IRRU Briefing

This Briefing is published twice a year by the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU). It contains summaries of key findings from recent and current research projects and analysis of significant industrial relations developments. The reports aim to inform and contribute to the thinking of practitioners in industrial relations and human resource management. We are currently reviewing the format and content of IRRU Briefing and would be grateful if you would complete and return the short questionnaire accompanying this issue. May 1 2004 saw a further and historic step in the removal of Europe’s cold-war divide with the accession to the European Union of eight post-communist, central eastern European countries. The first feature looks at the implications of the EU’s eastern enlargement for industrial relations and for Europe’s ‘social model’. The second feature reports the findings of a pathbreaking study of women’s collective organisation within trade unions. The third and fourth articles are edited versions of features originally prepared for the European Industrial Relations Observatory, as part of IRRU’s contribution in its role as the Observatory’s UK national centre. They deal with managing absence from work and offshoring of service sector jobs, respectively. This issue also carries reports of the 2004 Lowry lecture, given by Renate Hornung-Draus of the German Confederation of Employers, and on the newly established West Midlands Employment Relations Forum.