Multinational human resource management and the law : common workplace problems in different legal environments

Multinational corporations face considerable complexity in setting the terms and conditions of employment. Differing national laws prevent firms from developing consistent sets of employment policies, but, at the same time, employees are often expected to work closely with colleagues located in many different countries and seek comparable treatment. This critical volume offers a comprehensive analysis of how these contradictory issues are dealt with in five countries - Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan and the United States. The authors identify six key areas that present the most typical challenges: employee voice (unionization and works councils), discrimination, privacy, wrongful dismissal, compensation and benefits administration, and global supply chain and labor standards. Working within these broad categories, legal experts from each country offer a detailed breakdown of twenty commonly confronted human resource problems and the ways in which national laws affect their solutions. Using a unique combination of primary sources, discussion questions and expert analyses, this pioneering volume provides readers with a new and intensive picture of human resource management across the world. Human resources managers and other practitioners will find this book an indispensable resource. The structure and approach make it an ideal classroom text for students of business and management, labor law and other related fields. Instructors from other than the five countries can easily supplement analysis of the problems by reference to their domestic systems, which gives this work added flexibility and relevance.