Belgian employment law is a rather complex and atypical matter. Unlike the majority of the other European countries, Belgium distinguishes between blue-collar and white-collar workers. Furthermore, it is easier to fire an employee in Belgium than in most EU Member States. An employer does not need any form of external approval. This book gives an overall picture of Belgian employment law.
This book gives an overall picture of the principles of Belgian labour law, i.e. employment law as well as industrial relations law. The authors not only describe and analyse the legal aspects of labour relations, but also indicate developing trends in Belgium.
Labour law has traditionally aimed to protect the employee under a hierarchy built on constitutional provisions, statutory law, collective agreements at various levels, and the employment contract, in that order. However, in employment regulation in recent years, ‘flexibility’ has come to dominate the world of work – a set of policies that reshuffle the relationship among the fundamental pillars of labour law and inevitably lead to degrading the protection of employees. This book, the first-ever to consider the sources of labour law from a comparative perspective, details the ways in which the traditional hierarchy of sources has been altered, presenting an international view on major cross-cutting issues followed by fifteen country reports. The authors’ analysis of the changing hierarchy of labour law sources in the light of recent trends includes such elements as the following: the constitutional dimension of labour rights; the normative intervention by the State; the regulatory function of collective bargaining and agreements; the hierarchical organization of labour law sources and the ‘principle of favour’; the role played by case law in both common law and civil law countries; the impact of the European Economic Governance; decentralization of collective bargaining; employment conditions as key components of global competitive strategies; statutory schemes that allow employees to sign away their rights. National reports – Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States – describe the structure of labour law regulations in each legal system with emphasis on the current state of affairs. The authors, all distinguished labour law scholars in their countries, thus collectively provide a thorough and comprehensive commentary on labour law regulation and recent tendencies in national labour laws in various corners of the globe. With its definitive analysis of such crucial matters as the decentralization of collective bargaining and how individual employment contracts can deviate from collective agreements and statutory law, and its comparison of representative national labour law systems, this highly informative book will prove of inestimable value to all professionals concerned with employment relations, labour disputes, or labour market policy, especially in the context of multinational workforces.
This introduction, now in its second completely revised and upgraded edition, is the ideal overview of Belgian law for foreign lawyers. It identifies the basic legal sources, institutions and concepts of Belgian law. It offers an up to date, state of the art systematic and critical rendition of the principal branches of the law as practised, and it provides the necessary historical background and theoretical framing. The book consists of sixteen chapters, covering all major fields of Belgian law including constitutional and administrative law, procedural law, criminal law, family law and trusts and estates, property, contracts and torts, commercial transactions and company law, labour and social security law, tax law and conflicts of laws, and offering in depth studies of the general features of the Belgian legal system and legal culture. Every contribution is written by a generally recognized expert in this particular field of law. The authors cover the legislation at the different levels, guiding the reader through the multi-layered governance in the complicated federal structure of Belgium within the European Union, and pay ample attention to the reality of legal practice in court cases. Each chapter concludes with a very useful bibliography of works in both official languages (French and Dutch). Where available, basic works in English are listed. The book is written for a diversified, primarily non-Belgian readership including practising lawyers, business people, government officials, academic researchers and students interested in a reliable overview of Belgian law and institutions as a starting point for their research or inquiries. Marc Kruithof is a law professor at Ghent University. He holds a PhD in Law, as well as Licentiates in Law and in Economics, from Ghent University, and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School. Walter De Bondt is an emeritus professor at Ghent University and at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He holds a PhD in Law as well as a Licentiate in Law from Ghent University, and a Master of Laws from UC Berkeley.
