Volume 149 (2010), Number 1

• Differences in the job satisfaction of high-paid and low-paid workers across Europe

  Konstantinos POULIAKAS and Ioannis THEODOSSIOU

  Data from six waves of the European Community Household Panel (1996–2001) in 11 countries suggest that low-paid employees are significantly less satisfied with their job than the high-paid in southern Europe, but not in the northern countries. Proxying job satisfaction for job quality, the authors show that while low-paid employment does not necessarily mean low-quality employment, workers in some countries suffer the double penalty of low pay and low job quality. Such dualism across European labour markets, they argue, reflects different country-level approaches to the trade-off between flexibility and security, calling for a policy focus on the latter to enhance job quality

  KEYWORDS: JOB SATISFACTION, WAGES, LOW WAGES, AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, DENMARK, FINLAND, GREECE, IRELAND, ITALY, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, UNITED KINGDOM.

• Is Asia adopting flexicurity?

  Paul VANDENBERG

  In the face of global competition, many countries are adopting a flexicurity approach to labour regulation, providing employers with greater flexibility to hire and retrench workers while helping workers transition to new jobs. This review of six Asian countries finds that China and the Republic of Korea have enacted such reforms; Singapore and Malaysia provide some ingredients of flexicurity, though no unemployment insurance; India and Sri Lanka have introduced few reforms and continue to rely on an older model of employer-based security. To support informal workers, the Governments of China, India and Sri Lanka use public works, selfemployment programmes and skills training.

  KEYWORDS: LABOUR FLEXIBILITY, EMPLOYMENT SECURITY, EMPLOYMENT POLICY, CHINA, REPUBLIC OF KOREA, INDIA, MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE, SRI LANKA.

• The consequences of job insecurity for employees: The moderator role of job dependence

  Beatriz SORA, Amparo CABALLER and José María PEIRÓ

  With globalization and increased international competition have come more flexible forms of employment and increased job insecurity. The authors address the impact of perceived job insecurity on employees’ work attitudes and intentions. After reviewing relevant research on stress theory and the relationship between job insecurity and its consequences, they test two hypotheses on 942 employees in Spain, namely: first, that job insecurity relates negatively to job satisfaction and organizational commitment and positively to intention to leave; and, second, that job insecurity, economic need and employability interact in the prediction of these outcomes.

  KEYWORDS: JOB INSECURITY, EMPLOYABILITY, JOB SATISFACTION, WORK ATTITUDE, SPAIN.

• The cost of "doing business" and labour regulation: The case of South Africa

  Paul BENJAMIN, Haroon BHORAT and Halton CHEADLE

  The "Employing Workers" indices compiled from the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) survey for 2006 presented mixed results as to the nature and extent of labour regulation in South Africa. Arguing that these measures - with their narrow focus on legislation - provide only a partial picture, the authors suggest and investigate three possible extensions to the DB framework with the aim of achieving a more realistic representation of labour regulation in practice, namely: "micro-legislation", labour market institutions and judicial interpretation. They conclude with a plea for taking account of the crucial importance of these features in the assessment of labour regulation frameworks

  KEYWORDS: LABOUR LAW, EMPLOYMENT SECURITY, RECRUITMENT, DISMISSAL, ECONOMIC IMPLICATION, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA.