Work–life balance in the EU and leave arrangements across welfare regimes

Work–life balance has been a central theme of the EU gender equality framework and has been promoted through both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ components. Although the EU concern in promoting work–life balance has been more to increase employment and economic productivity than to promote gender equality, all Member States have now established standards in accordance with the EU regulations. Statutory leave arrangements are a key component of work–life balance policies and they vary significantly across Member States with different welfare regime traditions. This study examines the transposition of EU Directives and the implications of the European Employment Strategy for leave arrangements across the UK, Denmark, France and Spain as exemplars of four welfare regimes.     

The subordination of the gender equality objective: the National Reform Programmes and ‘making work pay’ oplicies

The streamlining of the Lisbon strategy has introduced new integrated guidelines for economic policy and employment strategy and a new report format––the National Reform Programme. In the first year of this new reporting mechanism, Member States have paid less attention to gender mainstreaming and gender equality objectives, not least because the gender equality guideline has been removed. Streamlining has further exposed the narrow and instrumental focus on gender equality measures in the Lisbon process as a means of raising the employment rate rather than a broader concern for equal opportunity. This narrow gender equality approach also dilutes the efficacy of the economic and employment policies that are advanced. Some positive steps to advance gender equality continue to be taken, but the reforms are partial, uneven and coexist with negative developments. We illustrate this with an evaluation of the policy trajectory in relation to the ‘making work pay’ agenda for low‐waged workers (tax/benefit reform, minimum wages, childcare and parental leave). We conclude that this latest reform to the Lisbon process has exposed the enormous amount of political work and capacity building that is needed to mainstream gender issues across the whole field of economic, employment and social policies.     

Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual's job quality than the country or ‘national model’ they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.     

Does the Lisbon Treaty Effectively Limit the Power of the European Union?

Although the Lisbon Treaty recognises the necessity to limit the power of the European Union, some of its limitations are poorly expressed. As a result, the European Commission has the possibility to act arbitrarily by expanding Union power. The position of the Commission is pre‐eminent, notably with respect to the drafting of EU measures. Not only can the Commission expand Union power, but it may also favour certain actors at the expense of the principals (Member States and their citizens). Indeed, the Commission may apply definitions of the ‘common European interest’ that go beyond the preferences of the principals.     

The free movement of workers and social Europe: maintaining the European ideal

The big EU enlargement of 2004 has fuelled the debate about whether labour migration from the east to the west is causing social dumping in the European economy, with the effect of upsetting established national systems of labour market regulation. This article reviews the effects of migration on EU labour markets. It also examines three recent industrial relations disputes which were about job displacement. It argues that there is little evidence of greater labour mobility causing new social dumping pressures on a widespread basis. However, it goes on to suggest that the situation may change if the EU adopts neoliberal policies such as the initial draft Services Directive at the same time as promoting greater labour market openness between the Member States. The article concludes by arguing for a better policy mix which would on the one hand involve the EU maintaining its commitment to the free movement of workers and on the other hand strengthen labour standard‐setting mechanisms at both the EU and national levels.     

Enlargement and the European employment strategy: turbulent times ahead?

The European Employment Strategy (EES) is set to remain centre stage as the EU embraces ten new member states. The evidence regarding the prospects of the accession countries meeting the increasingly explicit targets that the EES has set for the years up to 2010 does not yield a favourable prognosis.     

Still a distinctive southern European employment model?

Current similarities among the four southern European EU Member States—Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain—with respect not only to labour market characteristics but also to the institutional arrangements that influence labour supply, utilisation and demand corroborate the concept of a distinctive southern European employment model. Its origins go back to common features in the pattern of socio‐economic development and the political history of these countries. In the past 20 years or so, national differences in the pace and content of institutional change have increased diversity within the model and eroded some of its components. They have not, however, destroyed its unity and distinctiveness.     

