Description
Three general and theoretical introductory chapters are followed by nine reports describing individual countries’ experience with social pacts.
That the success of this now widespread form of partnership between governments and the two sides of industry has been, in most cases, somewhat relative emerges clearly from the introductory chapter by Giuseppe Fajertag of the ETUI and Philippe Pochet of the OSE. While conceding that social pacts may indeed represent an important means of job preservation, they do not fail to point out that, in practice, a positive impact on the employment situation has been the exception (cf. Ireland) rather than the rule.