The evolving world of work in the enlarged EU. Progress and vulnerability

While many factors - unemployment, increased competition, globalization- have brought about radical changes in the way labour markets operate, the shift of the European Union (EU) from 10, to soon 27, member states has also contributed to the transformation of employment and working conditions.

This volume, produced by a working group of leading experts in this field, presents timely information on the essential, but rarely studied, area of social policy in the EU enlargement process. It looks at the evolving practices in the world of work and how these may affect -sometimes in a differentiated way- workers and their families.

Comprehensive in scope, the book provides information for the first time on the trends in all important elements of the world of work in the enlarged EU 27: employment contracts, working time and work intensity, wages, training, health and safety, social dialogue and workers' participation, and work-family balance. It does this from an original perspective, through a series of case studies that highlight what practices are put in place at enterprise level, and how different working and employment conditions are combined and interact at local level.

At the same time it identifies the 'most vulnerable workers' or 'the workers most at risk' - those at the lower end of the labour market who seem to remain excluded from the main economic and social benefits of increased competition and trade at European and international level. These vulnerable workers often represent the myriad of 'working poor' and this book also offers valuable analysis of this type of worker who may be exposed to one or more risks.