Forms Of Labour Exploitation Research Articles

Working with Passion: Digital Media Specialist as Precarious Worker in the Digital Age

This paper addresses issues the global concern of uncertainties of digital creative workers, emphasizing Indonesian case. This paper argues creative digital workers in digital media industry deal with uncertainty in "atypical," "contingent," "temporary," "informal," and, in particular, "precarious" settings. This research will provide arguments about new forms of labour exploitation in the era of “user-generated content” and “prosumption”. This paper's primary theoretical contribution is to clarify the precarious nature of labor for digital labor in communication and media organizations, with a focus on creative workers in Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Additionally, this study will demonstrate how staff members in various communication and media companies routinely work under deadline pressure, work remotely, have short-term contracts, and participate in hustle cult practices. This study used qualitative and in-depth interview studies to look ten people at the lives of digital content officers in a social media specialist (as new media professionals) who produce digital content in social media, managing content for influencers, internet celebrities, and corporations. This research took place between January and June 2022, and it raised fundamental concerns regarding how these industries develop the rhetoric of flexibility, autonomy, and informality.

Precarious Work and Intermittent Life Trajectories in a Portuguese Gig Economy

Abstract Rapid advances in technology brought dramatic changes into the labour market, regarding precarious, flexible and informal work. The gig economy has enabled new forms of labour exploitation, social exclusion, intermittent and vulnerable professional trajectories. Not having fully recovered from the Great Recession, the Portuguese society is crossing a Covid-19 global pandemic which has accelerated the digitalisation and platformisation of work fecting not only the value chains, but the labour market dynamics in a heterogenous way. Between 2019 and 2020, 53 in-depth interviews were conducted with precarious workers in Portugal, comprising a focus on 15 life trajectories from digital platform workers. Through their voices, it was concluded that job insecurity is deeply intertwined with the global supply chain management operated by algorithmic control. Most of platform companies threaten established employment relationships, atomising workers who live in the present time without any future aspirations.

Modern Slavery Made in Italy—Causes and Consequences of Labour Exploitation in the Italian Agricultural Sector

Through this paper, the author emphasises the importance of the role that migrant women and men play in the Italian agricultural sector, and the need to better protect them from forms of labour exploitation. Italian products are well known all over the world and represent the excellency of an entrepreneurial fabric made of thousands of family-run small and medium enterprises which from the Alps to Sicily produce unique fruits, vegetables, food, and wines. But a long history of illegal recruitment and labour exploitation, known in Italy as caporalato, tarnish the long supply chain which brings Italian agri-food products to dining tables and market shelves across the globe. In addition, to cope with the forms of exploitation occurring in the Italian countryside, this the paper points out the need to harmonise norms and regulation on labour, migration, and human rights. In doing so, it also argues that both the mens legislatoris and law enforcement authorities modus operandi should progressively move from an approach which is based on a relentless pursuit of the organized crime component for criminalising the acts of labour exploitation and illegal recruitment as defined in the criminal code, to a more comprehensive and holistic approach which puts the rights of migrant agricultural workers as the agenda’s top priority.

Practitioner's Insights – The Importance of Strategic Litigation to Fight Human Trafficking and (Labour) Exploitation

This article calls for an increased use of strategic litigation in the anti-trafficking field to ensure long-lasting systemic reforms. While generally, the prosecution of human trafficking or related severe forms of labour exploitation, like forced labour, is quite challenging and prosecutions and convictions lag seriously behind, it is argued that strategic litigation, meaning continuing legal action, aimed at achieving rights-related changes in law, policy, practice, and/or public awareness, can help to ensure that justice is delivered to victims, as several landmark cases also show. Efforts to counter human trafficking through strategic litigation by NGOs remain in their infancy, among others as they are resource-intensive and require access to experienced lawyers in high level courts. The author discusses some examples and dilemmas and identifies needs for NGOs to use strategic litigation more often as an effective tool to effectuate systemic change.

A Parallel case?: The Irish in abolitionist thought and the emergence of white labor in the United States

ABSTRACT This article traces the rhetorical transformation from the Irish as an exemplum to the Irish as a historically situated demographic in U.S. abolitionist writings from the early to mid-nineteenth century. Through close readings of polemical essays, speeches, and newspaper articles, I argue that abolitionist writers such as David Walker, Samuel Cornish, Gerrit Smith, and Frederick Douglass begin to transition away from conceiving of the exploitation of Irish workers as a fraught, though generative comparative case to chattel slavery once a new demographic of native Irish Catholic emigrants are interpellated into the emergent category of “white labor.” The Irish are thus initially used by abolitionist writers to contrast chattel slavery with other forms of labor exploitation under capitalism until the political utility of those comparisons began to wane as the Irish-American laborer proved socially and conceptionally antagonistic to free and enslaved black laborers.

