*** EDOARDO ALES, OLAF DEINERT, JEFF KENNER (Editors): Core and Contingent Work in the European Union. A Comparative Analysis. Hart Publishing (Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford, OX2 9PH, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 – fax: 510710 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk . 2017, 315 pp. £60. ISBN 978-1-78225-868-1.
Their adventure began in 1983 in the Tuscan confident of Pontignano owned by the University of Siena. Since then, European specialists in labour law have resumed the habit of meeting up again every year in a propitious place for reflection at a weekly seminar focusing on a precise theme. These university lecturers and researchers originally came from Italy, Germany, France, Spain and United Kingdom but their circle subsequently expanded to include colleagues from Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. This book provides an account of the work they carried out in 2014 for the 31st time. The conclusion of this work has helped this circle of contributors ultimately lead to new experts in labour law joining them from Hungary and Sweden.
The theme of this meeting focused on the major upheavals currently taking place in this hour of victory, as immediately referred to by Professor Edoardo Ales (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio), of “the well-known adaptability, in the EU jargon”. This theme is usually tackled in the perspective of the dichotomy between what is described as typical or atypical work. On this occasion it looks at the dichotomy between the work undertaken within the heart of an enterprise involving stable jobs and the part relegated to the margins of this enterprise and the situation involving a wide variety of precarious jobs. The book begins with a depiction provided by Professor Antonio Lo Faro (University of Catania) of areas of work such as self-employment and triangular employment relationships such as temporary agency work or services for contracting-out, which involve, on the contrary, part-time and fixed-term contracts. The authors consider that all areas of work are affected by uncertainty and insecurity.
What are the legal questions at stake in these relatively"new" forms of employment? What are the instruments marginalising workers in relation to be company for which they work? Do the national systems include legal measures to contain any irregularities and/or or tackle their subsequent effects? What are the main questions to which the specialists contributing to this publication provide their answers? The value of the approach resulting from spirit of Pontignano can be located in the way that there is a response provided on the basis of a national report with each of them focusing on a question and legal instrument that symbolises, in the eyes of the researcher, the attitude of the country to the way in which employment has evolved. There are therefore ten "cognitive prototypes": Germany, insofar as this involves the question involves how it tackles temporary work; Belgium, with regard to employment conditions and its legislation on fixed term contracts; Spain, with regard to the “suspicious' success of self-employment”; the United Kingdom for inverting the flexicurity paradigm through its “zero contract hours”; Hungary for the relocation of work, namely tele-working and work at home; France, for the externalisation of employment and concept of "co-employment"; Sweden, for the inter-generational dimension of this phenomenon and, finally, Austria with regard to social protection these "new" workers benefit from in this country.
It is indeed the case that the wealth of the analysis and reflection provided in this book makes it extremely difficult to provide an accurate account of all the issues contained within it. We will simply point out three of the conclusions provided by Edoardo Ales et Olaf Deinert (University of Georg-August de Göttingen) which help us to understand the stakes at play and challenges created by this evolution in the world of work in the European Union and the fact that none of these countries has developed "An overall legislative strategy" in this area even though, “the adoption of such occupational policies has the effect of increasing the number of unprotected work relationships”. This is no cause for resignation, however, because they put forward a number of proposals that would be useful for the European institutions to consider, given that they also remind them that, “social and economic cohesion is the right answer to social and economic exclusion which is likely, at present, not only to increase poverty but also to fuel extremism and radicalism among those put at the margin of European society”... Michel Theys
*** Sens et avenir du travail. La 95ème Semaine sociale du Mouvement ouvrier chrétien. ASBL Politique (9 rue du Faucon, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5386996 – Email: info@politique.eu.org – Internet: http://www.revuepolitique.org ). "Politique”, No.1. 2017, 106 pp. €8.
The 95th social week of the Belgian Christian Workers Movement focused exclusively on the question of the direction and future of employment. This publication provides the acts covered by the Fondation Travail-Université in this connection. The main theme retained is obviously extremely contemporary insofar as work is now increasingly more precarious at a time when it remains an area of suffering for some workers but no less so for those without it. Every day the model of a permanent full-time job with the guaranteed appropriate salary and social protection worthy of the name is being taken apart almost everywhere in Europe, to the point that it could become an almost utopian dream for younger generations. The increasing power of the digitalised economy is not going to provide them with much reassurance in this connection either… This explains the red lines and contributions made in this publication: are European societies currently emancipating themselves from the world of work and if this is the case, what are the consequences going to be? Above all, in what kind of future would it be good and reasonable for people aware about social issues to mobilise in response to developing scenarios involving the collaborative economy, universal income and the digital the economy? A diagnosis is provided in the context of the way in which suffering in the workplace has been managed over the past few decades. The situation involving those in precarious situations is then described, “without work or in bad jobs” at a time when austerity is depriving, “the public services of the means and equipment, which leads to even more insecurity for the less well off”. There's also the question of the perverse ramifications of globalisation, especially in the clothing sector, which is followed by a contribution by Professor Gérard Valenduc, who seeks to identify what the digitalisation of the economy represents and what is perhaps a synonym for the 4th Industrial Revolution. A number of insights are also provided with regard to the main controversies involving the collective redistribution of working time, the democratisation of this phenomenon and, ultimately, the future of social protection, a question behind which is concealed discussions regarding the opportunity or not to promote a citizens' income. As part of his conclusion, Christian Kunsch, the President of the Christian Workers Movement points out that the model of salaried employees is under attack from all sides and that, “employment has become a merchandise like all others, which contributes to the discontent felt by citizens with regard to politics and the institutions”. He does not give into any resignation on this question, however, and instead calls on people to immediately start developing, “Utopias of the kind of world that we would like". (MT)
*** GABRIEL AMITSIS: Les initiatives emblématiques pour préserver la cohésion sociale au moment des Mémorandums : le modèle de la stratégie nationale d'inclusion sociale. La réforme de l'État social. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2017, 416 pp. €26.50. ISBN 978-960-02-3263-9.
