Aims

This course aims to give students some basic information on work, on collective relations,
and on the industrial relations system that has largely developed in Belgium since 1945.
It also aims to guide students as they search for the sources they will need to deepen
These contextual elements of matters relating to questions to do with work.

Main themes

The course will deal with the development of economic activity, and relations between the
social partners and the government by stressing the impact on work (e.g. the economic and social geography of Belgium, major developments in employment and skills, and the structuring of employers' associations and trade unions).
The course will also highlight the main sources and means of bibliographical research, and
the statistics needed to enable students to study certain issues in more detail when the need
for this is felt in other courses, for a range of reasons including the completion of end of course work.
Depending on the opportunities available, students may be invited to carry out concrete
work on a personal search for sources, and a critical interpretation of these sources.

Content and teaching methods

The course consists of lectures, course notes and compulsory basic reading. It is in three
parts.
The first part introduces the main developments that have characterised the labour market
in Belgium, given shifts in the country's economic and social structures. The statistics used
refer to national, regional and local district levels.
The second part focuses on the trade union and employer collective actors in the Belgian
Industrial relations system. After a review of the circumstances and historical developments linked to the appearance and transformation of these actors, this part will analyse the ways they are structured and organised, and the elements that identify their representativeness. The third part of the course examines the place of these actors in collective relations institutions and these institutions' main missions.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

None.
Written examination with multiple choice and open questions.
These classes will be given at the beginning of the course; they will sometimes take place
in the evening and/on on Saturday morning.

Other credits in programs