Showing papers on "Labour law published in 2011"

A race to the bottom in labour standards? An empirical investigation

Abstract: Among the many concerns over globalization is that as nations compete for mobile firms, they will relax labour standards as a method of lowering costs and attracting investment. Using spatial estimation on panel data for 148 developing countries over 18 years, we find that the labour standards in one country are positively correlated with the labour standards elsewhere (i.e. a cut in labour standards in other countries reduces labour standards in the country in question). This interdependence is more evident in labour practices (i.e. enforcement) than in labour laws. Further, competition is most fierce in those countries with already low standards.

Working the Crowd: Employment and Labor Law in the Crowdsourcing Industry

Abstract: This Article confronts the thorny questions that arise in attempting to apply traditional employment and labor law to “crowdsourcing,” an emerging online labor model unlike any that has existed to this point. Crowdsourcing refers to the process of taking tasks that would normally be delegated to an employee and distributing them to a large pool of online workers, the “crowd,” in the form of an open call. The Article describes how crowdsourcing works, its advantages and risks, and why workers in particular subsections of the paid crowdsourcing industry may be denied the protection of employment laws without much recourse to vindicate their rights. Taking Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform as a case study, the Article explores the nature of this employment relationship in order to determine the legal status of the “crowd.” The Article also details the complications that might arise in applying existing work laws to crowd labor. Finally, the Article presents a series of brief recommendations. It encourages legislatures to clarify and expand legal protections for crowdsourced employees, and suggests ways for courts and administrative agencies to pursue the same objective within our existing legal framework. It also offers voluntary “best practices” for firms and venues involved in crowdsourcing, along with examples of how crowd workers might begin to effectively organize and advocate on their own behalf.

Flexicurity, employment protection and the jobs crisis:

Abstract: The concept of ‘flexicurity’ has become ubiquitous in the labour market policy recommendations of the European Commission. EU member states have been encouraged to increase labour market flexibility while maintaining security through the promotion of ‘employability’ and an ‘adequate’ floor of unemployment benefits. The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 has, however, provided flexicurity measures with a strenuous test. As this article demonstrates, those countries that have maintained relatively strong employment protections have tended to experience fewer labour market disruptions than countries with weaker employment protections. The article also suggests that while there has been some convergence in employment and social protection policy across Europe, the trend has been towards less security rather than ‘flexicurity’.

From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China

Abstract: 1. Introduction and Argument Mary E. Gallagher, Ching Kwan Lee, and Sarosh KuruvillaPart I: Informalization and the State2. The Informalization of the Chinese Labor Market Albert Park and Fang Cai3. Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform in Contemporary China Mary E. Gallagher and Baohua Dong4. Social Policy and Public Opinion in an Age of Insecurity Mark W. FrazierPart II: Transformation of Employment Relations in Industries5. Enterprise Reform and Wage Movements in Chinese Oil Fields and Refineries Kun-Chin Lin6. The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile Industry Lu Zhang7. Permanent Temporariness in the Chinese Construction Industry Sarah SwiderPart III: Unions, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Workers8. "Where There Are Workers, There Should Be Trade Unions": Union Organizing in the Era of Growing Informal Employment Mingwei Liu9. The Anti-Solidarity Machine?: Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China Ching Kwan Lee and Yuan Shen10. Conclusion Mary E. Gallagher, Sarosh Kuruvilla, and Ching Kwan LeeNotes References Notes on Contributors Index

Working the Crowd: Employment and Labor Law in the Crowdsourcing Industry

Abstract: This Article confronts the thorny questions that arise in attempting to apply traditional employment and labor law to “crowdsourcing,” an emerging online labor model unlike any that has existed to this point. Crowdsourcing refers to the process of taking tasks that would normally be delegated to an employee and distributing them to a large pool of online workers, the “crowd,” in the form of an open call. The Article describes how crowdsourcing works, its advantages and risks, and why workers in particular subsections of the paid crowdsourcing industry may be denied the protection of employment laws without much recourse to vindicate their rights. Taking Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform as a case study, the Article explores the nature of this employment relationship in order to determine the legal status of the “crowd.” The Article also details the complications that might arise in applying existing work laws to crowd labor. Finally, the Article presents a series of brief recommendations. It encourages legislatures to clarify and expand legal protections for crowdsourced employees, and suggests ways for courts and administrative agencies to pursue the same objective within our existing legal framework. It also offers voluntary “best practices” for firms and venues involved in crowdsourcing, along with examples of how crowd workers might begin to effectively organize and advocate on their own behalf.

