Employee Relations in the Periphery of Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 1-5

3. The costs of Europe: Why do small economically peripheral economies join Europe?

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 6-33

4. Theories on European integration: Integrating theories

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 34-64

5. The European social model in economic peripheries

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 65-94

6. The European union and national legal systems

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 95-133

7. The European union and national wage systems

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 134-169

8. The European union and national training systems

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 170-210

9. Summary and conclusions

   • Emer O’Hagan

   Pages 211-222

10. Back Matter

    Pages 223-265

    PDF

This book examines the manner in which the EU affects employee relations systems in economically peripheral European countries, specifically Ireland and Hungary. It asks whether the EU offers peripheral countries the opportunity to modernise their industrial relations. The EU dynamically promotes core-like employee practices, and national actors energetically attempt to implement the prescribed initiatives, yet little success has been achieved in modernising production techniques in peripheral economies. O'Hagan argues that the EU implements an unofficial development policy which it pressurises States to adopt. These initiatives amount to the frequently referred to European Social Model (ESM), which, she argues, can cause difficulty for policy makers because it is ill-defined, vague and contradictory.

• European Integration
• European social model
• European Union
• European Union (EU)
• european union politics

'Emer O'Hagan provides a map through which we can negotiate the maze that surrounds the policy and practice of the EU. This is no mean feat, and as such her book is both useful and interesting.' - Irish Journal of Sociology

EMER O'HAGAN is Research Fellow in the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen's University, Belfast. Previously she held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Dublin City Business School.

Policies and ethics