scholarly journals Labour standards application in the informal economy of Ghana: The patterns and pressures

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (196) ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Akorsu
Keyword(s):  
Informal Economy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Work Organisation ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Labour Market Regulation ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Labour Legislation

In spite of the rapid growth and importance of informal employment in Ghana, few studies have investigated the extent of coverage of labour standards application, as a form of labour market regulation. This paper investigates the extent of labour standards application in shaping the employment relations and conditions within the informal economy. The study focuses on 30 manufacturing firms in Ghana?s informal economy. Data were obtained through interviews with 43 entrepreneurs and their workers, as well as with key informants from the social partners of industrial relations. The study shows that labour standards are generally not applied among informal economy operators due to factors such as a lack of coverage of the existing labour legislation, ineffective enforcement, ignorance, peculiarities of work organisation, and the dynamics of the apprenticeship system. It is therefore concluded that informal economy workers, who constitute the majority of the workforce in Ghana, lack social protection and must be targeted for intervention.

scholarly journals Active Enactment and Virtuous Circles of Employment Relations: How Danish Unions Organised the Transnationalised Copenhagen Metro Construction Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 682-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Arnholtz ◽  
Bjarke Refslund
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Scale Construction ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Labour Market Regulation

Transnational workers on large-scale construction projects are often poorly included in national industrial relations systems, which results in employment relations becoming trapped in vicious circles of weak enforcement and precarious work. This article shows how Danish unions have, nonetheless, been successful in enacting existing institutions and organising the construction of the Copenhagen Metro City Ring, despite initially encountering a highly fragmented, transnational workforce and several subcontracting firms that actively sought to circumvent Danish labour-market regulation. This is explained by the union changing their organising and enforcement strategies, thereby utilising various power resources to create inclusive strategies towards transnational workers. This includes efforts to create shared objectives and identity across divergent groups of workers and actively seeking changes in the public owners’ attitude towards employment relations.

Marketization, inequality, and institutional change: Toward a new framework for comparative employment relations

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Greer ◽  
Virginia Doellgast
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Productive Activities ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
New Framework

This article develops a framework for analyzing the social effects of marketization, defined as the imposition or intensification of price-based competition. The conceptual background is debates in comparative employment relations over the liberalization of markets and its consequences across Europe. Our central proposition is that marketization in its diverse forms leads to increased economic and social inequality via its effects on non-market institutions. We outline two mechanisms through which this happens. First, the means used by managers and investors to seek influence shifts from voice to exit, leading to the disorganization of industrial relations and welfare institutions. Second, economic activity shifts from productive toward non-productive activities, leading to changes in market regulation that are insulated from public scrutiny.

scholarly journals EMPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY IN UKRAINE: ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (38) ◽  
pp. 490-498
Author(s):  
I. Petrova ◽  
І. Kravchenko ◽  
L. Lisogor ◽  
V. Chuvardynskyi
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Structure Form ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Flexible Employment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Labour Legislation

Abstract. The changes in the economic and social spheres that occur in conditions of rapid technological changes and affect the structure, form and nature of employment are studied. It is argued that increasing employment flexibility, which is in line with the idea of expanding economic freedom for employers and employees, may exacerbate the social risks associated, in particular, with a weakening of the social security of employed. The existing foreign mechanisms of risk prevention in promoting employment flexibility are analysed, and it had reflected in the flexicurity concept. It is proved that the strengthening of employment flexibility in Ukrainian practice is accompanied by three main tendencies: diversification of employment forms that are characterized by flexibility; maintaining the rigidity of labour legislation on employment and employment in the public sector; preservation of the non-sufficient and inefficient level of social protection of flexible employment. Various points of view of different scientists on employment flexibility are analysed that allowed to study the specific forms of flexible employment in the Ukrainian economy. Proposals had developed to improve the conditions for the development of flexible employment, covering organizational, economic and institutional vectors. Keywords: employment, employment flexibility, social security, flexicurity. JEL Classification J24, J62 Formulas: 0; fig.: 3; tabl.: 0; bibl.: 16.

scholarly journals Social Protection Instruments and Women Workers in the Informal Economy: A Southern African Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Elmarie Fourie
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
The Social ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
The Impact

The world of work has changed and in some instances a realisation now exists that certain forms of work are a reality and not a passing occurrence, and it is of the utmost importance that international regulation provides for this, including work in the informal economy. Specific vulnerable groups and challenges have been identified by international regulators and must now be addressed to extend protection to these workers. International regulation must promote freedom through the enhancement of the capabilities of these workers. International instruments can function as key strategic tools to address inequalities in the workplace by increasing the capabilities of vulnerable groups such as women through empowerment initiatives. The purpose of this contribution is to identify and critically consider the relevant international social security instruments of the ILO and the UN, the impact of international standards, and other global initiatives directed at the social protection of women workers in the informal economy.

The Social Protection Agenda and the Burden of Responsibility and Sustainability

2018 ◽  
pp. 192-208
Author(s):  
Moses Adesola Adebisi
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Cultural Economies ◽  
Global Agenda

Social protection represents part of the global agenda of the International Labour Organization in its concerted attempt to improve and promote global labour standards, labour rights as human rights, and reduce poverty. The situation of African countries is precarious given the poor state of their economies, poor national incomes, and the widespread state of poverty. In addition, most African countries south of the Sahara have poor databases on vital statistics, security insecurity, mono-cultural economies, and the failure to effectively entrench governance and democratic institutions and reforms, amongst others. How could the problem of corruption, graft, theft of public funds, and the cumbersome bureaucratic bottlenecks that are so prevalent in Africa be minimized if not eliminated? The chapter, therefore, anchors its analysis on two African countries: Nigeria and Ghana. But how can social protection be funded in a sustainable way? These are the objectives that are being pursued in this chapter.

Using Criminal Law to Enforce Statutory Employment Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
David Cabrelli
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
Labour Market Regulation ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Employment Rights

This chapter examines the current terrain of criminal law as a technique of labour market regulation. It identifies a range of possible interactions between the criminal law and civil law in the legal enforcement of labour standards. Sometimes fundamental labour rights, such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed or the right not to be discriminated against, are protected exclusively through a ‘private’ enforcement model at the initiative of the individual right-holder. Sometimes there will be exclusive enforcement through the criminal law with no private right of civil action, as under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Finally, there may be mixed enforcement regimes where there is a combination of criminal and civil measures linked to specific statutory rights, as with the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Borders in a European Labor Market

2018 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
Ines Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Labor Market Regulation

Chapter 5 adopts a more explicitly spatial perspective and looks at how borders are constructed in both regulatory and workplace terms. It analyzes the contours of the new structure for employment relations that emerges within the pan-European labor market and studies the reshaping of the nation state from the micro-level points of view of societal actors such as mobile workers, public administration officials, firms, and trade unions. Findings demonstrate that two types of borders are significant in relation to posting in a pan-European labor market: (1) borders for labor market regulation that inhibit the enforcement of labor rights and (2) the border of the firm—that is, the border between the main and subcontracting firms that isolates workers from the host-country industrial relations systems. These borders impact the institutional separation between posted workers and host-country trade unions.

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