Introduction: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards

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.

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