This book argues that the rules of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and those of the EC governing working time can be seen as examples of transnational labour regulation, and can be compared on that basis. Contrary to certain orthodoxies about the rule-making roles of each institution, there has been a significant degree of convergence between the institutions, having regard to the nature and purpose of their rules. This convergence has arisen because of complex factors within the internal histories of each institution, and the interaction between these internal developments and the external environment in which both operate. The binding nature of certain Community rules means that EC regulation has the capacity to diminish, and some argue has already diminished, the status and authority of the ILO.
