Labour Standards (labour + standards)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


FOUR PROPOSITIONS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL LABOUR STANDARDS

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2009
Art Carden
International labour rights organisations pay considerable attention to the working conditions in less developed countries. For labour rights activists, labour standards such as collective bargaining rights and maternal leave promote economic progress. We argue that this perspective has the causation backwards and that it is economic development that causes the codification of improved working conditions. [source]


IMPOSING LABOUR STANDARDS HELPS THE POOR AND PROTECTS DO MESTIC WORKERS

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2002
Geoffrey E. Wood
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Economic Integration, International Capital Movements, and Labour Standards,

LABOUR, Issue 2 2005
Morten Skak
The paper develops a model where more integration initiates a movement towards the bottom of labour standards when increased integration enhances the flow of capital and so increases the marginal gain of a reduction in the strictness of standards. Moreover, a Pareto improving common international standard with higher strictness than in the Nash equilibrium can be negotiated among countries with the same preference for employed worker protection versus social efficiency. When preferences differ between countries, an agreed common or minimum strictness of labour standards will typically not be Pareto improving, but to the detriment of the country that gives less weight to the protection of employed workers. However, in this case there is also a Pareto improving solution, which raises the strictness of labour standards compared to the Nash equilibrium for both countries, but at the same time accepts different country standards reflecting their different preference. [source]


Labour standards, democracy and wages: some cross-country evidence

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2005
Thomas I. Palley
The international community is divided over labour standards. Opponents claim that standards are protectionist. Proponents say they benefit developing economies by improving governance and income distribution. This paper presents evidence supporting the case for labour standards. Using cross-country data from the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, it shows that labour standards are associated with improved governance and reduced corruption. Labour standards also improve income distribution and raise wages. The results qualify Rodrik's (1999) findings about democracy and wages. Labour standards rather than democracy cause higher wages, but democracy may still matter indirectly by promoting labour standards. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The financial performance of the FTSE4Good indices

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2008
David J. Collison
Abstract This paper examines the financial performance of the FTSE4Good indices; the indices include companies from different geographical areas on the basis of pre-determined social responsibility criteria: currently environmental sustainability, relationships with stakeholders, attitudes to human rights, supply chain labour standards and the countering of bribery. The results indicate that over the period of analysis from 1996 to 2005 these indices outperformed their relevant benchmarks. However, most of this outperformance was due to risk differences between the FTSE4Good indices and their benchmarks. In addition, much of the outperformance arose in the period before the indices could be used by practitioners. Nevertheless, the results suggest that investors who invest in a portfolio of companies that satisfy FTSE4Good's corporate social responsibility criteria do no worse than their counterparts who do not follow a socially responsible strategy when purchasing equities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


FOUR PROPOSITIONS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL LABOUR STANDARDS

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2009
Art Carden
International labour rights organisations pay considerable attention to the working conditions in less developed countries. For labour rights activists, labour standards such as collective bargaining rights and maternal leave promote economic progress. We argue that this perspective has the causation backwards and that it is economic development that causes the codification of improved working conditions. [source]


EMU and the Shift in the European Labour Law Agenda: From ,Social Policy' to ,Employment Policy'

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001
Diamond Ashiagbor
This article examines the interaction between EMU and the European Union (EU) employment strategy and its implications for law. It focuses on the importance of EMU as a catalyst in the development of the EU's social and employment policy in the years following the Treaty on European Union in 1992, up to the inauguration of a new employment policy in the Treaty of Amsterdam. In analysing the EU's discourse on labour market regulation, it is arguable that a shift has occurred in the EU's position on the ,labour market flexibility' debate: that the EU institutions are more readily accepting of the orthodoxy that labour market regulation and labour market institutions are a major cause of unemployment within EU countries and that a deregulatory approach, which emphasises greater ,flexibility' in labour markets, is the key to solving Europe's unemployment ills, along with macroeconomic stability, restrictive fiscal policy and wage restraint. As the EU's employment strategy has matured, this increased emphasis on employment policy has come to displace discourses around social policy. This change in emphasis has important implications for EMU since it signals a re-orientation from an approach to labour market regulation which had as its core a strong concept of employment protection and high labour standards, to an approach which prioritises employment creation, and minimises the role of social policy, since social policy is seen as potentially increasing the regulatory burden. [source]


Work models in the Central Eastern European car industry: towards the high road?

