ABSTRACT

The term ‘social dumping’ regularly appears in public debates and in policymaking circles. However, due to its ambiguity it is used in a manner that is convenient for individual discourse participants, thus opening the door for misconceptions and ill-grounded accusations.

This book systematically examines social dumping in the context of the European integration process. It defines social dumping as the practice, undertaken by self-interested market participants, of undermining or evading existing social regulations with the aim of gaining a competitive advantage. It also shows how the two major EU integration projects  the creation of the Internal Market, and EU enlargement to the east and to the south  have provided market actors with new incentives and opportunities to contest existing social ‘constraints’. The empirical chapters examine social dumping practices accompanying labour migration, employee posting and cross-border investment distribution. In addition, they outline the process of formation of social standards and trace initiatives at EU and national levels that contribute to the spread of social dumping in Europe.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of employment relations, EU studies, international political economy, globalisation studies, welfare studies, social policy and migration studies.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

Social dumping and the EU integration process

part 1|100 pages

Intra-EU labour and service mobility

chapter 1|18 pages

Large-scale migration in an open labour market

The Irish experience with post-2004 labour mobility and the regulation of employment standards

chapter 2|18 pages

Breaking the law?

Varieties of social dumping in a pan-European labour market

chapter 3|19 pages

The politics of migrant irregularity

Social dumping in the French construction industry

part 2|48 pages

Social dumping pressures in manufacturing sectors

chapter 6|15 pages

Marketization and social dumping

Management whipsawing in Europe's automotive industry

chapter 7|17 pages

Social dumping with no divide

Evidence from multinational companies in Europe

part 3|55 pages

The deregulation agenda at the EU and national levels

chapter 10|20 pages

Have your competitiveness and eat it too

The pull and limits of cost competition in Hungary and Slovakia

chapter 11|16 pages

Tracing the competitiveness discourse in Spain

Social dumping in disguise?

chapter |9 pages

Conclusion