Then and Now: Disability Legislation and Employers' Practices in the UK

Using a longitudinal research design, this article considers employers' human resource management practices in respect of disability equality: in 1995 under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act and in 2003 under the Disability Discrimination Act. The article analyses whether there has been a change to employers' practices and whether or not this change is associated with increased employment of disabled persons. The findings show that proactive HR measures to encourage disabled employment, including positive discrimination, had a significant impact on disabled employment in 1995, whereas HR measures centring on managerial responsibilities and making adaptations had a similar result in 2003. We argue that, for optimum effectiveness, HR departments should employ the full range of HR measures that are available, including positive discrimination, and that this approach should be underpinned by a range of enforcement measures.     

Macroeconomic Constraints, Social Learning and Pay Bargaining in Europe

This paper argues that European integration has constrained the discretion of industrial relations actors. The result has been not the widely predicted institutional fragmentation of collective bargaining, but a change in the functioning of these systems. At the same time, widespread 'social dumping' on the part of firms and member states has not materialized. The paper argues that the 'race to the bottom' thesis gives insufficient weight to the socialization mechanisms attached to the European integration process. Thus macroeconomic constraints and social learning processes are co-mingling with one another in European industrial relations.     

Pay, Gender and the Social Dimension to Europe

Equal pay for men and women was a principle enshrined in the Treaty of Rome and was the subject of a European Directive in 1975. This investigation of progress towards equal pay in three member-states, Germany, Italy and the UK, reveals the importance of differences in employment structures and reward systems in determining relative pay for women. Differences in the structure and size of pay differentials among countries suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the general system of labour market regulation than to explicit equal-pay policies. Women would be more likely to benefit from a strategy of establishing labour standards and regulation than from equal-pay Directives which have little effect on the general practices and principles of pay determination.     

Transitions into Permanent Employment in Spain: An Empirical Analysis for Young Workers

This article analyses the transitions into permanent employment of a sample of young temporary employees in Spain for the period 1996–2003. For this purpose, we apply multiple‐spell duration techniques to a longitudinal dataset of temporary workers obtained from Social Security registers. Our main findings are as follows. First, the transitions from a temporary contract into unemployment and into another temporary contract are very high when compared with transitions into permanent employment. Second, the entry into permanent employment — although slightly increasing with tenure at the temporary contract — is very low; the only exception is that of semi‐skilled and unskilled individuals, who are particularly likely to enter into permanent employment at the 24th and the 36th month of tenure (respectively). Third, we find that there exists a substantial proportion of workers with unobservable characteristics that make them show high exit rates from temporary employment and, at the same time, a rapid exit from unemployment — while the remaining individuals exit from unemployment more slowly, particularly those who are receiving unemployment benefits.     

The Wormking Time Debate in Western Europe

High unemployment levels in western Europe have stimulated calls for reorganizing working time. Some reductions in working time as well as more explicit work-sharing initiatives have occurred; results from these initiatives have been disappointing. Obstacles include attitudes of the different parties involved and little indication of work-sharing following simulated or actual hours reductions. A greater work-sharing effect can be anticipated where hours reductions are greater, when they occur in nonrecessionary periods, and where job-retention as well as job-creation effects are evaluated.     

Varieties of Multinationals: Adapting Employment Practices in Central Eastern Europe

"Home-country effects" on multinational companies' practices abroad are assessed by comparing twelve German- and U.S.-owned plants within the same sector in the "institutionally permissive" Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia. Differences are detected on functional flexibility, corporate culture and working time, but not on participation. Work organization seems more integral to national productive models than industrial relations. Moreover, considerable intramodel variation reflects product- and labor-market contingencies. The results support the interpretation of national models as internally heterogeneous and dynamic.     

Incomes Policy for Europe? or Will Pay Bargaining Destroy the Single European Market?