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2009
Ulrich Jürgens
ABSTRACT The integration of the Central Eastern European (CEE) countries into the European Union (EU) has provoked debates about the danger of a ,race to the bottom' in Europe caused by the low wages and weak labour regulation and labour standards in CEE. This article examines the evolution of work models in the CEE automotive industry. It argues that the work models in CEE did not take the low-road trajectory. Rather, a limited high-road model emerged in the 1990s, which combined skilled labour and secure employment for the core workforce with a broad margin of precarious employment, low wages and limited employee voice. In the context of labour shortages after the accession to the EU of the CEEs, companies faced recruitment problems and labour conflicts, which threatened to destabilise this model. The first reactions of firms pointed towards the strengthening of the high-road orientation, but the development remains unstable, not least of all because of the economic crisis beginning in 2009. [source]


Low-paid women: the impact of regulatory change in Australia

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009
Marian Baird
ABSTRACT How is low-paid work experienced and understood by women at a time of marked regulatory change? Using a qualitative methodology, we examine women's experiences under Work Choices to assess the impact of the new laws. As in other neoliberal environments, we find that labour standards can have marked effects on low-paid workers; that heightened managerial prerogative leads to fear and insecurity; and that, in spite of all this, low-paid women have significant pride in their work. Furthermore, the results of regulatory change go beyond the workplace to affect women as carers, citizens and community members. [source]


Beyond corporate codes of conduct: Work organization and labour standards at Nike's suppliers

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1-2 2007
Richard LOCKE
What role can corporate codes of conduct play in monitoring compliance with international labour standards and improving working conditions in global supply chains? Addressing this question, the authors first summarize the results of research on factory audits of working conditions in 800 of Nike's suppliers in 51 countries and two intensive case studies. They then discuss how the codes fit into the broader array of institutions, policies and practices aimed at regulating and improving working conditions, suggesting an evolutionary and complementary approach to regulating working conditions in global supply chains. They outline additional research and institutional innovations needed to test these ideas. [source]


Core labour standards and foreign direct investment

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1-2 2002
David KUCERA
First page of article [source]


Governance and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: rethinking best practices in migration management

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 190 2006
Thanh-Dam Truong
This article explores the interface between migration and human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa fromthe two angles of governance and poverty. A salient feature in the emerging frameworks of migration management is its implicit bifurcated vision of mobility. Trade-connected mobility is well protected by government rules whereas mobility to sustain livelihoods is subject to a punitive regime with a limited scope for resolving the discrepancy between the legal and social interpretations of human rights and well-being. The rise of migration by women, children and young people within and outside traditional practices under risky conditions may reflect deeper structural transformations than are commonly acknowledged by policy-makers. Reactions based on human rights concerns have contributed to new international, regional and national legislative frameworks for preventing abusive and exploitative practices in migration. The prevalence of glaring differences of interests in the variant policy approaches to all these issues , migration management, crime control, labour standards, poverty reduction and the particular needs of communities at risk , requires the concept of best practices to address the relationship between dominant forms of social knowledge and the policy field to situate and tackle issues of rights violation in different scales of governance and their interrelationships. [source]


Labour standards, democracy and wages: some cross-country evidence

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2005
Thomas I. Palley
The international community is divided over labour standards. Opponents claim that standards are protectionist. Proponents say they benefit developing economies by improving governance and income distribution. This paper presents evidence supporting the case for labour standards. Using cross-country data from the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, it shows that labour standards are associated with improved governance and reduced corruption. Labour standards also improve income distribution and raise wages. The results qualify Rodrik's (1999) findings about democracy and wages. Labour standards rather than democracy cause higher wages, but democracy may still matter indirectly by promoting labour standards. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Economic Integration, International Capital Movements, and Labour Standards,

LABOUR, Issue 2 2005
Morten Skak
The paper develops a model where more integration initiates a movement towards the bottom of labour standards when increased integration enhances the flow of capital and so increases the marginal gain of a reduction in the strictness of standards. Moreover, a Pareto improving common international standard with higher strictness than in the Nash equilibrium can be negotiated among countries with the same preference for employed worker protection versus social efficiency. When preferences differ between countries, an agreed common or minimum strictness of labour standards will typically not be Pareto improving, but to the detriment of the country that gives less weight to the protection of employed workers. However, in this case there is also a Pareto improving solution, which raises the strictness of labour standards compared to the Nash equilibrium for both countries, but at the same time accepts different country standards reflecting their different preference. [source]


International Promises and Domestic Pragmatism: To What Extent will the Employment Relations Act 1999 Implement International Labour Standards Relating to Freedom of Association

THE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 3 2000
Tonia Novitz
This paper explores the rhetoric and reality surrounding implementation of international labour standards in the Employment Relations Act 1999. It focuses on UK commitments relating to freedom of association and considers whether the new legislation goes any significant way towards their fulfilment. The paper begins by outlining obligations which arise from a state's membership of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and ratification of ILO Conventions. It then goes on to examine indications that, since the change of government in 1997, there has been a significant shift in UK policy relating to such international obligations. The remainder of the paper examines reforms made by the Employment Relations Act to trade union recognition, protection of strikers from dismissal and prevention of anti-union discrimination. It emerges that the Third Way proposed by the present Labour Government entails a complicated detour from the path of full compliance with ILO standards. [source]