Labour inspection is an increasingly important part of employment standard-setting, as trade union membership and collective bargaining decline. Research identifies two broad approaches to labour inspection. A defining characteristic of the Latin model is that flexibility and enforcement are successfully combined in the one regulatory regime. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon model involves institutional fragmentation and a lack of symmetry between `hard' and `soft' regulatory interventions. The case of the Republic of Ireland highlights the weaknesses of the Anglo-Saxon model of labour inspection: both the `hard' and `soft' dimensions to this labour standard-setting regime need reforming and strengthening.
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