With European economic and monetary union, pay bargaining encounters a new set of constraints: devaluation is no longer available to compensate for inflation, and economic restructuring for the Single Market will place great strain on wage structures. The article analyses the problems posed to pay bargainers, and argues that, instead of pressing for more centralized bargaining, greater encouragement should be given to pay systems that favour more flexible use of labour and reduce the tendency to transmit inflationary pressures from one group to another. Joint regulation has a critical part to play in the effectiveness of these systems.     

Towards a New Standard Employment Relationship in Western Europe

This paper examines critically the concept of the standard employment relationship (SER), differentiating between form and substance. It explores the social functions served by the SER and its evolution in western Europe. Six major causes underpinning changes in the employment relationship are explored and the contours of a new more flexible SER developed. Two further social functions are added: equal access for men and women to the employment system, and increased internal flexibility in the workplace.     

The Employment Effects of Lower Minimum Wage Rates for Young Workers: Canadian Evidence

Between 1986 and 1998, six of the ten Canadian provinces abolished their lower minimum wage rates for younger teenage workers. Using data from the Canadian Labour Force Survey, this paper evaluates the effects of abolition on the employment and weekly hours worked of 15‐ to 16‐year‐olds using teenagers in provinces where there is no legislative change and young people above the age to which youth rates applied as control groups. The results provide some evidence that abolishing these youth rates significantly lowered employment and work hours of 15‐ to 16‐year‐olds, but the lack of evidence for some jurisdictions and patterns of effects using age controls do raise some questions regarding the interpretation of the results.     

High Performance Work Practices and Employee Voice: A Comparison of Japanese and Korean Workers

Using a unique new cross‐national survey of Japanese and Korean workers, we report the first systematic evidence on the effects on employee voice of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) from the two economies that are noted for the wide use of HPWPs. We find for both nations that: (i) workers in firms with HPWPs aimed at creating opportunities for employees to get involved (such as shopfloor committees and small group activities) are indeed more likely to have stronger senses of influence and voice on shopfloor decision making than other workers; (ii) workers whose pay is tied to firm performance are more likely to have a stake in firm performance and hence demand such influence and voice; and (iii) consequently workers in firms with HPWPs are more likely to make frequent suggestions for productivity increase and quality improvement. As such, this paper contributes to a small yet growing new empirical literature that tries to understand the actual process and mechanism through which HPWPs lead to better enterprise performance.     

Small Firm Marketing: A Comparison of Eastern and Western Marketing Practices

This article reports on the analysis of 110 published, undisguised stories about Chinese owner-managers in Hong Kong and determines whether Chinese small firms exhibit the same marketing activities and behavior as their Western counterparts. Content analysis suggests that Chinese small firms are production oriented, whereas small American firms are customer oriented. Chinese small firms are also found to have limited marketing expenditure while their owner-managers have limited marketing expertise. The findings also suggest that Chinese small firms do little strategic marketing planning. One possible reason for this may be that Chinese owner-managers apply innovative tactics and change their marketing planning techniques to suit the characteristics of their firms and their particular circumstances. Thus, it is not unusual to find that Chinese small firm marketing can be described as entrepreneurial and their marketing planning activities as unstructured.     

Industrial Relations in Western Europe: An Era of Ambiguity?

In western Europe, as in the United States, the 1980s saw major challenges to established institutions of industrial relations. Managements, faced with intensified competitive pressure, have taken the initiative; union have been on the defensive. Deregulation and decentralization have been the recurrent themes of both practitioners and academic analysts. For some commentators, national distinctiveness is giving way to convergence, encouraged in part by moves toward the Single European Market. This article develops a more skeptical perspective on recent trends.     

Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends

Can the recent decline in union density in Europe be attributed to specific economic, social or institutional causes? Can unions influence these causes and reverse decline? Using two data sources — a representative survey of Dutch employees and a data set for European countries between 1950 and 1997 — the author examines the determinants of union decline. The theoretical model is based on a social custom approach to unionization, integrating rational choice and social network theory. The empirical results show improbable small margins of union resurgence, that is, if institutional support for union representation can be maintained or regained within and beyond workplaces.