Unemployment is the most important challenge for democratic societies and the development of social rights in the new scenario arising from the economic crisis. According to the ILO, the employment situation is the most important concern in a great majority of the legal systems of the world. Moreover, this new scenario has had a tremendous impact on the systems of collective bargaining, creating new dynamics of convergence and divergence from a comparative perspective.

The current context of industrial relations is characterized by supranational, national and local multilevel regulation structures which interact with businesses and representation channels acting at all those levels. Therefore, it could be said that, today, the system of regulation of working conditions is a complex system, where different geographies of regulation of rights appear. One of the most important challenges that Labour Law faces today is its definition within employment strategies. The creation of what the ILO has called the "Decent Work Agenda" forms part of Labour Law's current glossary.

After describing national models, the objective of the probject is to identify converngence and divergence between those models in relation to employment policies and management of flexibility.  This will be done, through the analysis of different models of regulation of collective agreements. Actors, contents, legal effects and the articulation of different levels have to be examined, taking into account the new realities arising from the crisis. From a perspective in which inequality and social polarisation increases, collective agreements have a key role to play in addressing such inequalities.

A clear trend in the national cases focused upon is the decentralisation of collective agreements and the impact of this forms a provisional hypothesis in the cases of Spain, Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, Israel, the United States, Canada and Japan. The topic of the articulation of agreements and its relationship with inequality and employment management and flexibility will be part of the defining core of this project.