Are foreign multinational companies more or less likely than domestically-owned firms to recognise trade unions and engage seriously in collective bargaining? On the face of it, a multinational company is in a stronger position relative to employees as it can play off one group against another. On... Find out more

This new working paper explores why there is a persistent wage gap between western Europe and the new EU Member States of eastern and central Europe. Why is it still the case that after 27 years of transition from state socialism and 14 years of EU membership the closing of the gap in living... Find out more

This timely new publication revisits the Social Scoreboard published by the European Commission (EC) on the 26th of April 2017. The European Commission’s Social Scoreboard proposes 35 indicators to monitor 12 areas of principles associated with the EPSR and provides an interactive tool to compare... Find out more

This paper provides a critical assessment of the OECD's Employment Protection Legislation (EPL). This indicator is designed to measure and compare employment protection legislation across countries and has dominated much of recent labour market policy making in the EU.The authors of this paper... Find out more

This working paper discusses the use of unit labour costs (ULC) by the European Commission as a measure of competitiveness of exports, especially in central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It shows the flawed nature of the European Commission’s argument that increasing wages ahead of measured productivity... Find out more

This Working Paper critically analyses Italy’s labour market reforms of 2012 (Fornero Reform). It focuses especially on a measure designed to cut unemployment and labour-market dualism by reducing the protection against dismissal enjoyed by permanent employees.The main argument of this paper is that... Find out more

This working paper looks at recent structural reforms of the Spanish labour market and evaluates them against the government’s stated objectives to reduce unemployment.It concludes that the labour market flexibilisation approach has not helped to reduce unemployment, nor has it contributed to the... Find out more

This working paper reviews the findings of the most prominent studies on the economic impact of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), focussing on those commissioned by the European Commission and by the German government. It casts doubt on the methods used and concludes that... Find out more

This Working Paper investigates links between employment changes and both sectoral developments and changes in earnings levels in six EU member states. The paper challenges the view that a remedy focusing on reducing employment protection and pay levels leads to higher levels of employment. It... Find out more

This report forms part of a wide-ranging ETUI project, which aims to map changes in unionisation and the varying organizational structures of unions in the ‘new member states’ of the EU. The author demonstrates convincingly that the recent development of the union movement was heavily conditioned by... Find out more