The goal of this study by a lecturer in social security law at the department of administration for health and well-being at the University of Athens is to highlight the flagship initiatives of the Greek government during the implementation of the first two Stability Memoranda for the Greek Economy, which created the framework for introducing new social cohesion safeguard policies. In this way, the foundations of a coherent and integrated Social Security in favour of vulnerable groups were posed. The appropriate initiatives involved in this area of social inclusion helped shape perspectives for an integrated assault in state policies against poverty and social inclusion. This involved the Green Paper on the national strategy for social integration (2013) and the national strategy for social inclusion (2014). These two texts provided the principles for the first time in the socio-political debate in Greece on the ideological model for active integration and the social active state. Gabriel Amitsis is also a lawyer and explains that this model completes the traditional policies for reducing poverty by pursuing three fundamental priorities: (a) supporting the income of people who do not have sufficient resources; (b) supporting the labour market by taking measures to promote employment; (c) improving access to services. The author also points out that these strategic initiatives have not been transposed since the 2015-16 period into the necessary legislation, which led to a genuine revision process in the Greek Social Security system. As a result, the Greek state has remained institutionally vulnerable during the implementation of the 3rd economic and financial policy programme to the sharpening social challenges arising during the crisis. Consequently, Greece has continued to have to confront serious structural problems and international deficits over the past few years, whilst having been scarcely able to guarantee a viable network of active inclusion for the most socially vulnerable groups of the population and which continue to pose a danger to the development of society and cohesion of the country. (AKa)
*** THOMAS KOSTERA: When Europa meets Bismarck. How Europe is used in the Austrian Healthcare system. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Bruxelles. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - fax: 6503794 – Email: editions@ulb.ac.be – Internet: http://www.editions_universite-bruxelles.be/ ). « Etudes européennes » series. 2016, 238 pp. €28. ISBN 978-2-8004-1611-3.
What happens when the European Union sets out new rules for providing cross-border healthcare when previously this was reserved for the people living on a specific national territory? Is the Union destabilised in a way that existing social solidarity at national level is destabilised? Do those responsible for health systems tend to provide resistance to this Europeanisation? These are some of the responses to these questions in this book, which is an abridged version of a PhD thesis at the Université libre in Brussels. The political scientist, Thomas Kostera, formulates these responses in light of a particular case in Austria, which initially highlighted the characteristics of a Bismarckian welfare state and the way in which the health system actors there operate. He describes and analyses the way in which they navigate between national institutional constraints and European opportunities and how they seek to assess whether these cross-border openings have destabilised welfare at a national level in Austria. He demonstrates that cross-border health provision is now a well integrated practice, in a country whose health system has been modified during the four changes of political regime over a 150 year period, with European integration constituting the fourth. Above all, this political scientist currently working at a European foundation on the subject of healthcare digitalisation, demonstrated in this book, the different levels of flexibility and resilience of the national welfare models. (PBo)
*** ANTIGONI LIMBERAKI: Les femmes dans l'économie. Editions Papadopoulos (9 Kapodistriou, GR-14452 Metamorphosi. Tel: (30-210) 2846074-5 – fax: 2817127 – email: info@epbooks.gr – Internet: http://www.epbooks.gr ).« Petits livres pour les problèmes d’aujourd’hui » series. 2017, 112 pp. €10.99. ISBN 978-960-569-690-0.
What exactly is equality of work and why is it an important issue for women who work? Does employment affect their own freedom and autonomy and does it also affect the entire economy and society? Is the problem that has been resolved everywhere except in Greece? This small book tackles these major questions from both national and international perspectives. The author is a lecturer at the Department of Economic and Regional Development at the University of Pantheon in Athens. Antigoni Limberaki provides a number of answers to some key questions, particularly with regard to whether women’s behaviour is different to men and whether equality is indeed something on tomorrow's agenda. She also decrypts the place occupied women in the workplace in Greece by comparing the current situation to what previously existed. These snapshots also illustrate the question of gender in the economy at international and national levels. The book is further enriched by exclamatory notes and an extensive bibliography. (AKa)