This collective volume on quality of work in the European Union offers a comprehensive analysis on the current situation of the tensions between work and welfare in Europe, with a special emphasis on employment-related issues. The volume tackles a crucial aspect of employment policies, namely the strengthening of the quality dimension in the decisions taken by policy-makers to foster the performance of the labour market and to combine this orientation with the demands of workers for welfare, protection and a better reconciliation of work and family life. Quality of work has been on the agenda of policy-makers, practitioners and academics for the last few years, promoting a wide debate. The book provides a contribution to this debate and takes into consideration a range of issues associated with the analysis of work quality from an innovative perspective. Relevant subtopics including a conceptual and political analysis of work quality, wage differentials and in-work poverty, gender issues or workers' direct and indirect representation in the firm and its relation with work quality are addressed.

People have always travelled within Europe for work and leisure, although never before with the current intensity. Now, however, they are travelling for many other reasons, including the quest for key services such as health care. Whatever the reason for travelling, one question they ask is "If I fall ill, will the health care I receive be of a high standard?" This book examines, for the first time, the systems that have been put in place in all of the European Union's 27 Member States. The picture it paints is mixed. Some have well developed systems, setting standards based on the best available evidence, monitoring the care provided, and taking action where it falls short. Others need to overcome significant obstacles.

The book makes a major new contribution to the sociology of employment by comparing the quality of working life in European societies with very different institutional systems--France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Sweden. It focuses in particular on skills and skill development, opportunities for training, the scope for initiative in work, the difficulty of combining work and family life, and the security of employment. Drawing on a range of nationally representative surveys, it reveals striking differences in the quality of work in different European countries. It also provides for the first time rigorous comparative evidence on the experiences of different types of employee and an assessment of whether there has been a trend over time to greater polarization between a core workforce of relatively privileged employees and a peripheral workforce suffering from cumulative disadvantage. It explores the relevance of three influential theoretical perspectives, focussing respectively on the common dynamics of capitalist societies, differences in production regimes between capitalist societies, and differences in the institutional systems of employment regulation. It argues that it is the third of these--an 'employment regime' perspective--that provides the most convincing account of the factors that affect the quality of work in capitalist societies. The findings underline the importance of differences in national policies for people's experiences of work and point to the need for a renewal at European level of initiatives for improving the quality of work.

This book looks at the history of work and the meanings that are attached to it over time. Taking as its basis a number of international surveys and interviews conducted in Europe, the authors consider the significance of work for Europeans today. Over the years the meaning of work has changed. It has become more highly diversified, and it is today invested with high expectations that conflict with organisational developments and the changing nature of the labour market. The authors use a generational perspective to explore whether it is possible to reconcile the contemporary “ethos” of work, especially with regards to women and young people, with organisations that are increasingly under pressure to be profitable and productive. Reinventing Work in Europe will be of interest to scholars and students in the areas of sociology of work, employment and organizations, labour studies, digital economy, and political economy.

This title provides students with a clear, accessible and highly engaging analysis of substantive law of the EU in the most comprehensive text of its kind, as well as containing chapter summaries, questions, suggestions for further reading and annotated web addresses.

This publication presents and discusses the integration outcomes of immigrants and their children through 27 indicators organised around five areas: Employment, education and skills, social inclusion, civic engagement and social cohesion.