Launching the European industrial relations dictionary: A clear insight into the workings of industrial relations at European level - Main contents

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the Dublin-based EU agency, publishes the European industrial relations dictionary, a comprehensive collection of the most commonly used terms in employment and industrial relations at EU level today.

Employment and industrial relations in all European countries has been influenced by European integration over the past half century. A specific EU social dimension is emerging, with its supranational institutional structures, the legal framework of EC law and fundamental rights, and transnational economic integration. To understand the European system of industrial relations, it is necessary to have a sense of how it grew, how it is shaped, and what its current and emerging structure looks like.

`The European industrial relation dictionary is the Foundation's response to an increasing demand for an up-to-date, easily accessible and useful resource on the European system of industrial relations,' comments Willy Buschak, the Foundation's Acting Director. `The dictionary is aimed at assisting users such as members of trade union and employer organisations, persons from government and international bodies, academics, researchers and all those wishing to gain relevant and detailed information about European industrial relations concepts and practices.'

Designed as an easy-to-use online reference tool, the European industrial relations dictionary is a comprehensive collection of the most commonly used terms in employment and industrial relations at EU level today. It contains almost 300 alphabetically listed entries, featuring concise definitions and relevant contextual information, with hyperlinks to EU legislation and case law. Hence it offers an almost encyclopaedic insight into European industrial relations theory and practice. The definitions contained in the dictionary have been adapted to include all the latest political and institutional developments of the European Union, such as the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and the European Constitution.

The European industrial relation dictionary follows in the wake of the Foundation's series of national glossaries, published in the 1990s, which cover employment and industrial relations in former EU15 Member States. The overall aim of the dictionary is to give a clear insight into the workings of industrial relations at European level.
The dictionary can be accessed from

www.eurofound.eu.int/areas/industrialrelations/dictionary/index.htm