Change is a permanent feature of market economies. What is new in today's world is the pace, breadth and depth of economic change and the industrial restructuring that this entails. Over the past two decades, industrialized countries have witnessed a level of industrial restructuring which, in its scope and tempo, has probably been without historic precedent.[...] A central question has become whether labour standards impede necessary changes in economic units, industrial structures, and employment groth, as the well-established current of neoliberal thinking would maintain or whether, on the contrary, labour standards and the institutions through which they are delivered constitute viable channels for industrial innovation, economic dynamism, and sustainable development, as another school of academics, policymakers and practitioners would hold. The present volume directly addresses this debate and contains a number of contributions which lay out the arguments for and against labour standards in relation to economic performance [...] provides analyses of industrial restructuring at the firm, industry, regional, national and international levels, and includes detailed case studies of experiences in Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, the United States, Canada and Australia [...] develops conceptual perspectives on labour standards, provides comparative overviews of their impact, and trace the evolution of labour standard-setting at the level of the European Community and in the international economy.

This book analyses the current conditions of work in the Indian factory sector, and provides a critical analysis of the wage, profit and productivity behaviour in India’s organised manufacturing sector over the last two decades. Examining the specificities of the conditions of industrial workers, it addresses three major questions:/-//-/- What has happened to the relative shares of profits and wages;/-/- How do we explain the levels and changes and;/-/- Are better labour standards antithetical to the project of industrial restructuring?/-//-/The author also examines the problem of industrial restructuring in India within the broader context of power and inequality in the workplace. He argues that even though the existing laws mandate decent labour conditions, India has been unable to implement them because of the minimalist position taken by successive governments./-//-/Providing new and fascinating insights into industrial growth, labour standards and development in the framework of globalisation, this book will interest students and scholars of economics, economic history, political science and sociology, as well as students of management and labour relations.

This bulletin presents a comparative analysis of the degree of worker protection available today in nine countries in the event of corporate restructuring. The countries are France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Each of the papers, presented by a noted industrial relations scholar from the country in question, proceeds from a summary of the national legal framework governing corporate restructuring, through the succession of employment contracts, to an analysis of such major components of the problem as justification of economic dismissals and changes in terms and conditions of employment. Specific topics covered in each analysis include the following: special legislation covering transfer of undertakings treatment of insolvent corporations economic dismissals before and after corporate restructuring transfer of workers in lieu of dismissal the role of labour unions and works councils The authors pay particular attention to the effectiveness of employee protection legislation such as the EC Transfer of Undertaking Directive (and its implementation by Member States) and Japan's Labour Contract Succession Law and, in the case of the United States, the virtual absence of such legislation. These papers were originally presented at the Sixth Tokyo Seminar (March 2002) of the Japan Institute of Labour. Their penetrating individual analysis and revealing comparative perspective is sure to help policymakers, lawyers, academics, and other specialists in industrial relations find a way forward in this important area that recognizes the best interests of both employers and employees.

Since the introduction of structural adjustment policies in the 1980s, the ILO has expressed concern that their implementation should be consistent with basic ILO standards, particularly certain core human rights conventions.