*** ELISE DERMINE, DANIEL DUMONT (Eds.): Activation Policies for the Unemployed, the Right to Work and the Duty to Work. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Work & Society" series, No. 79. 2014, 280 pp, €47.10. ISBN 978-2-87574-232-2.
One after the other, European, and more broadly, Western, countries have passed and introduced activation policies for the unemployed. Was this the price to be paid to preserve social security systems shaken by the growing economic and social crisis? Perhaps. It is, at least, what is claimed by many of Europe's leaders. Are they right to do so? This book's authors did not have the aim of answering this question. At the symposium that brought them together at the European Trade Union Institute two years ago, on the initiative of the public law centre at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Université Catholique de Louvain's interdisciplinary research centres on labour, the State and society, and law, enterprise and society, they studied and analysed the phenomenon against the backdrop of the right to work and the duty to work, which underlie social welfare systems. In doing so, the authors have made a very useful contribution.
By using coercive measures that are often the corollary of activation policies, does the duty to work distort the right to work? This is the hypothesis of the ten authors, which is perfectly resumed in the introduction by researcher Elise Dermine (of the Université Catholique de Louvain) and Daniel Dumont, professor of social law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. They start by explaining that in modern society, the value of labour has been invested with many functions whose coexistence had led it to then being considered for ethical reasons as an individual duty and as a right vis-à-vis society, and also as the main vector of social cohesion and peace. Hence the moral duty for everyone to participate in the well-being (economic well-being) of society. At the same time, labour is also the precondition for humanity to be able to achieve its potential, which is why in return society had the ethical duty to 'ensure all its members have the effective possibility to find a job in which they can flourish.' Hence the construction of social protection systems consisted of striking the right balance between individual aspirations - the freedom to choose a job that allows personal development - and collective constraint justified by the general interest. There was, of course, something of squaring the circle about this, in which liberals oppose socialists until the time after the two world wars when there was a 'gradual conversion to Keynesianism' that allowed the blossoming of social security systems where the right to unemployment benefit became a kind of substitute for the right to work, although it risked breaching the freedom to choose a job because it required its beneficiaries to remain available for work on the job market. It is this threat that has become tangible in the wake of the mass structural unemployment that has been constantly on the rise since the 1970s and which now takes the form of activation policies. Are the latter in themselves synonymous with the authoritarian re-merchandising of beneficiaries of welfare benefits? The authors don't think so, but they agree with Elise Dermine and Daniel Dumont that supporting the current 'exacerbation of coercion' means that the right to work is reduced these days to an implacable duty.
Against this backdrop, the book divides the analyses into four sections. The first looks at the subject from the historical and philosophical angles, while the second examines how the tension between the right to work and the duty to work manifests differently in activation policies implemented in France, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other. In the third part of the book, activation policies are assessed by Elise Dermine and two other authors in the light of the human right that they say the right to work is, and international jurisprudence banning forced labour. Finally, the fourth section is devoted to future prospects, with Yannick Vanderborght calling for a revisiting of the idea of a universal basic benefit as a palliative for coercive activation measures. This author, who is a professor of politics at Université Saint-Louis de Bruxelles, says that the idea of a universal benefit has been defended by thinkers since the eighteenth century as 'fair compensation for the private appropriation of natural resources' and is not an outdated notion because alongside the fact that it is defended by well-known economists, 'citizenship revenue' has been a reality in the state of Alaska since the 1980s. His well-backed case is far from the least interesting parts of this fine book, whose summing up is done by Prof. Olivier De Schutter, who talks of the need to redefine an answer to the question of activation policies that is based on human rights.
Michel Theys
*** SEBASTIAN KÜNZEL: Implementing Activation Policies. An Analysis of Social and Labour Market Policy Reforms in Continental Europe with a Focus on Local Case Studies in France and Germany. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P. O. Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2015, 327 pp, €59.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65107-0.
A researcher at the World Trade Organisation, Sebastian Künzel starts off by noting that the beneficiaries of minimum income are ever more numerous in European welfare states. The states have therefore had to adapt, introducing more active policies to get the unemployed into work or back into work. After explaining the techniques used to introduce activation policies, the author looks at case studies from France and Germany. The policies are applied differently at local level, which reinforces the author's theory that local organisation is crucial for the introduction of activation policies for the unemployed.
(HHe)
*** CHRISTINE AQUATIAS: Entre conventions collectives et salaire minimum. Syndicats, patronat et conventions collectives en Allemagne de 1992 à 2008. Peter Lang (see above). "Convergences" series, No. 85. 2015, 417 pp, €88.30. ISBN 978-3-0343-1603-3.
