What does こと mean between two nouns?

Question

What is the function of the first こと in the following sentence?

「労働のビッグバン」こと非正規雇用の規制緩和が次々に行われたのは９０年代、バブルが崩壊して以降のことである。

Logically it seems it has a function similar to と. If that is indeed what it does, does it have any other nuance?

If possible I would like to have a translation, or other examples of こと being used this way.

This sentence appears in an article in 文藝春秋オピニオン２０１３年の論点.

Answer 1

As dainich said in the comment, this "AことB" just means "B also known as A" / "B otherwise known as A". As can be seen in this example, A is normally a nick name, a monikier, or a noun that may be unfamiliar to some readers, and B is used to explain what A means.