During the 1980s and 1990s, the strain of market forces and neo-liberal policies affected the employment protection systems of many countries. Employment Protection under Strain compares developments in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands with a social collectivist system of labour law and industrial relations. The study also addresses and contextualizes differences in the systems of industrial relations and their historical development. The description and analysis of employment protection includes the protective functions of the law, its connection to collective bargaining, the system of dispute resolution, and the developments in related social security arrangements. The impact of the European Union and the prospects for employment protection in the European context receive special attention. This book also takes a broad comparative approach, providing a global account of employment protection in the United States, Japan, and Germany, which reflects respectively the characteristics of a liberal, an exclusive, and an inclusive model of employment protection. The comparison highlights contradictory elements and tendencies within each of the systems and thereby provides a valuable examination of current trends indicating the chances of survival of social collectivist policies in Europe.