There has been much talk in recent months about the lack of a minimum wage in Germany, but the situation has now been resolved. This book by a doctor of Germanic studies who lectures at the political studies institute of Strasbourg University gives a very detailed explanation of all the historical foundations of this topic. Christine Aquatias takes a both scientific and exhaustive look at what was for a long time specific to Germany, namely the system of branch-level collective bargaining that was for a long time seen, in Germany and elsewhere, as the archetype of a civilised way to manage divergent interests (the interests of bosses and workers). In the American and British occupied zone of Germany, on 22 April 1949, a law was passed on collective bargaining that marked the irresistible return of a system of negotiation among social partners that swept national socialism aside (Germany would go on to have no fewer than 70,000 collectively-bargained agreements in 2009). It was on the sixtieth anniversary of this system granting the social partners decision-making autonomy from the State that Christine Aquatias decided to carry out a detailed scientific study of the matter. To this end, she decided to use an in-depth consultation of publications from the two research institutes related to the stakeholders in this system, namely an institute close to employers, Institute der deutschen Wirtschaft, and the other a part of the Hans Böckler Foundation, which is the German Confederation of Trade Unions' body for promoting the co-management of research. By comparing and contrasting the different sensitivities expressed in these publications, the author seeks to understand what is special about this system and particularly the attacks it was constantly under from 1992 - when the former Democratic Republic of East Germany entered the federal fold, as the Maastricht Treaty was born - to 2008, in other words a short time before individual minimum pay came into force. She looks in the book in turn at the historical and legal framework for the system, proceeded by a chronological expose of its changes over five periods, and studies the behaviour of the social partners in the changing situations and, finally, assesses the role played by the European economic environment in the changes that have taken place.
(PBo)
*** INGA HILDEBRAND: Arbeitnehmerschutz von geschäftsführenden Gesellschaftsorganen im Lichte der Danosa-Entscheidung des EuGH. Peter Lang (see above). "Beiträge zum Wirtschafts-, Bank- und Arbeitsrecht" series. 2014, 372 pp, €44.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65386-9.
This thesis by Inga Hildebrand looks at the scope of the Danosa ruling of 11 November 2010, in which the European Court of Justice agreed with a manager/associate of a Latvian capital fund who took the company to court for dismissing her when she became pregnant. Such a ruling assumes that the Court considers the plaintiff as an employee in the meaning of the EU directive improving health and safety conditions for pregnant women, those who have recently given birth and women nursing their babies at work. The decision has huge consequences in German law because until then, it was far from obvious for the various courts dealing with such matters in Germany that manager/associates of a limited company under German law should be considered as employees. Inga Hildebrand describes the scope of this ruling in German domestic law, firstly indicating which members of company management bodies are likely to be concerned by such a decision and what criteria are workable for considering such members as employees. The author also outlines the general limits of the influence of such a ruling by indicating the legal standards (case law) which the innovative ruling clashes with.
(GLe)
*** MICHAEL AU: Das Übergangsmandat der Arbeitnehmervertretungen. Peter Lang (see above). "Schriften zum Recht der Arbeit" series. 2014, 278 pp, €64.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65174-2.
Legislating in the domain of the transitional mandate on enterprise councils and other paid worker representation bodies had become an absolute necessity because of the reunification of Germany and the transfer of ownership of many former East German companies, and also because of globalisation, and its accompanying batch of divisions, mergers and takeovers. Michael Au's thesis look at the demands made by European legislation, particularly EU Directive 2001/23/EC. In his reasoning, the author looks at whether and how the German law on the social organisation of companies (a law of 28 July 2001) properly meets EU requirements. He also describes the potential consequences of wrong application of the Directive. He looks at legislation passed by the German federal legislator, along with laws passed at Länder level, and pays particular attention to application of the EU Directive on the representation of paid workers in ecclesiastical institutions.
(GLe)
*** LEA FREY: Arbeitnehmerähnliche Personen in der Betriebsverfassung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Arbeitsschutzrechts. Peter Lang (see above). "Recht der Arbeit und der sozialen Sicherheit" series. 2014, 278 pp, €59.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65251-0.
The author of this thesis examines the extent to which the employee rights arising from the EU Directive 89/391/EEC are applied in Germany. In so doing, Lea Frey focusses on people with a legal status deemed the equivalent of that of an employee (freelancers with a signle client or only a few clients, home workers, temporary workers etc) who are not directly covered by the German law on the social organisation of companies. In the light of her research, she notes a gap between what the EU directive foresees in terms of protection of these workers deemed to be the equivalent of employees when it comes to security, protection at work and the right to be represented on company bodies, and also in terms of the German law on the social organisation of companies. For this reason, she proposes an extension of application of the latter law in order to ensure that its protection also covers people with a legal status deemed to be the equivalent of that of an employee.
(GLe)
*** CHRISTINE KUMPF: Multinationalität der SE-Mitbestimmungsordnung. Peter Lang (see above). "Schriften zum Arbeitsrecht und Wirtschaftsrecht" series. 2014, 228 pp, €54.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65564-1.
Christine Kumpf's thesis looks at worker involvement in a European company, as foreseen under EU Directive 2001/86/EC, in addition to which in Germany there is a special law on worker involvement in European companies. After giving a history of the laws in this domain from the angle of the concepts of multinationality, supranationality and transnationality, and after describing referrals to other countries' legislation by the German legal system, the author presents an analysis of richly documented comparative law looking at the negotiation procedure, relevant measures in foreign law that apply in Germany - there are many of them but their scope is variable - and measures concerning the status of individuals. The thesis is also useful because it analyses the incoherencies within EU legislation, such as the clashes between the directive and the German application law, and more importantly, makes suggestions about how the directive and the German law can be corrected and improved to ensure greater coherence and better visibility.
(GLe)