Noor van Loon International labor law and globalization Master HRS S2
Lecture 1
- What are the most important labour rights internationally
- Why do they matter?
- Where can we find those rights?
- How are they applied and monitored? How can we secure those rights?
labor law?
There is no equal bargaining position between the employer and the employee. The freedom
of contract alone is not enough because the worker is or may be (e.g. low skilled labor) at a
bargaining disadvantage and he is depending on the employer. Usually when you have a
formal job your sign an employment contract.
- Being an employee It is necessary to make arrangements for benefits or when you
get sick etc.
- Being self employed you have less benefits. By the law you are seen as a one
person company, a mini enterprise.
- False self employed people that should be seen as employees because they do the
same work as normal employees do but they do not have the same entitlements as
normal employees.
There is a grey area between those types of employees. There is one special type of agreement
in labor organization
- Collective agreements you are represented by a trade union, they come up with
collective agreements and those may become part of the whole package of terms and
agreements that apply to you.
Purpose and structure of labor law
Necessity?
- Subordination and power imbalances
Bargaining power disadvantage, double dependency your boss can tell you what to
do because you need the money you earn from the job to be able to live.
Purpose?
- Justice in employment protection against dismissal, adequate rest times, holidays
etc
- Productive labor relations making a labor market more efficient.
social justice
Content?
- Substantively: intervention by laws and regulations
- Procedurally: rights to a fair bargaining process
industrial democracy e.g. co-determinization (medezegenschap) is a way in which
employees can still influence the decisions of a board.
Legal instruments/ different sections
- Individual labor law
o E.g. the employment contract, protection against dismissal, individual rights in
labor codes, health and safety regulation […]
- Collective labor law:
o E.g. collective agreements, trade unions, employers organizations, works
council statutes […]
,Noor van Loon International labor law and globalization Master HRS S2
- Social security law:
o E.g. unemployment, sickness benefits, pregnancy […]
why do you need international rights too?
- Social dumping= so it does not happen that the international community dumps its
responsibility. E.g. in Bangladesh the labor law is non-existing and that might be good
for business for companies in other countries which makes them start factories there.
They are circumventing responsibility
- Companies become more globalized.
Dhaka Garment Factory Disaster 2013
- Factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed on 24 april 2013
- 1100 died, 2500 injured
- Revealed/highlighted widespread and persistent problems regarding working
conditions and labor rights in low income countries (here: garment industry)
- Need for fundamental labor standards in globalizing economy
o This revealed that a minimum standard for human rights is needed but when
they looked into it these already existed but were not always implemented.
o Factories in countries like Bangladesh do not have a great bargaining position.
Workers saw cracks in the wall days before the collapse but they were told to
shut up
-
transnational effects.
Problems
1. Child labour= prohibited work, work that interferes with the development and rights of
education that kids have.
a. Health, mental and physical development, education
b. Sub-Sahara Africa, Asia, Latin-America, Middle East (but also in e.g. Turkey
where Syrian refugees work in the cotton industry there)
c. ILO C138 and C182
d. Other norms: CRC= UN convetion on the rights of the child.
e. Involves 170 million children working and roughly half of them works in
hazardous jobs like in mines or with chemicals.
2. Forced labour
a. 25,9 million in forced labor worldwide
b. Modern slavery
c. Vulnerable groups, e.g. migrant workers
d. Trafficking, sex industry, domestic work, agriculture, construction
e. ILO C29 (P29) and C105
3. Discrimination/equal treatment
a. Equal treatment
b. Numbers?
c. Women, minorities, migrants, lgbtq+, elderly, people with HIV, disabled persons
etc.
i. Women in a certain age group are often discriminated based on their wish
to have a child
ii. People with African sounding names have less chance of being hired
d. ILO C111 and C100
e. Different other HR instruments
4. Freedom of association and collective bargaining
,Noor van Loon International labor law and globalization Master HRS S2
a. Trade unions and employers’ organizations
b. Collective bargaining
c. Right to strike
d. Large number of violations (e.g. Americas, Asia)
e. Difficult to monitor
f. Democracy, participation and representations
g. ILO C87 and C98
5. Occupational safety and health (OSH)
a. about 2,78 million casualties yearly to work related disease or accidents
b. many different conventions
c. no fundamental conventions yet…
d. extractive industries, chemical plants, agriculture, construction factories, etc.
6. Social security
a. ILO C102
b. Different other social security conventions
c. Subsistence needs
d. 9 traditional risks:
i. Medical care
ii. Sickness benefit
iii. Unemployment
iv. Retirement/old age
v. Employment injury
vi. Family
vii. Pregnancy/maternity
viii. Handicap/invalidity
ix. Survivors
Globalization
“process of increasing international economic, social, cultural and political integration arising
from the worldwide interchange and movement of ideas products and people
Some modern economic features:
- Systematic reduction of trade barriers
- Increase in foreign direct investment
- More migration (of workers and their families)
- Global financial system (1944, Bretton woods, WB/IMF)
PROS?
- Knowledge can be shared easily
- Ideally you should be able to organize the economy in such a way that the labor works
easier and people can work in and travel to several countries etc.
- Fair competition
- Growing welfare
- Easy access to information/knowledge
- Improved healthcare
- More products available
- Cooperative innovation
- Climate/environment
, Noor van Loon International labor law and globalization Master HRS S2
CONS?
- Exploitation of labor and resources
- Legislation getting more complex or non-existent
- Difficulty to represent workers with non-determined ‘small’ jobs
- Greater inequality
- Unchecked MNE (multinational enterprise) behavior
- Cultural interference, when a large Canadian company finds a massive gold deposit in
a Surinam forest with indigenous folks
- Income inequality, financial instability
- Neo-liberal policies; deregulation of employment relation
o Either you protect your market or you throw it all open, both have good and
bad sides.
- Climate/environment
- Resource extraction from developing states
- Race to bottom? if you have a factory that you can place in country A or B. A has a
40 hour workweek and country B wants to lower minimum wage, then country C
comes and says that they want to lower their health benefits etc. By this way countries
try to attract as many big companies.
Sources of ILL
- Binding
o Public binding=
ILO conventions
UN treaties
Free trade agreements
Regional standards
o Private binding=
Global framework agreements (GFAs)
- Voluntary
o Public voluntary=
ILO recommendations/declarations
UN guiding principles on business and human rights
OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises
The UN 2030 Agenda: sustainable development goals
o Private voluntary=
Corporate (supplier) codes of conduct
Other CSR initiatives (policies, activities, projects)
Sustainability schemes, certificates, management standards
Multistakeholder initiatives
Different regulatory regimes
Hybrid and complementary elements
Actors/players
• Governments
• Transnational Corporations (TNCs)
• International Governmental Organizations (IGOs)
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
• International, regional or national trade unions and employers’ organizations
• Other groups
