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Introduction: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards

Barry Colfer (European University Institute, Italy)
Brian Harney (Dublin City University, Ireland)
Colm McLaughlin (University College Dublin, Ireland)
Chris F. Wright 1 (University of Sydney, Australia)

Protecting the Future of Work: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards

ISBN: 978-1-80071-249-2, eISBN: 978-1-80071-248-5

Publication date: 20 January 2023

Abstract

This introductory chapter surveys institutional experimentation that has emerged internationally in response to the contraction of the traditional model of employment protection. Various initiatives are discussed according to the particular challenges they are designed to address: the emergence of non-standard employment contracts; increasing sources of labour supply engaging in non-standard work; intensification of exogenous pressures on the employment relationship; the growth of intermediaries that separate the management from the control of labour; and the emergence of entities that subvert the employment relationship entirely. Whereas post-war industrial relations scholars characterised the traditional regulatory model as a ‘web of rules’, we argue that nascent institutional experimentation is indicative of an emergent ‘patchwork of rules’. The identification of such experimentation is instructive for scholars, policymakers, workers’ representatives and employers seeking solutions to the contraction of the traditional regulatory model.

Keywords

Citation

Colfer, B., Harney, B., McLaughlin, C. and Wright, C.F. (2023), "Introduction: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards", Colfer, B., Harney, B., McLaughlin, C. and Wright, C.F. (Ed.) Protecting the Future of Work: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards (Trade Unionism), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-248-520221002

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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