The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: EVOLUTION AND RE-FORMULATION IN THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF PERSONAL WORK RELATIONS PART I: THE LEGAL ANALYSIS OF PERSONAL WORK RELATIONS 1. The Legal Analysis of Personal Work Relations - Boundaries, Paradigms, and Legal Formats 2. A European Comparative Approach to the Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations PART II: THE PERSONAL WORK RELATION AS A CONTRACT 3. The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations as Contracts 4. The Formation and Structure of Contracts of Employment 5. The Content and Performance of Contracts of Employment 6. The Termination and Transformation of Contracts of Employment 7. Personal Work Contracts other than the Contract of Employment PART III: THE PERSONAL WORK RELATION AS A LEGAL NEXUS 8. Contract, Relation, and Nexis in the Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations 9. The Personal Work Profile and the Idea of Personality in Work PART IV: THE PERSONAL WORK PROFILE AND THE IDEA OF PERSONALITY IN WORK 10. The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations and the Role of EU Law CONCLUSION: THE PERSONAL WORK RELATION IN EUROPEAN LABOUR LAW - CHALLENGES AND AFFIRMATIONS

Handbook of Employment and Society: Working Space

Abstract: Contents: 1. Foundations Andrew Herod, Susan McGrath-Champ and Al Rainnie PART I: WORK, SPACE AND THE STATE 2. Globalisation and the State Bob Jessop 3. Creating Markets, Contesting Markets: Labour Internationalism and the European Common Transport Policy Peter Turnbull PART II: WORKING SPACES 4. Working Spaces Al Rainnie, Susan McGrath-Champ and Andrew Herod Section 2.1 Regionalisation, Globalisation and Labour 5. Labour Markets from the Bottom Up Jamie Peck and Nik Theodore 6. Clothing Workers after Worker States: The Consequences for Work and Labour of Outsourcing, Nearshoring and Delocalisation in Postsocialist Europe John Pickles and Adrian Smith 7. Tele-mediated Servants and Self-servants of the Global Economy: Labour in the Era of ICT-enabled E-commerce Matthew Zook and Michael Samers 8. Gender, Space and Labour Market Participation: The Experiences of British Pakistani Women Robina Mohammad 9. Filipino Migration and the Spatialities of Labour Market Subordination Philip F. Kelly Section 2.2 Building Space 10. Competing Geographies of Welfare Capitalism and its Workers: Kohler Village and the Spatial Politics of Planned Company Towns Kathryn J. Oberdeck 11. Work, Place and Community in Socialism and Postsocialism Alison Stenning 12. Plastic Palm Trees and Blue Pumpkins: Synthetic Fun and Real Control in Contemporary Space Chris Baldry 13. Dormitory Labour Regimes and the Labour Process in China: New Workers in Old Factory Forms Ngai Pun and Chris Smith PART III: WORKERS IN SPACE 14. Workers in Space Al Rainnie, Andrew Herod and Susan McGrath-Champ Section 3.1 Labour Institutions in Space and Place 15. Global Unions versus Global Capital: Or, the Complexity of Transnational Labour Relations Ronaldo Munck and Peter Waterman 16. Methodological Nationalism and Territorial Capitalism: Mobile Labour and the Challenges to the 'German Model' Christian Berndt 17. European Works Councils: From the Local to the Global? Ian Fitzgerald and John Stirling 18. The New Economic Model and Spatial Changes in Labour Relations in Post-NAFTA Mexico Enrique de la Garza Toledo Section 3.2 Organising in Space and Place 19. Contested Space: Union Organising in the Old Economy Bradon Ellem 20. Contesting the New Politics of Space: Labour and Capital in the White Goods Industry in Southern Africa Andries Bezuidenhout and Edward Webster 21. The Multi-scalarity of Trade Union Practice Jeremy Anderson, Paula Hamilton and Jane Wills 22. Working Space and the New Labour Internationalism Rob Lambert and Michael Gillan 23. Online Union Campaigns and the Shrinking Globe: The LabourStart Experience Eric Lee 24. 'Across the Great Divide': Local and Global Trade Union Responses to Call Centre Offshoring to India Phil Taylor and Peter Bain PART IV: AFTERWORD 25. Workers, Economies, Geographies Noel Castree Index

