This policy brief looks at the new ISO45001 draft international standard for occupational safety and health (OSH) management systems.After describing the process for international standard-setting, the brief analyses the relationship of this new proposed ISO45001 with the European Union's 1989... Find out more

This policy brief examines if and how the reformulated obligation in the Recast European Works Council Directive to report back found its way into EWC agreements by looking at survey data, results of large-scale agreement analysis and by providing examples of clauses in which this obligation is... Find out more

Concession bargaining at at workplace level has been spreading in the US and across Europe. It is often framed as a response to organisational or economic crises and therefore as a useful instrument for dealing with employment restructuring in the short term. This policy brief examines the practice... Find out more

This policy brief discusses the risks of deflation for the European economy. It critically evaluates the European economic governance for not having averted this risk and discusses how a more coordinated approach to both fiscal policy and collective wage bargaining, both aiming at national inflation... Find out more

This Policy Brief takes the measure of the EU Commission's ‘better legislation’ programme, attempting not only to identify its general thrust but also to reveal its inner contradictions. In the first three sections, the author examines aspects of the exercise taken as a whole, after which he... Find out more

The fiscal constraints imposed by the new European economic governance have had a detrimental effect on public investments in the member states in recent years.This policy brief proposes to implement the 'Golden Rule of Public Investment' , a rule which states that net public investments - increases... Find out more

International standards are playing an increasingly important role in market governance and often have a direct impact on health, safety and the environment. In most cases, these norms are defined by experts, without the participation of civil society representatives. This Policy Brief presents the... Find out more

The EU has often been accused of soft approach to trade-labour linkages in trade agreement by the inclusion of labour provisions in the trade and sustainable development chapter and by a focus on cooperation and dialogue. Rather than focusing on hard enforcement proceeding, the EU is not yet... Find out more

Construction is an industry characterised by highly fragmented labour relations which are the result of long and complex subcontracting chains as well as of the use of agency workers, self-employment and transient employment. Free movement of labour within the EU, especially after the enlargement to... Find out more

Workers’ right to be represented on the board (of directors, or supervisory board) of their company is so widespread in Europe that it is deemed a core element of the European social model. Yet, very little is known about how those participation rights operate in practice. This Policy Brief outlines... Find out more