ASOK05302U Globalisation and Employment Relations in Europe

The course focuses on globalisation and challenges in relation to labour markets and employment relations. The changes introduced by information technology, multinational companies, and world trade rules and new migrations are examined as crucial factors of globalisation, which might impact in labour relations and labour rights and challenge the traditional national- centred practices and strategies of social actors (namely employers organisations and trade unions), The course examines the impact of financial and economic crisis and austerity policies in European countries from a comparative perspective with focus on: labour law reforms and labour market flexibility; wage and working time flexibility arrangements, collective bargaining decentralization and employees participation; employment protection and flexicurity; and active labour market policies.

The  course will examine supra national European policies and trends in relation to austerity and labour market reforms and their impact in to member states labour market regulations.

The course focus also on the strategies and responses of labour market actors, and bargaining processes, in European countries, at the local, sector national and supranational level, and to the role played by European supranational institutions in relation to those processes.