Employment Dualism in Crisis: Labour Market and Welfare State Reforms Before and During COVID-19

Dual labour markets have been a specific feature of employment systems in Con-tinental Europe after an initial wave of deregulation that started in the 1980s in a situation of high and persistent unemployment. Since then, the institutional duali-sation of employment by type of contract has had massive implications on the quality and quantity of jobs. However, while dualisms were conceived as inevita-ble and stable, the perception has become more nuanced and dynamic, account-ing for partial dedualising steps observable over the last decade in particular. This paper gives an overview of the history of dualisation and dual labour markets before addressing current challenges arising from the digital transition and the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes with a discussion about potential policies to overcome labour market dualisms.

Confronting Race and Other Social Identity Erasures: The Case for Critical Industrial Relations Theory

Despite the salience of racism and other “isms” woven into the fabric of US society, there is a dearth of industrial relations (IR) scholarship that engages critical race and intersectional theory (CRT/I) to deeply understand how structural racism and other social identity-based systems of oppression govern labor and employment systems. The authors call for the incorporation of CRT/I into IR to address the erasure of vital counter-narratives and to expand our empirical cases for labor and employment research. Focusing on leading scholarship on worker organizing, the authors confront white dominance in our research questions, methodologies, and analyses to illustrate how traditional “color-blind” and meritocracy-based IR theories lead to the exclusion of relevant knowledge. In an era of heightened public discourse and worker uprisings in response to deep-rooted systemic inequities, critical industrial relations research is vital to the field’s relevance and its expertise in explaining the nature and consequences of contemporary labor contestations and their impact on the future of the labor movement.

Navigating the Waves of Work and Life

This chapter mentions Saitō-san and Shimizu-san as examples of individuals who escaped the corporate shackles and their lifeways on the fringes of salarymanhood. It looks at the stories of Matsuda-san and Takagi-san, which reveal how they were never free from difficulties and struggles as they navigated through the unpredictable waves of work and life. It also highlights Matsuda-san and Takagi-san's creative interpretations and responses to the circumstances they encountered and how they thrived within the inclusive employment systems and corporate restructuring. The chapter identifies some of the more successful salarymen of Matsuda-san's generation who heralded unexpected opportunities toward the end of their official careers at the dawn of the twenty-first century. It elaborates how Takagi-san's life experiences show that belonging to a corporation means that one's life will be largely framed and guided by one's relationship with one's direct boss, constituting one's corporate life.

The Influence of the Selection System, Training and Job Satisfaction on Employees Performance on PT Lion Air Group of Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri Palu Airport before the Pandemic Covid 19

This study aims to determine and analyze the effect of the selection, training and employment systems. satisfaction both collectively and partially on the performance of employees at PT Lion Air Group from Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri Airport, Palu before the pandemic covid - 19. Data was collected through direct observation and surveys by distributing questionnaires and interviews to employees of PT. Lion Air Group Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri Palu before the pandemic covid -19 to become a plague in Indonesia. The analytical method used is multiple linear regression analysis. The test results show that the selection system, training and job satisfaction, both simultaneously and partially have a significant effect on employee performance before the spread of the covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Keywords: Selection System, Training, Job Satisfaction, Employee Performance, Covid 19

Employment practices in Japan’s automobile industry: the implication for divergence of employment systems under globalization

This paper analyses recent developments in HR practice toward core white collar employees at Japan’s major automobile companies. It confirms there have been incremental but substantial changes in key HR policies such as compensation and the ranking system, but also finds that traditional long-term employment continues to be practiced at most firms. It further observes that Japan’s auto companies have introduced global HR polices earlier than have Japanese firms in comparable sectors. This, however, has not resulted in the alignment of policies toward those of overseas operations, which one often finds in other Japanese industries such as finance and pharmaceuticals. This would indicate that different trajectories of change are emerging in employment practices—that is, diversification in employment systems is expanding—according to sector (or, the products and services firms offer). This paper also analyses several background factors propelling such divergence, and suggests possible future constellations of employment systems among large elite firms in Japan. In these ways this study contributes to the debate on the effects of globalization on divergence and convergence of employment systems.

From Employment Security to Managerial Precarity: Japan's Changing Welfare-Work Nexus and its Impacts on Mid-career Workers

In the postwar period, Japanese workers came to symbolize the economic and cultural prosperity of Japan. In return for their hard work, they were rewarded with life-time employment and various fringe benefits. This postwar social contract of "corporate welfarism" minimized the social risks and personal career uncertainties of a fluid labour market. However, nearly 30 years of economic recession and neo-liberal reforms have undermined the postwar model of corporate welfarism. Structural and management reforms have been invoked to reengineer Japan's corporate practices and to "flexibilize" the workforce, thereby "freeing" employees while offloading social risks of economic uncertainties to individual workers. As a result, these Japanese workers are caught between the slippage of the older corporate ideology of corporate welfarism premised on long-term employment, and the rise of the new global ideology of neo-liberalism premised on labour mobility, in the process exposing them to new social risks and conditions of uncertainty.<br/> By focusing on mid-career and experienced workers whose expectations of long-term employment were directly affected by restructuring, this article sheds light on the various forms of "precarious employment mechanisms" that have been used to cut personnel costs while avoiding outright dismissal. Drawing from different cases of informants who have been subjected to various forms of restructuring, this article highlights the decoupling of Japan's welfare and employment systems and examines the mechanisms and experiences of "in-house unemployment" for employees in an increasingly hollowed-out corporate welfare society.

Path Dependency versus Social Unionism in Healthcare: Bringing Employers Back in

A central problem in contemporary employment relations is the fragmentation of work. This process is occurring in health systems as they decentralize services from hospitals to outpatient centers. While some unions have maintained inclusive employment systems, others have not. What explains this variation? The authors address this question through a matched case comparison of healthcare unions in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. The cities share many similarities, but in Buffalo unions have expanded their power, while in Rochester they have not. The authors show how path dependency from institutional legacies of employer power has shaped union capacity in the current period.

An Empirical Comparative Analysis of Airport Security Screeners' Perception of Employment Systems and Cooperation within an Airport Authority for Effective Disaster Response

This study analyzed and compared airport security screeners' perception of the employment system and cooperation within a company working at both Incheon and Gimpo international airports. Based on empirical research, suggestions for changes to policy were made to improve the disaster response of an airport authority. It was proven that, if the current transition policy of aviation security screeners' employment systems were implemented as planned, the efficiency of security screening would improve and the number of aviation security breaches would significantly decrease. Additionally, it was found that surveyed employees from both airports perceived that the employment transition to establish a government-owned company must be expedited to improve aviation security for effective disaster response of an airport authority.