The Idea of Labour Law

Abstract: Understanding Labour Law: A Timeless Idea, a Timed-Out Idea, or an Idea Whose Time has Now Come? THE IDEA OF LABOUR LAW IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT 1. Labour Law After Labour 2. Factors Influencing the Making and Transformation of Labour Law in Europe 3. Re-Inventing Labour Law? 4. Hugo Sinzheimer and the Constitutional Function of Labour Law 5. Global Conceptualizations and Local Constructions on the Idea of Labour Law 6. The Idea of the Idea of Labour Law: A Parable NORMATIVE FOUNDATIONS OF THE IDEA OF LABOUR LAW 7. Labour Law's Theory of Justice 8. Labour as a 'Fictive Commodity': Radically Reconceptualizing Labour Law 9. Theories of Rights as Justifications for Labour Law 10. The Contribution of Labour Law to Economic and Human Development NORMATIVE FOUNDATIONS AND LEGAL IDEAS: RETHINKING EXISTING STRUCTURES 11. Re-Matching Labour Laws with Their Purpose 12. The Legal Characterization of Personal Work Relations and the Idea of Labour Law 13. Ideas of Labour Law - Views From the South 14. Informal Employment and the Challenges for Labour Law 15. The Impossibility of Work Law 16. Procurement Law to Enforce Labour Standards 17. Labor Activism in Local Politics: From CBAs to 'CBAs' and Beyond NEW LABOUR LAW IDEAS: RETHINKING EXISTING BOUNDARIES 18. The Broad Idea of Labour Law: Industrial Policy, Labour Market Regulation, and Decent Work 19. The Third Function of Labor Law: Distributing Labor Market Opportunities Among Workers 20. Beyond Collective Bargaining: Modern Unions as Agents of Social Solidarity 21. From Conflict to Regulation: The Transformative Function of Labour Law NEW IDEAS OF LABOUR LAW FROM AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 22. Out of the Shadows? The Non-Binding Multilateral Framework on Migration (2006) and Prospects for Using International Labour Regulation to Forge Global Labour Market Membership 23. Flexible Bureaucracies in Labor Market Regulation 24. Collective Exit Strategies: New Ideas in Transnational Labour Law 25. Emancipation in the Idea of Labour Law: Commoditization, Resistance and Distributive Justice beyond borders

Playing against China: global value chains and labour standards in the international sports goods industry

Abstract: The rise of China as the global factory raises challenges for many develop- ing countries and their producers. The football-manufacturing sector is a case in which China has emerged as a global player. It is also a sector where compliance with international labour standards is considered critical. Leading international brands dominate the industry and control the global value chain for sports goods. In this article, we explore the relationship between the rise of China and international labour standards and consider how labour standards have affected the geography and organization of global football production. We draw on evidence from three of the main production locations - China, Pakistan and India. It appears that compliance with labour standards not only has different implications for the three production locations, but also that compliance alone is an insufficient basis for competing against China.

Labour standards application among Chinese and Indian firms in Ghana: typical or atypical?

Abstract: Despite the current interest in the growing amount of Chinese and Indian investments in African countries, little is known on the impact of such investments on the employment conditions of African workers. This study investigates the employment practices of a Chinese-owned and an Indian-owned manufacturing company in Ghana in relation to the national labour laws and international labour standards. This article argues that given the weaknesses in the institutional and financial capabilities of the state and the resultant large scope of autonomy assumed by multinational corporations (MNCs), it is highly unlikely that MNCs will voluntarily adopt a high level of labour standards without tangible benefits to the business. This is particularly the case for smaller MNCs from emerging economies such as China and India, as they often slip through the net of international pressure groups and are most unlikely to receive pressure in their home country to observe labour standards in their overseas operations. This st...

Employment relations “with Chinese characteristics”: The role of trade unions in China

Abstract: Reviewing recent labour developments and trade union policy shifts in his- torical perspective, this article explores the role of trade unions in China's efforts to promote a "harmonious society". The much-criticized "top-down" approach associ- ated with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, however, has led to growing pressure "from below", as evidenced by the recent increase in the number of strikes. With an emergent new role for trade unions, the authors argue, an employment relations system "with Chinese characteristics" is now institutionally embedded in the People's Republic. ike the other institutions of the People's Republic of China, its trade unions L face a major challenge in the shape of an ever-internationalizing economy and all this entails, including growing labour unrest as workers seek better wages and conditions. Although the trade unions' traditional structure and function are products of China's Communist history, they are having to embrace both strategic and organizational change in order to respond effectively to today's economic, social and political context (see Child, 1994, 2005 and 2009). Drawing on a wide range of sources,1 this overview analyses the chan- ging role of the Chinese trade union movement vis-a-vis the earlier system of 1

