Documents Ramos Martín, Nuria Elena 9 results

"For many years, in most European countries, the public sector has been under pressure to reduce expenditure and increase efficiency. Long-term pressures on the public sector, and especially the recent austerity drives following from the crisis, have led to reforms and cuts in public budgets with serious negative effects on the European Social Model, on the quality of public services and on social outcomes, including health and inequality.

This book analyses the evolution of employment, job quality and labour relations in the public sector since the 2008 crisis in nine EU Member States: Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, and the UK. It focuses on three sub-sectors: primary education, health care and municipalities. The authors show that the public sector reforms of the past few decades, as well as the more recent crisis-related austerity policies, have had important consequences for the number and quality of jobs across the nine countries. Public sector workers have frequently had to shoulder the burden of budgetary pressures through declining employment levels and job quality, including stagnating or declining (real) wages and the intensification and ‘extensification' of work. Declines in the number of jobs and job quality have been strongest in the countries where the crisis has been felt the deepest, in particular Italy and Spain. However, in the last few years, there is a moderate recovery in employment and/or job quality, particularly in healthcare and primary education.

The authors have identified several broad trends in public sector labour relations. One is the turn of governments towards greater unilateralism in the initial crisis years. The second is the emergence of new industrial relations actors. Following the dissatisfaction of public sector workers and the limited success of the established trade unions to respond to this dissatisfaction, a variety of new unions, social movements, ad hoc pressure groups and other organisations have emerged. Thirdly, there has been a widespread increase in strikes, protests, campaigns and other forms of industrial action by public sector workers. Finally, the erosion of the quality of public services has become a central issue in the demands of trade unions and new social actors. They now consistently argue that good job quality for public sector employees is essential to guaranteeing and enhancing the quality of public services."

"This paper examines the implementation of the first ‘autonomous' agreement signed by the European social partners. The European Framework Agreement on Telework of July 2002 was to be implemented ‘in accordance with the procedures and practices specific to management and labour and the Member States', using the first implementation route of Article 139 (2) of the EC Treaty. The paper describes and examines the measures taken in the 27 Member States of the European Union as well as Iceland and Norway. The final conclusion of this study is that in implementing the European Framework Agreement on Telework, most social partners and Member States have followed, as intended, methods conforming to their industrial relations traditions. There were very few surprises, though some interesting examples of renewal of the social dialogue process itself were noted."

"The aim of this article is to present a legal analysis of how the legislation and social policies in the field of gender equality in the Netherlands have been influenced by the European integration process. This research is founded on an acknowledgement of the fact that the interaction between the European Union (UE) and member state levels is a two-way process, and considers the ‘Europeanisation of social policy' as a cyclical process. In the context of the new EU governance discourse, this case study examines the question whether the use by the EU of different instruments of public intervention in social affairs produces different impacts on social legislation and policy at domestic level. This article focuses on the examination of how the European Community legislation on equal treatment for men and women in employment, occupation and on part-time work has been transposed to the domestic level (‘downloading' or ‘taking'). In addition, the article addresses the question of whether the Dutch actors have been able to upload their approaches and preferences in the area of gender equality legislation to the EU level (‘uploading' or ‘shaping'). On the ‘uploading' perspective of the Europeanisation process, the main conclusion of this case study is that the Dutch have been fairly successful in bringing forward several ideas (i.e., a flexible and pro-active approach to part-time work) to the European social agenda. Concerning the ‘downloading' dimension of the process, despite noticing some disparities in the conceptual field, the findings achieved show that the EU legislation as regards gender equality has been reasonably well transposed into the Dutch legal framework."

"Most industrialized countries have seen part-time employment as a percentage of total employment increase in the last decade. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of part-time employment in Spain and the Netherlands. The project comprised a legal comparative study of the effectiveness of the normative solutions provided by the Dutch and Spanish legal orders regarding the protection of part-time workers and the promotion of part-time employment, with special attention paid to the gender dimension of part-time work in both countries; and an analysis, based on data extracted from the European Community Household Panel (1995-2001), of the determinants of part-time employment in both countries and an examination of the extent to which part-time jobs are used as stepping-stones to full-time positions. We found significant country differences regarding females' decisions to take part-time jobs. We also found that, in general, Dutch females are not less likely than their male counterparts to increase the number of hours they work. However, this applies only to those females who are part of a couple or have children younger than 12 years. In Spain, females are 2.6 times less likely than their male counterparts to switch from a part-time to a full-time job."

"This Policy Department A study prepared at request of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee examines precarious employment, its patterns, trends and policy strategies in Europe. It explores the risk of precariousness of different types of contract, using information from EU data analysis and literature review, as well as case studies It finds that there are a range and degrees of risks of precariousness associated with all types of contract, based on key indicators of precariousness. A second note presents country case studies of eight EU Member States."

"This article examines factors that could contribute to explaining variation in take-up of leave among fathers in the light of the EU's Work–Life Balance Directive (WLBD). The WLBD seeks to equalize care responsibilities between fathers and mothers, especially through reserved leave, with high compensation. The article begins with a cross-country overview of take-up of leave among eligible fathers, considering earmarking and the degree of compensation. Our results show variation, which cannot fully be explained by policy design (presence of high compensation with reserved leave for fathers). The article then theorizes that instrumental resources – information and accessible administrative application procedures – could be a missing link to understand the actual shift from de jure to de facto social rights. The article then carries out embedded case studies on these two aspects of instrumental resources, using original qualitative data collected during the implementation of the WLBD. The most striking finding is that countries with similar formal implementation of earmarked paid parental leave, display significant differences in commitment to instrumental resources. Put differently, the WLBD is being implemented differently, not regarding formal social rights, but on instrumental resources. This finding is important because it means that EU-initiated legislation on parental leave, could lead to differences in outcomes, that is, take-up of leave among fathers. The implication of our findings is that decision-makers and policy actors at EU level and in member states, should focus more on instrumental resources in the implementation process. This is particularly important for enhancing the de facto legitimacy of the EU in social policy, given that EU social regulation is increasing via the European Pillar of Social Rights."