The Wage under Attack

This book focuses on the interrelated developments in European integration and national policies on employment and social protection. It explores both the emancipatory potential of the continental tradition of the socialised wage and the negative implications of the EU-led «Beveridgean» reforms.

Challenging the widespread view of the continental model of social protection as a «corporatist-conservative» system, this book stresses the creative thrust of the two major institutions of the Bismarckian tradition: the social contribution that finances the socialised wage, and the qualification system that liberates workers from the labour market. These institutions have come under attack over the past two decades via European Employment Strategy policies aimed at imposing the Beveridgean model. And the European Union is using the current economic crisis to justify stepping up this reform process. The conceptual framework proposed in this volume provides the basis for a critical examination of the interrelated developments in European integration and national policies on employment and social protection. As well as contributing to a sociology of monetary resources, it highlights the emancipatory potential of the continental tradition of the socialised wage, and demonstrates the negative implications of the European Union-led reforms.

Autorentext

Bernadette Clasquin is general secretary of the Maison des Sciences de l Homme Lorraine. She was the academic coordinator of the European project RESORE (Employees Resources and Social Rights in Europe), from which the collaboration of an international network of researchers has been continued, funded by the Institut Européen du Salariat. Bernard FRIOT is emeritus professor at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre. He is also a member of the research group Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l Economie and of the Institut Européen du Salariat. His research interests include social protection, employment and wages.

Inhalt

Contents: Bernadette Clasquin/Bernard Friot/Merle Shore: Introduction - Andreana Khristova/Nathalie Moncel/Bernard Friot: Reconsidering the Linkage between Employment and Social Protection: The Resource Regime Framework - Bernard Friot: Employment and the Wage: Relationships on the Move - Corinne Gobin: European Pension Reforms: The Development of a Reform Rhetoric: 1993-2003 - Gaël Coron/Bernard Friot: How Community Interventions Converge to Bring about a Shift in Resource Regimes: The Example of Pension Reforms - Anne Dufresne: Euro-unionism and the Wage -
Ana Paula Ribeiro/Margarida Ruivo: Should Fiscal Policies Be Included in a Labour Market Policy Database? - Roland Atzmüller: Unemployment and Active Labour Market Policies in Austria - Marti López Andreu/Andreu Lope Peña/Joan Miquel Verd: New Employment Forms Reducing the Scope of the Wage - Roland Atzmüller: Workfare or Social Security? Labour Market and Social Policies in the UK - Joan Miquel Verd: The Hybridisation of Worker's Resources: Wage Supplements and Wage Subsidies - Corinne Gobin: From «Wage-friendly» to «Employment-friendly» Growth