Labour Standards in the new EU member states: Convergence or Divergence?

Abstract

This project continues a key theme of Charles Woolfson:s European Commission Marie Curie Chair Excellence Award (2004-2007) in the Baltic states i.e., labour standards, decent work in the form of regularised employment relations, access to training, and the character of the working environment in terms of occupational health and safety in the post-communist states. It explores the difficulties in securing regulated labour standards, as against ongoing counter-tendencies towards the informalisation of employment relations. It also asks how these labour standards are changing in the context of European Union enlargement and what empirical evidence there is of the integrative impacts of European directives and regulations on working life and work environment in the new member states ie., convergence or divergence.

Keywords

Decent work agenda, European integration, Labour standards/rights, working environment, regulation

Publications

C. Woolfson and I. Vanadzins (2014) Historical and contemporary challenges to workplace health and safety practice in Latvia. Policy and Practice in Occupational Health and Safety, 12 (2): 47-65.

C. Woolfson and A. Juska (2014) Neoliberal Austerity and Corporate Crime: The collapse of the Maxima supermarket in Riga, Latvia, New Solutions: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health Policy, 24(2): 129-152.

C. Woolfson, (2011a) “Precarious work in times of crisis: Regulatory Discourses and Labour Standards”, in M. Sargeant and M. Giovanone (eds) Health and Safety and Vulnerable Workers in a Changing World of Work, Farnham: Gower Publishing, (forthcoming).

C. Woolfson, (2011b) “Latvia: Lacking in Competence?” in J. Winterton and L. Magnusson (eds) Trade Union Strategies for Competence Development, London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-55428-2 (forthcoming).

C. Woolfson, (2010) The sense of measure and societies without limit, discussant response to Alain Supiot, international workshop on Constitutionalising Employment Relations, Social & Legal Studies, 19, 2: 226-231.

C. Woolfson, D. Calite and E. Kallaste, (2009) Employee voice and working environment in the New Member States: Translating policy into practice in the Baltic States, in D. Walters and T. Nichols (eds) Workplace Health and Safety – International Perspectives on Worker Representation, London: Palgrave/Macmillan. pp. 134-153.

C. Woolfson and D. Calite, (2008) Working Environment in the new EU Member State of Lithuania: Examining a worst case example, Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, 6, 1:.3-29.

C. Woolfson, D. Calite and E. Kallaste, (2008)”Employee voice and working environment in post-communist New Member States: An empirical analysis of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Industrial Relations Journal, 39, 4: 314-34.

C. Woolfson, (2008) European Briefing: Social Dialogue and Life-long learning in the new EU member states: reform fit in Latvia, Journal of European Social Policy, 18, 1: 79-87.

C. Woolfson, (2007) Pushing the envelope: The informalisation of labour in post-communist new EU Member States, Work, Employment and Society, 21, 3: 551-564.

C. Woolfson, (2007) The envelope scandal: A Lithuanian tale, International Union Rights, vol. 14, January,13-14.

C. Woolfson and D. Calite, (2007) New European Community strategy for health and safety: The elephant in the room, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 13, 2: 343-357.