Gender‐based equal opportunities policy and practice in small firms: the impact of HR professionals1

This article assesses the impact of HR qualified professionals on the adoption of gender‐based equal opportunities policies and practices in small businesses. Earlier research has shown a low level of take‐up of equal opportunities initiatives in small firms. This article explores whether the presence of an HR professional in small to medium‐sized enterprises is associated with a greater level of take‐up of (a) gender‐based equality policies and (b) gender‐based equality practices than in small to medium‐sized enterprises that do not have such expertise. In doing so, the authors draw on empirical data from a recent European Social Fund sponsored study of equal opportunities policy and practice in small to medium‐sized enterprises in the UK. The main finding is that the presence of an HR professional is associated with a greater level of take‐up of formal equality policies, but not with the implementation of equality practices. The authors explore possible reasons for this and consider the implications for the HR profession and the promotion of equality of opportunity in the small business sector.     

Gender mainstreaming in the enlarged European Union: recent developments in the European employment strategy and Social Inclusion Process

The European Union (EU) has an explicit commitment to raise the employment rate for women and to advance gender mainstreaming (GM) and gender equality in both employment and social inclusion policies. In this article we assess developments in the latest round of National Action Plans (NAPs), with particular attention to the situations in the 10 new member states. GM continues to be patchy and inadequate, with a similarly narrow focus in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states. After enlargement, the greater diversity of national situations in conjunction with ongoing reforms to EU policy frameworks create new challenges for GM.     

Management Accounting: Retrospect and Prospect

In this paper we discuss regulation of the statutory auditor in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Previous research has addressed regulation of statutory auditors with respect to regulatory harmonization and the reduction of barriers to intra-European trade in professional services. While these are important goals, it has also been the policy of the European Commission to encourage high standards of auditing, which the Commission anticipates will evolve within the legal and regulatory frameworks of the Member States of the EU. In this regard, our paper seeks to investigate how auditor regulation is organized in three important EU economies. In particular we examine several key functions of auditor regulation and how these are deployed in the three countries investigated. In addition we provide some forward-looking comments concerning regulation of statutory auditors in the EU.     

Exits from temporary jobs in Europe: A competing risks analysis

We study transitions out of temporary jobs using the waves 1994–1999 of the European Community Household Panel applying a discrete time duration model. Specifically, we use a multinomial logit model distinguishing between exits into permanent employment and non-employment. Two different specifications are presented, one does not account for unobserved heterogeneity while the other does. Unobserved heterogeneity is assumed to follow a discrete distribution. The competing risks model is estimated jointly for all EU Member States. The duration dependence parameters suggest that in general for EU as a whole, very short contracts provide higher chances of labour market exclusion especially for men. We discuss potential implications of our findings.     

Assessing the prudence of economic forecasts in the EU

We estimate the EU Commission loss preferences for major economic forecasts of 12 Member States. Based on a recently proposed method by Elliott, Komunjer and Timmermann (2005) the paper provides evidence of asymmetries in the underlying forecast loss preference of the Commission that tend to vary across Member States. In some cases, our results show that EU forecasts tend to display a rather optimistic picture for main economic variables, e.g. government balance, thus allowing a certain degree of leeway in the fiscal adjustment path towards the medium‐term objective of ‘close to balance’ or ‘in surplus’ of the recently revised Stability and Growth Pact. Over the period of our sample, 1970–2004, this apparent asymmetry in the underlying loss preferences tends to deter prudent advice over economic policy. Lastly, we provide an analysis on the trade‐off between loss and distribution asymmetries, for which simulation results show that the testing method is robust in the presence of skewness. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intra‐European labour migration and low‐wage competition—comparing the Danish and Swedish experiences across three sectors

The article compares how low‐wage competition and labour migration from EU11 Member States affect industrial relations and working conditions for natives and migrants in three sectors (transport, cleaning and agriculture) in Denmark and Sweden. The analysis shows how already vulnerable sectors with below‐average union density and collective agreements—especially geographical dispersed sectors—are strongly affected.     