Criminological Reflections on the Regulation and Governance of Labor Exploitation

The regulation and governance of labor exploitation is a well-researched area across numerous disciplines. Common approaches towards regulating labor exploitation in businesses and supply chains include state interventions to tackle organised crime via the criminal justice system. However, due to strict criminal-legal definitions, these interventions are only possible when targeting severe exploitation. This emphasis means that a large amount of non-criminalized exploitation risks being overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to argue that non-state regulation is an important element in preventing routinized forms of labor exploitation, whereby a criminological perspective would help to understand and better prevent such practices. The paper examines state regulation, self-regulation of businesses, and trade union activity, which together addresses a wider range of labor exploitation. Semi-structured interviews from workers and supply chain stakeholders in the UK agri-food industry are used to inform this discussion. The governance of labor exploitation in relation to business activities has broader implications for the disciplinary areas of regulation and (corporate) criminology, whereby the former tends to prioritize restorative and persuasive approaches, whereas the latter focuses on deterrence and coercion. Ultimately, drawing together different strands of regulation into a hybrid approach is useful not only due to socio-political processes, but is arguably the most helpful in addressing routinized exploitation.

LAWCHA and the Future of Global Labor History

Like other national labor history associations, the Labor and Working- Class History Association (LAWCHA) has experienced the shifting tides of globalization in labor history, both intellectually and organizationally. Many of us try to situate our scholarship in a transnational and comparative context in ways that highlight the forces of global capitalism, the transnational migration of workers over centuries, the historical patterns of international labor organization and solidarity, and the responses of workers to the restructuring of a global economy under neoliberal regimes. The invigorating effects on our field have been notable as historians and scholars in a range of disciplines have created common ground for collaborative investigations, organized conferences, published collections of essays or documentary sources, and realigned journals to reflect these transnational shifts.It must be pointed out that transnational investigations and international collaborations are not new in the field of labor history or in labor activism and organization. However, we are without question in a new era, because these developments are now quickened by enhanced social media communication capacities and the wider exchange of information and ideas. At the same time, global crises facing working people spawned by new forms of labor exploitation, precariousness of work, attacks on the right to unionize, climate change, right- wing repression, and increasing levels of mass migration have motivated academics and activists to adopt new approaches to studying and organizing workers.LAWCHA has come to embody some of these developments. From its earliest days, our journal, LABOR: Studies in Working- Class History, has provided a vehicle for transnational studies in the Americas and, in recent years, has cast a wider global net. We have seen international participation in LAWCHA annual conferences grow from 2013 in New York through 2017 in Seattle and 2019 in Durham, North Carolina, along with rising numbers of conference panels and plenaries devoted to comparative and transnational history and contemporary international labor activism. LAWCHA collaborated with the Australian Association for the Study of Labour History to mount an international conference in Sydney in 2015 on comparative US and Australian labor history, the fruits of which were subsequently published in 2018 in a volume of essays titled Frontiers of Labor: Comparative Histories of the United States and Australia. LAWCHA’s website continues to highlight the ongoing work of other labor history organizations internationally and news of labor struggles around the world.LAWCHA’s Global Affairs Committee, established in 2013, has reorganized in the past year, added new members, and defined an ambitious agenda for the coming year. We plan to enhance the visibility of global labor history and activism on the committee page of LAWCHA’s website (www.lawcha.org/committee-portal/global-affairs-committee/); we have thrown support to two international conferences—one commemorating the International Labour Organization’s anniversary and another on global labor migration; committee members are committed to contributing short articles, reviews, and opinion pieces to LAWCHA’s Labor Online; and we have conducted a wide- ranging survey of LAWCHA members that points to important avenues for future work in the field.The global affairs survey yielded interesting and provocative results. About one- fourth of LAWCHA members (110) responded to the survey. Over 40 percent of the respondents had belonged to LAWCHA for fewer than five years, suggesting a younger cohort of members. A substantial majority indicated interests in research, teaching, and labor activism with a transnational focus and geographical interests literally spanning the globe. While most had not regularly visited the LAWCHA Global Affairs Committee web page, strong majorities indicated interest in seeing reports on recent transnational scholarship and labor activism. They also faithfully read Labor Online. Many agreed to get more involved by attending international conferences and workshops and contributing short reports and essays on international themes. Most tellingly, the survey respondents offered wide- ranging suggestions for future focus and organization, from actively building transnational connections and collaborations between scholars and activists, especially those in Latin America, to creating more inclusive panels at the annual meetings, making greater use of social media tools like Facebook and Instagram to strengthen international ties, and diversifying leadership of the organization to reflect international interests.The path forward—toward an organization with stronger international ties that reflect the proliferating transnational and comparative interests of LAWCHA members—is clearly illuminated by the views expressed by current members and by their burgeoning scholarship and activism in the field. We encourage you to share news of your own scholarship and activism with a global focus, contribute reports and opinion pieces to Labor Online, and volunteer your energies to help us enhance LAWCHA’s global activity and visibility.

