Labour market participation

The widely publicised 1999 'MacPherson report' following the police investigation into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, highlighted institutional racism as a major problem in British society. Three years on, this article reviews how the trade union movement has responded to calls for

In early July 2001, the Swedish Labour Market Board (Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen, AMS) published a report based on a study of the labour market for immigrant professional workers who came to Sweden between 1991 and 1997. The 6,922 individuals examined in the study were aged between 26 and 45 years, had

In February 2000, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of Ministers (Ecofin) requested that the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) prepare by December 2000 a preliminary report on the impact of the ageing population on state pension systems. This report was published on 26 October 2000 and is

The independent research body, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a study on the "gender wage gap", entitled /How unequal? Men and women in the Irish labour market/, in October 2000. The study is based on an economy-wide survey of gender wage differentials between 1987 and

In June 2000, the coalition government agreed on a draft bill introducing a voucher system for the provision of "local services". The new system appears simple, but supposedly covers a complex system of earlier policy measures. It includes an important package of services like domestic aid

Legislation approved by Italy's Chamber of Deputies in October 1999 transposes the EU Directive on parental leave into Italian law. The most innovative aspects of the new law are that it increases leave to 10 months within the first eight years of the child's life, and encourages the use of parental

A recent study by the Dutch consultants EIM (based on data provided by the social partner organisations) found that there are currently over 1 million individuals working in the European hairdressing sector, in over 155,000 salons. The nature of companies in the sector varies significantly, ranging

While legislation outlawing discrimination on the grounds of gender and marital status in relation to pay [1] and other aspects of employment was introduced in Ireland in the 1970s, primarily as a response to EU Directives, until recently there has been little legislative provision in relation to