The aim of the course is to introduce students into the history, concepts and methods of employment protection and to give an overview of practices and outcomes of employment protection operating nowadays in Russia.

The course will be structured and scheduled according to five thematic sessions. In the beginning of the course we will draw an overview of the extent and distribution of the employment protection concepts in Russia. We will focus on outcomes and consequences of the economic recession in terms of employment and social risks. Secondly we will tackle the forms, methods and outcomes of employment protection introduced by individual countries and globally in the European Union. After critical analyses of the actual problems of employment protection, we will review the challenges and alternatives of future development of employment protection.

1 lecture: Introduction – Restructuring European work and welfare systems.

2 lecture: Short history of employment protection in the developed industrial countries (national regulations; ILO regulations, other international regulations, etc.).

3 lecture: The Concept of Employment Protection (early ideas of employment protection; dimensions of employment protection; waves of development in industrial countries). 

4 lecture: Transitional labour markets (national settings, the role of institutions).

5 lecture: Social risks of mobile labour (international mobility of labour, risks related to migration and national variation of social norms). New issues of labour and safety rules and labour law.

The course will include lectures in a class room. Materials for reading and discourses organised in the Moodle environment. Students receive in advance necessary materials as articles, chapters from books, methodological materials and examples on statistical processing the data and explanation of obtained empirical results. Each weekly topic consists of a lecture and readings in the Moodle and active participation.

The course includes 14 hours (10 contact teaching hours are given to lectures, 4 hours are given for evaluation). Evaluation on the results of the course is based on active reading of materials on the course and writing final report on the results of the course.

Some readings for the course:

• Anderssen T., et al (2007) The Nordic Model – Embracing globalisation and sharing risks. ETLA publications.
• Brzinsky-Fay, Chr. (2010) The concept of Transitional labour markets – a theoretical and methodological inventory. (forthcoming)
• The charter of fundamental rights of the European Union (2000/c 364/01), Official Journal of the European Communities.
• Crough, C., (2010) Beyond the flexibility trade-off: reconciling confident consumers with insecure workers.
• Glassner, V., Keune, M. (2010) Collective bargaining in a time of Crisis.
• Erlinghagen, M., (2008) Self-perceived Job insecurity and Social context: a multilevel analysis of 17 European countries. European sociological review, vol 24, 2: 183-197.
• ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up - adopted by the International Labour Conference at its Eighty-sixth Session, Geneva, 18 June 1998 (Annex revised 15 June 2010).
• Määttä, P., (2008) The ILO Principle of Equal Pay and Its Implementation, Tampere University Press. Tampere.
• Perotti, E., von Thadden, E-L., (2006) Political Economy of Corporate Control and Labour Rents. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 114 No. 1, 145-174.
• van Peijpe, T., (1998) Employment Protection under Strain. Kluver.
• Supiot, A., (2001) Beyond Employment – Changes in Work and the Future of Labour Law in Europe. Oxford University Press.
• Taylor-Gooby, P., (2004) New Risk, new welfare: the transformation of the European welfare state. Oxford university press. Oxford.