Da lean manufacturing à smart factory: a comunicação nos processos de organização do trabalho no capitalismo contemporâneo

Este artigo tem por propósito refletir sobre a comunicação na gestão do trabalho flexível por meio de uma discussão que dialoga com os estudos críticos sobre as novas formas de exploração do trabalho no capitalismo atual. Mais especificamente, procuramos tratar sobre formas de mobilização da comunicação em apoio à lógica organizativa do trabalho assumida pelas empresas que se consideram flexíveis e enxutas (lean manufacturing), ou inteligentes (smart). O enfoque principal está no exame crítico de elementos constitutivos de uma determinada narrativa, presente no mundo do trabalho contemporâneo, que combina transformações tecnológicas e a precarização do trabalho humano.

Da Planta taylorista/fordista ao capitalismo de plataforma: as engrenagens da exploração do trabalho

O trabalho em tela analisa como mudanças organizacionais implantadas pelo capitalismo para aperfeiçoar como formas de exploração do trabalho. O objetivo proposto foi discutir como alterações sucedidas na organização / gestão do trabalho de Taylorismo / Fordismo ao Capitalismo de Plataforma. O procedimento metodológico foi de abordagem qualitativa com revisão da literatura pertinente ao estudo. Partituras das leituras elucidativas da contradição de capital / trabalho, por meio da produção de novas tecnologias, na direção de subtração real de trabalho e capital em destaque na teoria marxista. Uma proposta de subsidiária teórica entenda a formação do trabalho por demanda no capitalismo de plataforma em substituição do trabalho protegido pelo Modelo Taylorista / Fordista. O resultado aponta como transformações a favor do capital tendo como princípio ou esfacelamento dos direitos trabalhistas. Foi possível concluir que o trabalho, já precário, alcança níveis ainda mais elevados de precarização no trabalhador do trabalho autônomo de serviços por aplicativos, desenvolvido pelo capitalismo de plataforma.

Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée

Recent literature in the world-systems perspective has refocused attention on questions of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ in historical capitalism, yet rarely critically examines the underlying assumptions regarding these zones. Drawing on a developing dataset on the world’s wealthiest individuals (the World-Magnates Database), we trace the development and expansion of sugar circuits across the Atlantic world from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries to explain how the sugar commodity chain leads us to rethink some prevailing notions of core and periphery. Namely, we challenge the notion that these zones consist of geographical spaces that, since very early in the development of the world-economy, became permanently specialized in the production of raw materials (periphery) or more sophisticated manufactures (core); and that labor forces have been trans-historically relatively free/better-paid in core activities and coerced/poorly-paid in peripheral ones. We argue that, prior to the nineteenth century, the world-economy is not only characterized by the uneven and combined emergence of various forms of labor exploitation, as usually argued within a world-systems perspective, but also one in which core-like and peripheral activities (that is, those providing access to relatively greater or lesser wealth) were not yet as clearly bounded geographically as they would become in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We find that a longue-durée analysis of sugar production by enslaved labor illustrates not merely processes of peripheralization, but of what we call coreification.

Labour trafficking in Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands and the role of Dutch immigration policies. A qualitative analysis of investigative case files

Scholars have found that many migrants are vulnerable to exploitation and that there are many immigrants among victims of extreme forms of labour exploitation. In the Global North, empirical studies have scrutinized the link between irregular migration and labour trafficking, yet empirical studies that focus on labour schemes involving regular migrants remain scarce. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 8 investigative police files of labour trafficking involving regular migrants in the Chinese catering industry in the Netherlands, this study investigates the mechanisms through which exploitation comes about and is sustained. It is concluded that exploitation is the result of the ways in which both the employers and the victims manoeuvre the space provided by immigration policies. Employer-bounded residence and work permits emerged as an especially important contributor to the initiation and continuation of exploitative situations. Policymakers should be highly aware of the vulnerabilities of temporary labour migrants’ positions created by such policy arrangements. Future research is needed in order to create a better understanding of how exploitative work situations develop and are sustained, and the role different factors such as immigration policies play in such processes.

