The ILO and the right to strike

The author argues that the June 2012 challenge by the ILO Employers' group to the hitherto generally accepted view regarding the right to strike under the Freedom of Association Convention, No. 87, is at odds with the historical understanding of the framework in which the Convention is embedded. She demonstrates how the ILO constituents have consistently recognized that there is a positive right to strike, which is inextricably linked to – and an inevitable corollary of – the right to freedom of association. The article also analyses the relative roles of the ILO supervisory bodies in this regard.     

The relationship between international law and European labour legislation and its impact on the development of international and European social law

This article draws on observations of how European Union law takes account of international worker protection instruments and the activities of international organizations to protect social rights to establish a typology of the links – often close but also very diverse – between European law and “international labour law” in the broad sense.     

Labour is not a commodity: The content and meaning of work in the twenty‐first century

In his valedictory lecture before the Collège de France, Alain Supiot reviews his work on the transformation of labour in the twenty‐first century, highlighting the role of law and institutions in addressing the consequences of the digital revolution and environmental crisis. In his view, the moral, social and environmental bankruptcy of neoliberalism calls for us to reconsider the legal fiction of labour as a commodity and to re‐establish the truly “humane labour regime” envisaged by the preamble to the ILO Constitution, recognizing both the meaning and content of work. He uses the case of scientific research to illustrate his argument.     

The trade–labour relationship in the light of the WTO Appellate Body's embrace of pluralism

Labour lawyers have raised concerns that the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has the potential to limit member States' ability to respond to violations of (international) labour rights/standards, both at home and abroad. But its Appellate Body has interpreted WTO law to “permit pluralism”, preserving Members' right to regulate. This jurisprudence has carved out “policy space” for Members, broadened the scope of doctrinal exceptions and blunted the force of disciplines that seek deep integration through regulatory coordination/coherence. These moves mean that numerous labour-protecting measures are likely to be legal under WTO law, diminishing the potential conflict between multilateral trade law and labour law.     

A strategic approach to labour inspection

In a report released in 2006, the ILO highlighted the difficulties of labour inspection in its member States and advocated a number of measures to strengthen its effectiveness. The author argues that inspectorates must go beyond calls for more inspectors by adopting a clear strategic framework for reacting to incoming complaints and targeting programmed investigations in order to maximize effectiveness in the use of their overstretched resources. To do so, he proposes, their work must be guided by the principles of prioritization, deterrence, sustainability and achieving systemic effects. The article concludes with an outline of the requirements of a coherent regulatory strategy.     

Translating from multiple sources: Labour legislation reform in Turkey

Building upon the recent scholarship on “travelling ideas” and “translation”, the author discusses how ILO and EU labour standards were conveyed to Turkey's political landscape by domestic actors and how those standards were adjusted. The study first analyses the motivations of the Commission that drafted the 2003 Labour Act, and of employer and labour organizations, for choosing to draw on those international standards during the legislative reform process. It then focuses on the institutional outcomes of the reform by examining how domestic actors modified the international standards, while also preserving components of the old labour legislation, as on severance pay.     

On the International Labour Organization and prison labour: An invitation to recalibrate

This article re-examines the ILO's normative outlook on prison labour, arguing that it is out of touch with the realities on the ground, where public/private hybrid forms of prison labour are proliferating. The authors bring to light the controversy surrounding the position taken by the ILO, as member States repeatedly demand that it relax, and increasingly defy, its dichotomous stance. They illustrate the heavy price to be paid if the ILO stays on its current course, but also if it adopts the position favoured by some of these member States. Instead, they point to two alternatives that go beyond these conflicting positions.     

Expanding transnational care networks: comparing caring for families with caring for homes

Although many factors may motivate a migrant to own a house in their country of origin, significant practical labour is needed to maintain it, as both a material structure intended for shelter and as a symbolic object reflecting attachment to a place of origin. Most research in this area focuses on the significance accorded to transnational houses by their owners and families connoted by the ‘myth of return’, but little attention has been given to how the labour of ownership – constructing, maintaining, overseeing and improving the house – is accomplished. In the light of emerging studies on the care labour that remittance houses require, this article suggests a theoretical framework for studying networks of transnational house maintenance on three dimensions of care – trust, communication, and remittances – observed in networks for transnational family care provisions. A review of literature on transnational home ownership indicates that these dimensions are also present, with some differences in application.     

Labour provisions in preferential trade agreements: Current practice and outlook

While the WTO and Doha Development Round do not deal with labour issues – they leave this to the ILO – the main countries that conclude free trade agreements incorporate labour provisions, which vary in terms of stringency. Sanctions are rarely used, and fears that “social clauses” would serve protectionist purposes have proved to be unfounded. Labour provisions are designed to meet a variety of sometimes conflicting goals, by means of different mechanisms aimed at improving labour practices and promoting Decent Work; the author makes a number of suggestions in this regard.     

Informal employment: Two contested policy issues

This article addresses two contested issues of crucial importance to policy, namely: formal labour regulations as a cause of informal employment, and so‐called “voluntary” informal employment. The authors provide theoretical overviews on both issues and an extensive survey of empirical studies on the effects of formal labour regulations on informal employment. The article closes with observations on the relevance of the ILO's four decent work objectives for informal employment and economic development, with particular emphasis on the significance of – and potential for – organizing workers in the informal economy.     