Labour market developments in the new EU Member States

The impact of the latest EU enlargements—with the arrival of 10 new Member States in May 2004 and the addition of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007—had been a subject of concern given their low initial living standards (around half the EU average). In practice, the experience has been largely positive, with strong inward investment and significant improvements in economic growth, employment and incomes, especially in the last two years. However, regional imbalances have worsened—notably between city regions and others—and job prospects for the unskilled have declined dramatically. Moreover, because industrial relations systems in the new Member States remain seriously underdeveloped, progress in embracing the EU social model (in all its diversity) is slow and uneven.     

How to close the gender pay gap in Europe: towards the gender mainstreaming of pay policy

The European Employment Strategy includes a new commitment to a substantial reduction in the gender pay gap in European Union (EU) member states, but progress requires a radical shift away from the traditional policy emphasis on the supply‐side deficiencies of women compared with men. Mainstream theory argues that gender inequality is reduced once the pay gap is ‘adjusted’ for differences in individual characteristics (education, experience, etc.). But new empirical studies in many EU member states demonstrate that the work environment—the general wage structure, job and workplace characteristics—shapes gender pay inequality. Given the negative gender impact of trend declines in minimum wages, moves towards more decentralisation of wage‐setting and public sector restructuring, the article argues for a holistic, gender mainstreaming approach to pay policy.     

Job creation and labour market flexibility: miracle or mirage on the Polish labour market?

Poland's post‐communist economic performance has been generally good. However, for many years, its growth was jobless; it exhibited very high unemployment rates and made little progress towards the targets set for EU Member States and accession countries. Unexpectedly, in 2003, the country's labour market began to exhibit a new dynamism, with employment growing strongly and unemployment tumbling. This apparent improvement coincided with a liberalisation of its Labour Code. Unfortunately, the measures introduced to increase flexibility are at variance with the EU's Fixed‐term Work Directive and will likely need to be modified, which may conceivably reverse the recent developments that form the focus of this article.     

Short‐term monitoring of fiscal policy discipline

Under the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), European Union (EU) Member States commit themselves to avoid excessive deficits over 3% of GDP and to pursue the medium‐term objective of budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus. The SGP also provides regulation for the surveillance of budgetary positions. An analysis of tools for the surveillance of budgetary positions is the focus of this paper. In particular, it addresses two open issues in the empirical public finance literature which are crucial for monitoring fiscal policy discipline in the EU. First, the estimation of the structural component of the fiscal balance ratio. Second, the computation, when only annual fiscal data are available, of quarterly budget balance ratios, using relevant information from quarterly measured macroeconomic series. An econometric model that addresses both issues is presented and estimated. Additionally, this modelling framework allows us to answer questions such as: what is the safety margin that will prevent a particular country from reaching, with certain probability, a budget deficit that breaches the 3% upper bound? Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employee ‘voice’ and working environment in post‐communist New Member States: an empirical analysis of Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania

This article examines employee ‘voice’ in workplace health and safety in three Baltic New Member States by means of a cross‐national survey. The data point to unresolved problems of voice in the context of rather poor working environments. These present opportunities for collective renewal by trade unions, but paradoxically are more likely to be addressed by employers in the context of significant labour shortages created by a post‐European Union accession labour ‘exit’.     

Bookshelf 2005

Books reviewed: The Emergence of European Trade Unionism Jean‐Louis Robert, Antoine Prost and Chris Wrigley (eds) Ashgate, 2004, 254 pp., £49.50
Reviewed by Ralph Darlington
University of Salford Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States Gerda Falkner, Oliver Treib, Mirian Hartlapp and Simone Leiber CUP, 2005, 404 pp., £45.00 (hardback), £19.99 (paperback)
Reviewed by Brian Towers
University of Nottingham European Integration and Industrial Relations: Multi‐level Governance in the Making Paul Marginson and Keith Sisson Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, 360 pp., £60.00 (hardback)
Reviewed by Tony Royle
National University of Ireland, Galway The Future of Work in Europe Paul Littlewood, Ignace Glorieux and Ingrid Jonsson (eds) Ashgate, 2004, 262 pp., £45.00
Reviewed by Paul Teague
Queen's University, Belfast