At Your Service?

The dynamics and implications of employment growth in private sector services have become a key issue in the debate on labour market organisation, social regulation and welfare policies in Western Europe. While expansion of private services is considered crucial to fight unemployment and social exclusion, the private services are often associated with social polarisation, untamed flexibility, and erosion of the standard employment relationship, trade unionism and collective bargaining - confronting the social and political actors with difficult dilemmas. In view of the limited knowledge about developments in services labour markets, the aim of this book is, on the basis of eleven country studies, to provide a comparative overview of main trends in the pattern of employment and labour relations in private sector services in Western Europe. The analyses emphasise the heterogeneity of the private sector services, reveal significant diversity across countries, and caution against the notion of a universal de-standardisation of service employment, underscoring the importance of institutions in shaping national trajectories of employment growth in services. Particular attention is paid to the challenges facing trade unions in meeting the diverse and changing aspirations of the workforce in private sector services. Contents: Jon Erik Dolvik: Determinants of Service Employment: A Comparative Overview of the Issues - Gerhard Bosch: Germany: A - Service Gap? - Jeremy Waddington: United Kingdom: Restructuring Services within a Deregulated Regime - Coyan Tromp/Leni Beukema: The Dutch - Poldermodel: A Flexible Success-story - Jens Lind: Denmark: Private Service Growth - Towards a NewTrajectory for Employment and Regulation? - Joe Wallace/Donal A. Dineen/Michelle O'Sullivan: Ireland: The Contribution of the Services Sector to the Irish Employment Miracle - Sabine Blaschke: Austria: Corporatist Regulation of Service Labour Markets - Anna M. Ponzellini/Elena Provenzano: Italy: The Services Sector - Towards a More Inclusive and Flexible Labour Market? - Christele Meilland/Christian Dufour: Services in France: Heterogeneity of Employment Systems within Common Institutional Frames - Sofia Murhem: Sweden: Stability in a Turbulent Environment - Frode Longva: Norway: Private Sector Services - A Challenge to Centralised Co-ordination - Petri Bockerman: The Services Sector in Finland: A Nordic Lilliputian - Jon Erik Dolvik: The Impact of Post-industrialisation on Employment and Labour Relations - A Comparative Review."