The Great War and the language of modernism

Now also available aseBookIn recent decades enterprises worldwide have reaped the advantages of hiringemployees on a contractual fixed-term basis, thus derogating from theirtraditional participation in the social protection of workers and insulatingthemselves from legal liability for unjust dismissal. A broad spectrum ofeffectiveness has emerged in this development, as different countries haveadopted varying measures to regulate the conditions under which fixed-termemployment contracts are written, applied, and interpreted. This importantbook - which reprints papers submitted to the 10th Comparative Labour LawSeminar of the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training held in Tokyo onMarch 8th and 9th, 2010 - details the regulatory approaches to fixed-termcontracts in major industrial jurisdictions in Asia and Europe, providing anopportunity to explore normative directions for labour law and policy in theage of a diversified workforce.Nine knowledgeable and experienced contributors describe and analyse the legalstatus of fixed-term employment contracts (including relevant case law) inAustralia, Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, and Taiwan.Among the central issues examined are the following:* how four EU Member States apply the 1999 directive on fixed-term work;* working conditions under fixed-term contracts;* legal consequences of violation of regulations on fixed-term employmentcontracts;* exceptions for certain groups of workers;* permissibility of derogation by collective agreements;* circumstances under which law on dismissal may be applied to an employer'srefusal to renew a fixed-term contract;* equal treatment between workers on fixed-term contracts and those onopen-ended contracts;* problems fixed-term workers may face in the country's social securitysystem; and* regulation of reasons for concluding fixed-term contracts.Each author takes into account evaluations from scholars, policymakers, andstakeholders to his or her country's regulatory approach to fixed-termemployment contracts, revealing an array of responses ranging from a view thatsuch contracts enhance employment opportunities in society to advocatingsuppression of their use as inherently abusive and discriminatory.The combined effect of these nine essays is to greatly increase our awarenessof the nature of fixed-term employment contracts, from their fundamental valueas social policy instruments to their inextricable connection with the law ofdismissal. The book sets the stage for deeper and more firmly grounded workthat promises to elucidate the underlying pattern of a new employer-employeerelationship emerging on a worldwide scale.