With the onset of the recession in 1990, job security has moved to the forefront of labor market concerns in the United States. During economic downturns, American employers rely heavily on layoffs to cut their work force, much more than do their counterparts in other industrialized nations. The hardships imposed by these layoffs have led many to ask whether U.S. workers can be offered more secure employment without burdening the companies that employ them. In this book, Katharine Abraham and Susan Houseman address this question by comparing labor adjustment practices in the United States, where existing policies arguably encourage layoffs, with those in Germany, a country with much stronger job protection for workers. From their assessment of the German experience, the authors recommend new public policies that promote alternatives to layoffs and help reduce unemployment. Beginning with an overview of the labor markets in Germany and the United States, Abraham and Houseman emphasize the interaction of various government policies. Stronger job security in Germany has been accompanied by an unemployment insurance system that facilitates short-time work as a substitute for layoffs. In the United States, however, the unemployment insurance system has encouraged layoffs and discouraged the use of work-sharing schemes. The authors examine the effects of job security on the efficiency and equity of labor market adjustment and review trends in U.S. policy. Finally, the authors recommend reforms of the U.S. unemployment insurance system that include stronger experience rating and an expansion of short-time compensation program. They also point to the critical link between job security and the system of worker training in Germany and advocate policies that would encourage more training by U.S. companies.
Law and Employment analyzes the effects of regulation and deregulation on Latin American labor markets and presents empirically grounded studies of the costs of regulation. Numerous labor regulations that were introduced or reformed in Latin America in the past thirty years have had important economic consequences. Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Carmen Pagés document the behavior of firms attempting to stay in business and be competitive while facing the high costs of complying with these labor laws. They challenge the prevailing view that labor market regulations affect only the distribution of labor incomes and have little or no impact on efficiency or the performance of labor markets. Using new micro-evidence, this volume shows that labor regulations reduce labor market turnover rates and flexibility, promote inequality, and discriminate against marginal workers. Along with in-depth studies of Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Trinidad, Law and Employment provides comparative analysis of Latin American economies against a range of European countries and the United States. The book breaks new ground by quantifying not only the cost of regulation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the OECD, but also the broader impact of this regulation.
The Brussels I Regulation, which ensures the free circulation of judgments within the EU, was recently revised; one of the main issues addressed was whether the Regulation affects the efficient resolution of international commercial disputes through arbitration within the Union. This book provides an in depth examination of the interface between the Regulation and international commercial arbitration. The author demonstrates that the consequences of this interface can encourage the use of delaying tactics, hampering the efficient resolution of international disputes.
State, Religion and Muslims: Between Discrimination and Protection at the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Levels brings together academics from different disciplines and offers an in-depth analysis of discrimination in specific areas of life which affects Muslims in Western countries. The volume undertakes a comprehensive examination of the discriminatory practices across 12 countries while situating them in their institutional frameworks. Exploring critical aspects of discrimination against Muslims – in areas such as education, employment, exercise of religion, state relations with religious communities as well as hate crime and hate speech – the volume shows the prevalence of individual, structural and institutional discrimination against Muslims living in Western countries. Contributors are: Amina Easat-Daas, Andrea Pin, Beesan Sarrouh, Camille Vallier, Dieter Schiendlauer, Eva Brems, Ineke van der Valk, Ksenija Šabec, Maja Pucelj, Mario Peucker, Mosa Sayed, Nesa Zimmermann, Niels Valdemar Vinding and Safa ben Saad.
Detailed attention to compliance with labour and employment laws is crucial for success in setting up business in a foreign country. This book – one of a series derived from Kluwer’s matchless publication International Labour and Employment Compliance Handbook – focuses on the relevant laws and regulations in Belgium. It is thoroughly practical in orientation. Employers and their counsel can be assured that it fulfills the need for accurate and detailed knowledge of laws in Belgium on all aspects of employment, from recruiting to termination, working conditions, compensation and benefits to collective bargaining. ¬ The volume proceeds in a logical sequence through such topics as the following: • written and oral contracts • interviewing and screening • evaluations and warnings • severance pay • reductions in force • temporary workers • trade union rights • wage and hour laws • employee benefits • workers’ compensation • safety and environmental regulations • immigration law compliance • restrictive covenants • anti-discrimination laws • employee privacy rights • dispute resolution • recordkeeping requirements A wealth of practical features such as checklists of do’s and don’ts, step-by-step compliance measures, applicable fines and penalties, and much more contribute to the book’s day-to-day usefulness. Easy to understand for lawyers and non-lawyers alike, this book is sure to be welcomed by business executives and human resources professionals, as well as by corporate counsel and business lawyers.