Indian labour law and its impact on unemployment, 1970-2006: A leximetric study

Abstract: We analyse a recently developed leximetric dataset on Indian labour law over the period 1970 to 2006. Indian labour law is seen to be highly protective of workers’ interests by international standards, particularly in the area of dismissal regulation. We undertake a time-series econometric analysis to estimate the impact of the strengthening of labour laws on unemployment and industrial output in the formal economy. We find no evidence that pro-worker labour legislation leads to unemployment or industrial stagnation. Rather, pro-worker labour laws are associated with low unemployment, with the direction of causality running from unemployment and output to labour regulation

Labour Law's Theory of Justice

Abstract: Many papers written about labour law these days, including many chapters in this volume, share much in common. This is because many labour lawyers agree with Harry Arthurs that labour lawyers and labour law face an identity crisis. Whether or not we agree with Alan Hyde that ‘this time . . . it is really over’ many of us do agree that the idea of labour law is under a lot of stress. The crisis confronting labour law has three dimensions: (1) empirical (has the real world changed so much as to leave traditional labour law beside the point, inoperable, fading from view?); (2) conceptual (are our basic concepts of ‘employee’, ‘employer’, employment contracts, and so on, still viable and capable of organizing our thinking in a useful way?); and (3) normative (are the moral ideas which motivate our enterprise still salient, robust, and capable of rallying us to the continued defence of our subject?). We do not all agree, it seems, that we need to be in a state of real crisis. But, as I see it, we agree that that is the state we are in. As a result labour lawyers face the questions of whether we should, can, and will re-think our discipline. To these questions we find a range of responses. While there is widespread agreement that there have been large changes in the empirical world of work there is no agreement on what this portends for the discipline of labour law and we can identify a number of positions: (1) there is no resulting normative crisis, and thus no need for a normative re-evaluation. Rather, we simply face the problem of developing new techniques (means) for applying old values (ends) to new empirical realities; (2) the problems are, again, not essentially normative but, rather, ones requiring conceptual innovation to ensure that labour law is not held hostage to old categories, old ways of thinking, and old ways of doing business, which may stand now as barriers to the achieving of labour law’s normative goals; (3) the real problem is that we actually do need normative renovation and renewal. But among those taking this position there is no consensus

Sustaining or abandoning ‘social peace’? Strike development and trends in Europe since the 1990s

Abstract: Providing a simple quantitative overview and a short macro-comparative analysis of strike activity in Europe since the 1990s, this working paper assesses whether three strike trends observed in the 1990s continued in the next decade. First of all, there was a continued drop in strike activity measured by days not worked due to strikes. Relative ‘labour quiescence’ was thus also the underlying feature of the 2000s in Europe. Secondly, the rank order in the European ‘strike league table’ shows remarkable stability over a 20-year period. Albeit with a tendency towards convergence, possible future dynamics of workers’ collective action and its meaning will thus almost certainly continue to vary across Europe. Finally, politically motivated mass strikes and demonstrations, especially in the public sector, directed against (planned) government action and legislation to alter employment law were on the increase in the 2000s, with noteworthy effects due to the current socioeconomic crisis. However, it remains to be seen whether an increase in public sector strikes, commonly defensive in nature and seeking to maintain existing employment regulations, will change the continued proliferation of neoliberal policies or stimulate trade union revitalisation.

Labour market regulations and informal employment in China: To what extent are workers protected?

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to chart the sharp rise of informal employment in urban China in the last decade. It investigates the role of labour market regulations in shaping employment relations for those engaged in this form of employment and their employment outcome. It also examines various forms of organization and representation of these workers and the extent to which these mechanisms meet their needs.Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on secondary and first‐hand empirical data. The secondary data come mainly from media sources and academic publications in China. The empirical data from interviews that the author has conducted with the labour authorities, trade union officials, workers, senior managers and owner CEOs of private firms in several cities.Findings – The paper concludes that the inadequacy of the function of employment agencies, the absence of a functioning social security system for workers in informal employment, and the lack of effective enforcement of employme...

Labor, Globalization and Inequality: Are Trade Unions Still Redistributive?

