The Non-Human Entity - Week 9

Employers and critics of labour regulation have been arguing for the liberalisation of labour laws, and for governance and compliance systems, following the liberalisation of the product market to enable firms to respond swiftly and suitably to fast-changing market conditions. The trade unions opposed this even as the government was seemingly favourably disposed towards employers' demands. The countrywide strikes that have taken place since 1991 have become controversial not merely due to their high frequency but also for their lack of legitimacy as reforms appear to be a foregone conclusion and the protest politics seems to be vain and economically hurting the nation. This paper explores the dynamics of the countrywide strikes and examines whether some of the demands of trade unions are justified.

THE WAGES CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA: What it is and what to do about it, 2018

This chapter describes the impact of public sector austerity in Australia in recent years, with a particular focus on its spill-over effects on broader labour markets. The chapter begins by reviewing the traditional justifications for public sector austerity — arguments that, since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Great Recession, have increasingly been called into question. The next section of the chapter outlines several specific austerity policies that have been applied to public sector employment and wage determination in Australia. These mechanisms have included the privatisation of public services, marketisation of public services, outsourcing of public sector work, downsizing of public services and administration, the application of so-called efficiency dividends to departmental budgets, and explicit caps on public sector wage growth. The chapter then considers the ‘chilling effects’ that these forms of public sector employment and wage austerity have had: not only directly on public sector employment and remuneration, but also indirectly on broader labour market outcomes (including in the private sector). These spill-over effects are especially visible in the years since the end of the mining investment boom around 2012 — which is exactly the time period that witnessed the unprecedented deceleration of overall wage growth in Australia. The final section of the chapter makes the case for treating public sector employment and wage decisions as both a key instrument of macroeconomic policy, and a means to creating a ‘good society’. The chapter concludes with several specific policy recommendations that, if implemented, would constitute a decisive break with the logic and practice of public sector austerity, and would help to ameliorate the broader problem of wage stagnation in Australia.

FRAME Work Package 9 is concerned with assessing how human rights are integrated into EU policies on development and trade and to what extent this is translated in concrete policy instruments and tools. It analyses the various EU institutional structures responsible for developing and implementing human rights policies in development and trade and the challenges in creating a coherent and consistent framework for implementing human rights into EU action. It is also aimed at studying the contribution the EU can make as part of its development and trade policies to counter the erosion of basic rights in lower income countries, in particular through EU initiatives. This report follows from previous reports in the Work Package that have illustrated the contribution the EU makes to integrating human rights into trade and development policies.

American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 4, pp. 444-67., 2013

Precarious work, characterized by the uncertainty and unpredictability of employment, is well established in Thailand. This article examines the expansion of new forms of precarious work in Thailand with particular attention to the post–Asian economic crisis period. This is done through an examination of the currently available data. The post-1997 period has seen economic liberalization deepen, and this has delivered policies and practices that have weakened unions, kept wages low, and expanded the use of contract and agency-supplied labor. At the same time, there have been gains for in terms of state-based social protection. In two case studies, the article demonstrates that for workers in the manufacturing sector, there has been an increase in labor subcontracting or outsourcing and other forms of less secure work as employers seek to reduce costs and limit collective organization by workers.

Compendium of papers presented by different scholars at the Growth with Justice Seminar at Lucknow India

THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, 2017

In post-communist transitions, given the steepness of union decline and the inheritance of rigid communist-era Labor Codes, a convenient way to compare the relative efficacy of organized labor is to asses its ability to contain the push for “flexibilization” in the revision of labor regulations. This article compares Poland and the Czech Republic (1989-2010) where important differences emerged in revised Labor Codes in such areas as dismissals, fixed-term contracts, collective bargaining and union rights. In all these aspects, Czech labor did significantly better in resisting flexibilization. The explanation rests on the evolution of a legacy union in the Czech Republic that was able to concentrate labor’s resources and coordinate with an electorally viable set of left parties to secure their backing for labor’s agenda. This was not possible in Poland given the deep divisions within organized labor and the shifting fortunes of left parties in a more volatile party system. The cohesiveness of labor and the viability of left parties do not explain variation in labor power everywhere. They do, however, jointly constitute a portable mechanism that enhances the strength of organized labor in post-communist countries and possibly even in late-developing countries where democratic contestation and market reforms are evident.

ECONOMY and SOCIETY (published online 27 sept 2018), 2018

On August 16, 2012, a protracted strike at a platinum mine in Marikana culminated in the killing of 34 mineworkers by local security forces. Some viewed this tragedy through the lens of South Africa's apartheid past, recalling such events as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Others saw this episode as the latest cycle of angry protest and violent repression stemming from heightened inequality and poverty under global capitalism. This article explores a set of institutional factors that occupy the middle ground between these two narratives about the massacre at Marikana. At the national level, despite progressive labour regulations and a long-standing alliance between the leading trade union (COSATU) and the ruling African National Congress, institutional channels for social dialogue and collective bargaining were less effective than expected given COSATU's inability to criticize policies focused on business-led growth at the expense of the social protection of workers. At the sectoral level, gigantic platinum companies faced with falling commodity prices sought to limit losses by planning retrenchments and limiting wage increases, triggering repeated and sometimes violent wildcat strikes, especially when workers' grievances were set aside by local representatives of the COSATU-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers. The argument may be seen as a labour-focused variant of Huntington's "gap hypothesis": workers' militancy has grown as existing institutional frameworks for ensuring labour peace have failed to channel the frustrations of workers most in need of social protection.