Labour and social regulation

The Italian social partners have traditionally had little involvement in the vocational training system, but this has been changing over recent years. This feature outlines the stages in the social partners' increasing involvement in training, culminating in the presentation of an innovative reform

The social partners are engaged in a protracted debate on the ways and means to address a mounting problem of youth unemployment. The best indicator of the extent of the problem is perhaps that on average 2.9% of those aged 15 to 18 years were neither employed nor in school during 1996, while a

Provisional figures published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at the end of July 1997 (Safety Statistics Bulletin 1997/8, Health and Safety Executive, Bootle, Merseyside (1997)) suggest that major injuries to employees have risen by two-thirds to just over 28,000 in the year April 1996 to

Several studies published in 1997 have contributed to putting a number of different types of "flexible employment relationship" - like temporary employment and "leasing of employees", and outsourcing - on the agenda in Norway. Representatives from trade union organisations believe that the scale of

In summer 1997, the Norwegian Government put forward a new legislative proposal regarding opening hours in the retail trade. The Government proposes to make opening hours dependent on the size of the outlet. If the proposal is passed, the opening hours for many outlets will be restricted compared

In March 1997, the US, British, Canadian, French, Belgian and Dutch Allied Forces stationed in Germany employed around 30,000 civilian employees. Due to the end of the cold war and the resulting closure of bases and reduction of troops by the Allied Forces, civilian employment fell from 105,000 in

On 6 June 1997, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) formally signed a European framework

Over the last 10 or so years, the Dutch labour market has been characterised by increasing flexibility and fragmentation. There is greater variety and flexibility with respect to working time, pay, job descriptions, the location of work and the term and type of employment contracts. Part-time work