

The persistent high levels of unemployment and the EU policy initiatives have fuelled a broad public debate on the concept of pacts for employment and competitiveness (PECs) in most Member States and at EU level. PECs try to combine three major elements - competitiveness, employment and partnership. They are an attempt to influence the level and structure of employment by a mix of market regulation, collective bargaining on different levels, public policy intervention on tax, social security contributions, training, education and innovation. This concept paper analyses the motives of the main protagonists for supporting negotiations on PECs in Europe. It is the first publication of the investigation into PECs and represents a position paper which defines the focus of the research.

This report reviews the literature on the implications of EMU for the institutions and processes involved in the regulation of the employment relationship together with the main outcomes in terms of wages and employment. It does not review the literature on the implications of EMU for social protection, which is the subject of a companion study.

This leaflet examines the impact of new forms of work organisation on employment and points to the links between workplace flexibility and innovation in European enterprises. It is based on a report which analyses findings drawn from the EPOC (Employee direct participation in organisational change) survey on change in the workplace carried out by the Foundation. The conclusions of the report concerning the relationship between the various forms of flexibility, innovation and change in employment offer a substantial contribution to the policy debate.

A leaflet summarising a comparative investigation by the Foundation into the nature and scope of PECs (pacts for employment and competitiveness). The research involved national overviews and detailed case studies carried out in 11 Member States, as well as data from EIROnline.

The objectives of the report are to investigate how companies in three sectors: the automobile industry, the banking business and road haulage experience EMU with regard to the practicalities of the introduction of the EURO, industrial relations, pay, employment, working conditions, restructuring of the companies and forms of business organisation.

The UK's Economic and Social Research Council is currently funding a five-year research programme entitled One Europe or several? [1] It examines "contemporary processes of political, security, economic, social and cultural change across the European continent, as well as issues of convergence and divergence and prospects for integration and fragmentation". One of the projects under the programme examines Emerging boundaries of European collective bargaining at sector and enterprise level [2]. Within this project, Keith Sisson and Paul Marginson of the Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick, have recently examined the issue of benchmarking in the "Europeanisation" of industrial relations, and their main findings - published in April 2001 - are summarised below. [1] http://www.one-europe.ac.uk/ [2] http://www.one-europe.ac.uk/cgi-bin/esrc/world/db.cgi/proj.htm?id=24

A report highlighting key findings from the EPOC research project which charted development in the changing world of work, most significantly in the areas of work organisation. The main focus of the EPOC investigation was to show the extent of direct employee participation and to illustrate the role played by such participation in the modernisation of work organisation.

This report, based on 43 case studies carried out in 11 EU Member States, explores the key features of PECS (pacts for employment and competitiveness). The aim is to show how these agreements can contribute significantly to more employment, an increasingly flexible working environment and a partnership approach to industrial relations.

To what extent is the face of European industrial relations being changed by EMU? Drawing on detailed investigations in three sectors - automotive, finance and road haulage - this report analyses the effects on the processes and outcomes, especially in terms of collective bargaining, employment, restructuring and investment both at sectoral and company level.

A leaflet dealing with the impact of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on industrial relations, employment and working conditions at European, national, sectoral and company levels. It is based on a report which investigated the effects of EMU on the processes of industrial relations and their outcomes in terms of pay and employment in three sectors: automotive, financial services and road haulage.