Abstract: Purpose – Ascertaining the extent to which the generalized decline in union density, as well as the erosion in centralized bargaining structures and developments in other labor institutions, have contributed to rising within-country inequality. Methodology – Econometric analysis of a newly developed dataset combining information on industrial relations and labor law, various dimensions of globalization, and controls for demand and supply of skilled labor for 51 Advanced, Central and Eastern European, Latin American, and Asian countries from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, followed by an analysis of 16 advanced countries over a longer time frame (from the late 1970s to the early 2000s). Findings – In contrast to previous research, which finds labor institutions to be important determinants of more egalitarian wage or income distributions, the chapter finds that trade unionism and collective bargaining are no longer significantly associated with within-country inequality, except in the Central and Eastern European countries. These findings are interpreted as the result of trade unionism operating under more stringent structural constraints than in the past, partly as a result of globalization trends. In addition, despite much talk about welfare state crisis, welfare states, historically the result of labor's power and mobilization capacity, still play an important redistributive role, at least in advanced countries. Practical implications – Union attempts at equalizing incomes by compressing market earnings seem ineffective and impractical in the current day and age. Unions should seek to increase the workers’ skill levels and promote an egalitarian transformation of the workplace. This type of “supply-side” egalitarianism is not a new strategy for unions, but is very much embedded in the unions’ DNA.

Fifty Ways to Leave Your Employer: Relative Enforcement of Covenants Not to Compete, Trends, and Implications for Employee Mobility Policy

Abstract: Covenants not to compete (“noncompetes”) remain a controversial tool for employers to restrict employee post-employment mobility, particularly in an increasingly cross-jurisdictional business world. Amid the growing attention focused on the impact of noncompetes in legal and business academic literature, scholars have begun to use interpretations of the strength of enforcement of these post-employment restrictions to assess barriers to employee mobility and knowledge diffusion.Unlike previous research, this article systematically, and with an in-depth examination of both case law and legislation, gauges the relative strength of noncompete enforcement across the United States based on multiple factors at two periods. Accordingly, the article presents trends in noncompete enforcement policy and evaluates these results in light of the legal literature arguing that an interjurisdictional market for law exists. The article concludes with an evaluation of the implications and future use of these findings for policymakers, businesses, and employees, as well as recommendations for additional research.

Labour standards and capacity in global subcontracting chains: evidence from a construction MNC

Abstract: This article investigates how fundamental labour rights specified in international framework agreements are implemented and monitored in subcontracting chains. It shows how labour's capacity for workplace-based monitoring is influenced by factors such as ownership structures, the societal context, and, most importantly, the institutions and dynamics of local labour control.

Trade Unions, Lisbon and Europe 2020: From Dream to Nightmare

Abstract: On 24 November 2009 the European Commission published its consultation paper on the EU 2020 strategy. This paper analyses European trade union responses, and contrasts the very limited participation in the exercise with the greater response to the Green Paper Modernising Labour Law three years earlier. It argues that a key explanation is growing trade union disenchantment with the evolution of the 2000 Lisbon Strategy – embraced remarkably uncritically at the time – as it developed over the subsequent decade. In effect, the neoliberal implications of European integration have become increasingly unencumbered by any pretence at a ‘social dimension’. It is far from clear that trade unions have as yet a strategy to respond to the far harsher European policy environment.

The Employment Relationship: A Comparative Overview

Abstract: The issue of who is or is not in an employment relationship has become problematic in recent decades as a result of major changes in work organization as well as in the adequacy of legal regulation in adapting to such changes. In different parts of the world, there are increasing difficulties with establishing whether or not an employment relationship exists in situations where the respective rights and obligations of the parties concerned are not clear, where there has been an attempt to disguise the employment relationship, or where inadequacies or gaps exist in legal frameworks or in their interpretation or application. Vulnerable workers tend to suffer most in these situations. At the same time, social partners and labour administrators emphasize that globalization has increased the need for protection, in particular against the circumvention of national labour legislation by contractual and/or other legal arrangements. Accordingly, the employment relationship is coming under more and more scrutiny not only from labour lawyers, but also from workers, employers and the judiciary. Changes in the world of work are continuing to modify the 'traditional employment relationship'. These changes are altering both labour legislation and affecting the ways labour law is implemented. This book presents the complex relation of labour legislation to the employment relationship, reporting on the many terms, notions, definitions, laws and practice in the various regions of the world. Co-published with Hart Publishing.

Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation

Abstract: Introduction to Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation (Palgrave/ILO 2011). The book is an international and interdisciplinary response to the two most significant accounts of the role and significance of labour market regulation: orthodox economic theory and the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda. It is the first volume to be compiled from the work of the Network on Regulating for Decent Work, an international and interdisciplinary research network established to support and encourage interdisciplinary research on labour market regulation. The volume advances the academic and policy debates on post-crisis labour regulation by identifying new challenges, subjects and theoretical perspectives. It identifies central themes in the contemporary regulation of labour, including the role of empirical research in assessing and supporting labour market interventions; the regulation of precarious work; and the emergence of new types of labour market. This Introduction first outlines the recent evolution of the deregulatory narrative. It then draws on subsequent chapters in the volume to address the design of theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks through which research on labour market regulation can be advanced. Two issues of central relevance are elaborated: the potential benefits of labour regulation and the complexity of regulatory frameworks.

The Private Regulation of Labour Standards and Rights in the Global Clothing Industry: An Evaluation of Its Effectiveness in Two Developing Countries

Abstract: This article examines the effectiveness of private transnational regulation of labour standards/rights in the clothing industry. It adopts three objectives. First, the study focuses on national states in developing countries, explaining their lack of enforcement of labour law and the suppression of labour rights. Second, the article examines the effectiveness of transnational regulatory networks (TRNs) in raising labour standards/rights in producer countries. We conclude that, in a fragmented and highly competitive global industry, existing TRNs cannot ensure labour decent standards/rights. Third, we investigate the reasons for their limited effectiveness. We empirically investigate the conditions and rights of labour in the clothing industries of China and Turkey. In the case of Turkey, we are able to explain the lack of effectiveness of TRNs by drawing on interviews with a variety of actors in firms and networks.

Key characteristics of employment regulations in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract: This Fast Brief provides a general background on the main features of labor regulations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. This is part of an effort to understand employability constraints in MENA and to this end a World Bank team gathered information on labor legislation and other legal acts concerning labor regulations in the region. All this rendered more urgent with the ongoing social and political turmoil in the region. Within the broader scope of labor regulations, and in order to assure regional comparability, the information that was collected focused on key issues associated with commencing or terminating employment and during the period of employment (including maternity benefits). This Brief is to provide policymakers and international organizations with a regional analysis of how labor regulation affects labor market outcomes in the region and to inform governments on strategic approaches to employment creation through labor policy and associated reforms. This activity comes as a response to regional priorities in the context of the Arab World Initiative (AWI): one of the six strategic themes of the AWI focuses explicitly on employment creation as a top priority.

Is Collective Bargaining Pareto Efficient? A Survey of the Literature

Abstract: It would be difficult, even today, to argue that labour unions are not important economic institutions, and it is this importance that makes their consequences for efficiency so substantial. Interest in the economic analysis of unions was revived in the early 1980s, in large part by a paper by Ian McDonald and Robert Solow, which formalized ideas first expressed in the context of labour markets 35 years earlier by Wassily Leontief. The standard textbook model of the labour union treats the union as a conventional monopoly seller of labour, selecting the wage while the firm chooses the level of employment; McDonald & Solow, however, drew from Leontief’s work to suggest an alternative in which the firm and union negotiate to a Pareto efficient contract. Further theoretical work followed, and a still-growing empirical literature began to develop; a wide variety of empirical procedures and tests have been attempted, with a diverse and contradictory range of findings. Given the importance of the question of union contract efficiency, an up-to-date survey of the literature may be useful in synthesizing past results and pointing the way to future research, and it is this role which the current paper will attempt to fill.

Labour Law after Labour

Abstract: ‘What is labour law for?’ is a question with a past. I therefore begin by sketching out its history. It has a present too, whose most striking feature – I argue – may well be the end of ‘labour.’ And of course it has a future: what will labour law look like ‘after labour?’ I address all three questions largely from a North American perspective, but with reference to experience in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Labour market policies, poverty and insecurity

Abstract: The article sets out to evaluate the performance of the conventional labour market and social policies in the era of globalised labour markets in terms of poverty alleviation, equality and security. To this end, it develops a framework based on three key policy evaluation principles, centred on the normative notion of social justice, whereby the expansion of full freedom requires basic economic security for all. After summarising main labour market trends, the article proceeds by analysing conventional labour market policies, targeted labour schemes, regulatory interventions and cash transfers as labour market policy.