Work and Employment Relations in Southern Europe

The Impact of De-regulation, Organizational Change and Social Fragmentation on Worker Representation and Action

Southern European Societies series

Edited by Carlos J. Fernández Rodríguez, Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain and Miguel Martínez Lucio, Professor of International HRM and Comparative IR, Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester, UK

Positioning industrial relations in a discussion that is sensitive to broader political, historical, and ideological tensions, this insightful book offers reflections on the politics of de-regulation that have developed in southern European work and employment relations over the past 20 years.

‘This is an important and timely book. The immediate effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the economies of Southern Europe are well documented, but the longer term consequences on industrial relations are less well understood. This edited collection presents a wide ranging exploration of the effects of crisis on employment emphasising in particular changes to the collective regulation of work. An important overview of the complex and changing dynamics of these key economies.’
– Melanie Simms, University of Glasgow, UK

‘This book’s contribution to the labor literature on Southern Europe is theoretically rich and timely. The authors provide a valuable update, covering the years after the financial crisis, and they correct some oversimplified narratives stressing austerity and de-regulation. They demonstrate continued liberalization in employment relations, but also renewed state intervention and mobilization of radical trade unionists, especially in the so-called gig economy.’
– Ian Greer, Cornell University, US

‘This book is so much more than an outstanding analysis of the impact of neoliberal policies of de-regulation and marketization in Southern European countries; it is also an excellent invitation to think outside the box by reframing our understanding of change in industrial relations and political economy.’
——TorstenMüller, European Trade Union Institute, Belgium