Spain inherited a thicket of labour protection, notably against lay-offs, from Franco as late as 1975.
Many reforms, such as the dismantling of labour protection and tax increases, will be painful.
But adding the two forms of labour protection together we seem to have more protection, not less.
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But the Marks and Spencer affair has given ammunition to those who want uniformity in labour protection and see Britain as an unhealthy bastion of American-style employment practices.
Wages are up by 10-15%, he says, and a new labour-protection law that came into effect on January 1st increases costs by the same amount again.
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She said Labour's child protection regime "treated over a quarter of the whole workforce, some 11 million people, as potential abusers" by "requiring them to be monitored as part of an overbearing vetting and barring system".
He spoke about the importance of having Labour in power in the Welsh assembly and local government in Wales, adding that "in order to provide real protection we need a Labour government in Westminster".
Hilda Roads, cabinet member for transport and community protection at the Labour-run council, apologised to residents for the disruption caused.
The countries with the biggest youth-unemployment problems tend to be those where either there is no flexibility (as in much of the Middle East) or where flexibility applies only to newcomers to the jobs market, whereas older incumbents have continued to enjoy the protection that made the labour market inflexible in the first place (as in Spain).
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Some Republicans have called for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Labour Relations Board, which mediates employer-union relations.
On the one hand, there are the existing jobs, which still carry many of the perks, privileges and protection that Europe's labour market is famous for.
He is cosier with the sort of interest groups (trade unions) that will call for protection, and is keener on using labour and environmental standards to hamper trade.
Musicians' bodies have raised concerns about this and have lobbied for the music grant to keep the budgetary protection that was introduced by a previous Labour government to stop schools spending the money on items like leaky roofs.
Labour has argued that TPims have "weakened" public protection against terrorism.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the agreement satisfied the demands of protection for victims and freedom of the press.
The best way to do that would be to focus on further reforms to the labour market, and in particular to reduce the lavish employment protection granted to regular workers, which is one of the reasons why firms hire non-regular workers instead.
One sign of greater labour-market flexibility is that companies are bypassing stringent job-protection laws that make it hard to fire workers.
This means that Ms Merkel will struggle to implement the main planks of her proposed reform programme: a flat-fee health-care premium to lower non-wage labour costs, further labour-market reforms, such as loosening Germany's strict protection against dismissal, and radical tax reform.
Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter said Labour supported co-ordinated action to tackle organised crime, terrorism, protection of children and border security.
Calpers' review in February looked at a range of issues, including labour practices, political risk, market volatility and regulation, and investor protection.
News of the execution came on the same day that the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that laws were needed "urgently" to give greater protection to domestic workers.
Labour had to show people it could provide economic prosperity, police on the streets and protection against terrorism, so that people could feel secure in their homes, he said.
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Labour welcomed the shift in the government's position but said the details - such as protection for part-time workers - still had to be hammered out in order to avert strike action.
Labour-market activism is attractive because it makes governments look busy and does not sacrifice existing worker protection.
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