The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

'EC Employment Law' provides a thorough and authoritative guide to EC law on employment, within a social and economic context. Extensive coverage is given of complex equality caselaw and legislation, and many issues not covered elsewhere are examined.

This unique book offers a comprehensive systematization and overview of the EU´s emerging ‘acquis’ and practice of Collective Labour Law. Although the core aspects of Collective Labour Law lie outside the EU’s competence to regulate, the laws and industrial relations systems of Member States are undoubtedly influenced by the EU, and the involvement of Social Partners, i.e. representatives of employers and workers, is essential for many aspects of EU law and policy.

European Labour Law explores how individual European national legal systems, in symbiosis with the European Union, produce a transnational labour law system that is distinct and genuinely European in character. Professor Brian Bercusson describes the evolution of this system, its national, transnational and global contexts and its institutional and substantive structures. The collective industrial-relations dimension of employment is examined, and the labour law of the EU as manifested in, for example, European works councils is analysed. Important subjects which have traditionally received little attention in some European labour law systems are covered, for example, the fragmentation of the workforce into atypical forms of employment. Attention is also given to the enforcement of European labour law through administrative or judicial mechanisms and the European social dialogue at intersectoral and sectoral levels. This new edition has been extensively updated, as the EU's influence on this area of social policy continues to grow.

This book traces the evolution of European Union employment law and social policy from its essentially economic origins in the Treaty of Rome through to the emerging themes post-Amsterdam: co-ordination of national employment policies,modernisation of social laws and combating discrimination. Each stage of development of Community employment law and social policy is analysed in depth to give a sense of perspective to this fast changing field. As the European Union seeks to meet the challenges of globalisation the need to develop social policy as a productive factor has come to the fore. The author explains how the social, economic and employment imperatives of European integration have always been intertwined and how the emergence of Community employment law from its hitherto twilight existence is best understood through an examination of consistent strands of policy development.

'I feel confident that this book will be judged to have made a very significant contribution to the study of European labour law. It fills a particular niche within the rich existing literature by providing a lucid, accessible, and succinct thematic overview of the subject, in much the same way as the author has so successfully done for the study of British labour law in her work on perspectives on labour law.' – Mark Freedland, Oxford University, UK 'EU law, shaped both judicially and at the legislative level, disrupts national labour law – perhaps for good reasons, perhaps for bad reasons, sometimes for reasons which are elusive. Challenges of an intellectual and practical nature confront those trying to pick a path through material accumulated over several decades – and intrigue those thinking about the future of the European Social Model. This book offers an insightful, thoughtful and inspiring account of the nature(s) and purpose(s) of EU labour law and is a hugely welcome addition to the literature.' – Stephen Weatherill, Somerville College, Oxford, UK EU Labour Law is a concise, readable and thought-provoking introduction to the labour and employment law of the European Union. The book explores the subject's major policy themes, examines the various procedures by which EU labour law is made, and analyses key topics such as worker migration, equality, working time and procedures for workers' participation in employers' decision-making. It sets the legal materials in their policy context and identifies the important issues which have shaped the development of EU labour law and are likely to determine its future, including the economic crisis and the debate about fundamental rights in the EU. This accessible yet rigorous book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate law students, academics and practitioners working on domestic and EU labour and employment law, as well as those with an interest in this increasingly important subject from the perspective of business and management, economics, sociology or politics.

What role will the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights play in the future for labour law in the European Union Member States? How could it affect industrial relations in these states? These are crucial questions to which a group of eminent European labour law professors and researchers seek to offer some answers in their new book European Labour Law and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. To recall the story behind the Charter: in December 2000, this text was not enshrined as an integral part of the new EU Nice treaty, but was merely "proclaimed", to the disappointment of many, so that its legal status remained ambiguous. The draft future Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe is clearer, insofar as it incorporates the Charter as its Part II, thereby giving it a binding character - but nobody knows whether, or when, this Treaty-Constitution will actually see the light of day and, if it does, in what shape. Yet now, as the discussions about a future EU constitution are regaining momentum, the European Court of Justice has also had its word on the role of the Charter. It has declared that "the principal aim of the Charter is to reaffirm rights" which are legally binding due to their provenance from other sources recognised by EU law (Case 540/03, European Parliament v. Council, decided 27 June 2006). The thus strengthened Charter includes core labour law and industrial relations provisions, covering matters such as freedom of association, collective bargaining and collective action, information and consultation within the undertaking, fair and just working conditions and protection in the event of unjustified dismissal. The book European Labour Law and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is a detailed commentary on the provisions of the Charter which guarantee these and other fundamental rights that are binding upon the EU institutions and the Member States. The commentary throws light on the potential of the EU Charter to shape the future labour law of Europe, an understanding of which is important for labour lawyers and industrial relations professionals, as well as for academics and policy makers in the Member States and in the EU institutions.