Exploring the case for European Union intervention in domestic labour law, this monograph sets out the various arguments which can be made for EU intervention. It goes on to consider the different ways in which the EU has intervened, aiming to provide insight into the implications of shifts in policy-making technique.

In an unresolved ongoing debate, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is often included among the institutional actors responsible for the declining condition of labour law in Europe. Has its case law been more protective of employers’ interests than of workers’ rights? This innovative book greatly enhances the discussion by bringing to light the judicial lawmaking logic, other than those pertaining to the balancing of social and business values, that drive the CJEU’s reasoning in its interpretation of the labour law provisions enshrined in the European Union (EU) law, with particular attention to the directive on transfer of undertakings. Addressing fundamental issues – such as uneven bargaining power, labour as a commodity, coexistence of workers’ rights and the market economy – in the context of judicial lawmaking, the author clearly defines the tensions at work: What normative models underlie the approaches of EU institutional policymakers with respect to labour law? Does the CJEU have its own vision of the socioeconomic model to which the Union should adhere? How does the CJEU’s interpretative approach stand in relation to the transformation processes that regulators impose on labour law? Is the CJEU particularly attentive to the preferences expressed by national governments, especially those from the most politically influential states, or rather reflect the political pressure of the European Commission? What is the role of trans-judicial dynamics in shaping the CJEU’s reasoning in labour law cases? The study is extraordinarily thorough, drawing on a wide range of policy documents, scholarly and doctrinal research, and the entire body of the CJEU’s case law on transfer of undertakings. The legal arguments that the CJEU has developed over the years are mapped and classified according to their affinity with the labour law functions that underlie them. With its comprehensive assessment of the normative implications of EU policymaking in the labour and social domains, its thorough exploration of the CJEU’s judicial lawmaking dynamics, and its extensive empirical legal analysis of the CJEU’s case law on transfer of undertakings, the book has no peers in revealing the forces that guide the CJEU’s decisions in the realm of labour law. Of particular value to scholars and researchers interested in EU social policies and constitutional law, the book will also prove of immeasurable value to labour law practitioners aiming to use the case law of the CJEU, as well as to in-house counsel, industrial relation specialists, and trade unionists.

Research Handbook on EU Labour Law features contributions from leading scholars in the field. Part I addresses cross-cutting themes, such as the relationship between EU law and national law, the role of human rights in EU labour law, and the impact of austerity measures. In Part II, the contributors focus on topics in individual and collective labour law at EU level, including working time and job security. Finally, Part III offers a comprehensive overview of the EU’s interventions in equality law.

The absolute package for students of employment law, this rigorous treatment - which includes extracts from key cases and source materials - uses a running case study to contextualize the law and actively encourages critical thinking.

With a focus on how directly the conditions of access to employment are modified by EU legislation and case law, this important book critically analyses the mandate by which the EU constrains domestic competences to regulate access to labour markets. The author identifies an ‘EU public-social order approach’ – a set of norms imposed by EU institutions on domestic authorities in the performance of a task with social implications. In the area of access to labour markets, this approach is characterized by the following measures and objectives: prohibition of certain forms of discrimination in access to employment, which enhances the protection of individuals; facilitation of the cross-border allocation of workforce among Member States, which requires domestic decision-makers to give equal chances to all EU citizens; and promotion of the economic competitiveness of domestic labour markets, which affects the rights of third country nationals. The presentation assesses the effectiveness of this public-social order approach – in particular as revealed in ECJ case law – as a tool to increase economic efficiency, advance distributive justice, and ensure protection of dignity. By way of detailed example, the author examines reforms of employment contract law and economic migration law in France, and for purposes of comparison illustrates parallel movements in defining the principle of equality as manifested in U.S. law. Thorough and incisive, this analysis of the constraints imposed by EU law on the exercise by domestic institutions of their competence in regulating labour markets is valuable not only to lawyers and academics in employment law, but also of great interest to jurists and policymakers in the wider field of European law as an accurate overview of the tensions between EU constraints and the tools used by national policy makers.

In an empirical study of the interaction between law, adjudication, and conflicts about behavior in the workplace, Lizzie Barmes analyses how labor and equality rights operate in practice in the UK. Arguing that individual employment rights have a Janus-faced quality, simultaneously challenging and sustaining existing distributions of power between management and employees, she calls for legal intervention at work to focus on resolving tensions between collective and individual concerns across the range of workplaces, and to stimulate the expression and reconciliation of different viewpoints in the implementation and enforcement of individual legal entitlements. Based on extensive primary research, the volume surveys and analyses experiences and attitudes towards negative behavior in the workplace, and explains relevant employment and equality law as it has developed from 1995 to the present day, covering the major case law and legislative developments over this time. This book provides qualitative analysis of authoritative UK judgments about behavioral conflict at work from 1995 to 2010, as well as of interviews with senior managers and senior lawyers, allowing the reader first-hand insight into the influence of law and legal process on problems and conflict at work.

This book is driven by a quest to re-regulate work to reduce informality and inequality, and promote a living wage for more people across the world. It presents the findings of a multidisciplinary study in four countries of varying wealth and development, exploring why people become trapped in precarious work. The accounts describe the impact of supply chain governance, trade agreements, internal and between-country migration, legal factors, as well as the socio-economic characteristics and outlooks of the workers. In a unique approach, the chapters describe existing labour regulation measures that have succeeded, but which have to date attracted little scholarly attention. Building on these existing innovations, the book proposes a new international labour law which would incrementally increase the wages of the poor and regulate precarious work in global supply chains.

"Political economy themes have - directly and indirectly - been a central concern of law and legal scholarship ever since political economy emerged as a concept in the early seventeenth century, a development which was re-inforced by the emergence of political economy as an independent area of scholarly enquiry in the eighteenth century, as developed by the French physiocrats. This is not surprising in so far as the core institutions of the economy and economic exchanges, such as property and contract, are legal institutions.In spite of this intrinsic link, political economy discourses and legal discourses dealing with political economy themes unfold in a largely separate manner. Indeed, this book is also a reflection of this, in so far as its core concern is how the law and legal scholarship conceive of and approach political economy issues"--

This title assesses EU law and policy using a novel and alternative framework based on the notion of humaneness.

The concept of the employer has been surprisingly ignored in employment and corporate law, leaving protective norms unable to grapple with modern work arrangements. This book scrutinises the received concept of a unitary employer providing a functional reconceptualization as a framework for future arguments and coherent judicial decision-making.