Employment and labour productivity in high unemployment countries

Contemporary development strategies emphasize labour productivity growth because it has historically underpinned rising living standards. Today, however, poverty reduction and inclusive development in those developing countries with high unemployment require increasing the employment rate even if this means lower average labour productivity. We critique the International Labour Organization (ILO) for its overly universalizing advocacy of high‐productivity growth strategies and for failing to confront the trade‐off between more and better‐quality jobs. This is particularly problematic in high unemployment contexts in Southern Africa, where labour productivity growth between 2000 and 2013 came at the cost of a falling employment rate.     

Enforcement matters: The effective regulation of labour

The distinction between de jure and de facto regulation is well understood in theory, but has rarely been applied to cross‐country empirical work on the impact of labour regulation on labour market outcomes for lack of data. Policy debate has been based on measures of stringency of law, suggesting a negative correlation between labour regulation and labour market outcomes. This article provides new cross‐country measures of labour law enforcement and evidence of a negative correlation between stringency and intensity of enforcement. Previous results concerning the consequences of labour regulation and the legal origins theory no longer hold when a measure of effective labour regulation is used.     

The tasks ahead of the ILO at its centenary

The principles that define the normative missions of the ILO – as set out in its Constitution and in the Declaration of Philadelphia – have lost none of their value or relevance. The circumstances in which those missions are carried out have, however, changed profoundly. The global organization of labour is currently witnessing major technical, environmental and institutional upheavals which, in turn, pose legal challenges for the ILO in each of these areas. The ILO's answer to these challenges should be based on three principles whose implementation is encompassed by its constitutional mandate: the principles of solidarity, economic democracy and social and environmental responsibility.     

Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia: Transnational Variations and Policy Concerns

The labour force of the migrant domestic workers (MDWs) has become one of the significant policy concerns in Asia. Most of the Asian countries are not following (or not to an equal extent) the Domestic Workers Convention 2011 (No. 189) which has been adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The objective of this article is to show the transnational variations and policy concerns of the MDWs in Asia. Based on content analysis, the authors found that there are considerable transnational variations of the MDWs in terms of their age and nature of work, legal identity, working hours, and remuneration across Asian countries. These variations have serious policy concerns in a number of areas such as lack of available data of the MDWs, working conditions, exploitations, and gender issues. The findings of the article would be an important guideline for adopting new legislation and labour policy for the MDWs in Asia.     

US labour unions and green transitions: depth,breadth, and worker agency

ABSTRACT

The goal of this article is to interpret and analyse two ambitious and prominent cases of labour environmentalism in the USA – the par excellence example of liberal capitalism. In order to capture the nuances, contradictions, and varieties of labour environmentalism, I employ an analytical scheme based on three dimensions. The first dimension (depth) explores the social and environmental commitments manifested in these cases, the second dimension (breadth) explores their spatiality, and the third dimension (agency) explores the degree to which these initiatives reflect a proactive as opposed to a reactive labour environmentalism.     

A multidimensional employment quality index for Brazil, 2002–11

In countries where informal, insecure jobs are widespread, traditional labour market indicators – such as the unemployment rate, labour force participation rate and wages – are not necessarily the most meaningful. The authors use a multidimensional employment quality index to analyse the Brazilian labour market over the period 2002–11, across three dimensions: earnings, formality (measured by the existence of an employment contract and social security contributions) and job tenure. The results show a significant increase in employment quality overall, especially in the years 2009–11, but with considerable differences between wage employees and self‐employed workers, and between industries.     

Labour market integration and transnational lived citizenship: Aspirations and belonging among refugees in Germany

Transnational lived citizenship has gained prominence as a means to analyse mobility and foreground activist notions of citizenship over legal status. I argue that lived citizenship and transnational movements are strongly intertwined with aspirations and belonging. I use the material example of labour market integration as the space of enactments of citizenship and analyse the patterns of belonging those create and contest. I develop my argument through the empirical example of labour market integration of refugees in Germany. I demonstrate how such integration transforms social, and more importantly, economic location and in turn creates complex and often contradictory forms of transnational allegiances. I ultimately argue that lived citizenship can in important ways advance aspirations of refugees and migrants. At the same time, transnational lives and multiple allegiances are often hindered by state-based citizenship and the rights this confers. Legal status thus remains an important marker of citizenship.     

Labour and international accounting standards: A question of social justice

As the international guardian of social justice, the ILO is witnessing a global revolution in accounting, which has culminated in international accounting standards (IAS-IFRS). Previously, accounting measured the economy in relation to the capacities and responsibilities of workers and their employers. Today, the exact opposite is the case: the IAS-IFRS no longer measure work and enterprises, referring instead to the abstract concept of a cybernetic entity capable of constant restructuring, at the cost of unprecedented inequality. The author points to the incoherence of this system and to the need to restore the full carrying value of labour.     

The Rana Plaza disaster seven years on: Transnational experiments and perhaps a new treaty?

This article examines several noteworthy initiatives that were implemented following the deadly 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. They broke new ground in transnational labour law. The ILO-backed initiatives were largely successful but remain insufficient to achieve lasting change in the ready-made garment industry, where global brands’ supply chain buying practices constrain investment in occupational safety and health. A proposed United Nations treaty on business and human rights now seeks to enhance corporate accountability. Although promising, as part of a smart mix of multi-level public and private solutions, the treaty needs fine-tuning in the light of lessons learned from post-Rana Plaza experiments.