The Italian Response to Exploitation of Migrant Workers in the Agricultural Sector: Between Criminalization and Prevention

The exploitation of migrant workers in the agricultural sector in Italy remains common. This is so despite the fact that, first, Italy has ratified the vast majority of instruments dealing with serious forms of labour exploitation at the international and regional level and has adopted legislation implementing its international obligations, by creating offences which criminalize practices amounting to slavery, servitude, forced labour and exploitation of labour, and second, that the interpretation adopted by the Italian courts of the relevant concepts appears to be in line with that of international bodies. Clearly, an approach which goes beyond the criminal law and includes measures of prevention is therefore needed in order to address the phenomenon of exploitation of migrant workers at its roots. In addition to structural deficiencies in the system of labour inspections, a major factor contributing to the vulnerability of migrant workers results from Italy’s immigration law and policy, which has as a result that the immigration status of many migrant workers is irregular, or at least precarious. Notwithstanding the existence of (narrow) paths for legal migration and special provisions for the regularization of victims of severe labour exploitation, the current legislation remains insufficient and ineffective in combating exploitation. Whilst recent legislation adopted to deal with the Covid-19 emergency specifically provides for the regularization of irregular agricultural workers already present in Italy, it remains an ad hoc measure which does not address the underlying systemic problems and is not a substitute for an approach to immigration control which puts the right of migrant workers not to be exploited at the core of the debate.

Migrações internacionais e precarização do trabalho: o contexto global, os acordos de residência do Mercosul e os imigrantes sulamericanos no Brasil

The article discusses the international migration to Brazil, highlighting the flows originating from South American countries in the last decade. It confronts the Brazilian reality with the global context of cross-border migration demonstrating their interrelation and the relevance of critical theory to explain it. It understands the migration phenomenon as irreversible and uncontrollable, although that it can be administered by international and regional organizations, besides States. Finally, it seeks to demonstrate that restrictive laws are incompatibility forward this reality of communication facilities, since its legal effect creates the figure of irregular immigrant, a new worker under the old forms of labor exploitation.

Paradoxes of European free movement in times of austerity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capacities of social movement actors (SMAs) and interest groups to negotiate responsibility, heighten issues of accountability and earn legitimacy from authorities and the wider public for the plight of dis-privileged Roma migrant berry pickers in the Swedish labour market. Design/methodology/approach – The objective is guided by a multi-sited ethnographical approach to data collection and analysis, which theoretically anchors in social movement frame analysis. Findings – The paper proposes that SMAs, in the face of incapacities of state and industry parties, generate the potentiality to leverage immediate humanitarian distress experienced by the workers and to accentuate their political and public visibility. Research limitations/implications – Delimited by the internal organisational structure of a berry industry, partly operating behind informal employment schemes, future studies should devote closer attention in localising/identifying possible “back-stage” data-gathering settings. Practical implications – Policy-makers and special-interest organisations concerned with internal EU labour migration, labour standards and living condition issues, may consider the social and humanitarian implications of persistent responsibility ambiguities. Social implications – The paper raises issues of informal work and forms of labour exploitation. Originality/value – The paper provides deeper insight into the societal nexus in which a “hard-to-reach group” of seasonal workers faces potential and actual exploitation.

Book Review: Abolition and Antislavery: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic

This encyclopedia covers the rise and proliferation of abolitionist movements in the United States and the subsequent consequences of the emancipation of the former slaves. While outside international influences on American slavery existed—particularly Great Britain—the focus here is on both the Northern and Southern United States. Of course, banishing slavery did not lead to immediate social equality, and in fact many abolitionists did not ever desire this type of equality. This work also traces the subsequent controversial issues that emerged following abolition, such as new forms of labor exploitation, the right to own land and to vote, and the use of violence and intimidation to keep African Americans in inferior social and economic positions.

The social foundations of global production networks: towards a global political economy of child labour

The resilience of the problem of child labour in the global economy has been amply documented, but, we suggest, the reasons for this situation have not yet been fully captured in the associated debates. Our aim is to advance a way of thinking about those forms of child labour which occur in the context of global production networks (gpns), and to contend that greater attention must be paid to the organisation and functioning of gpns, and the social foundations on which they rest, if we are to grasp more fully the conditions and processes which facilitate the persistence and evolution of child labour. The way of thinking we propose is rooted in the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’ in the global economy, which we develop by drawing together currents in gpn analysis and poverty research to explore the commercial and social dynamics in gpns which give rise to these forms of labour exploitation. We illustrate our arguments with reference to the garments industry in New Delhi, India.

Os trabalhadores Loandas da expedição portuguesa ao Muatiânvua (1884-1888)

Em 1884, o governo português promoveu uma expedição para a Lunda, no atual nordeste angolano. Chefiada pelo major Henrique de Carvalho, esta expedição contou com o trabalho de homens e mulheres oriundos de diferentes partes da África centro-ocidental, que se revelaram responsáveis, em grande medida, pelo andamento da viagem. Tendo como referência a narrativa desta expedição, produzida por Henrique de Carvalho, o objetivo deste artigo é analisar a atuação destes trabalhadores que ficaram conhecidos como Loandas, considerando as novas formas de exploração do trabalho no pós-abolição do tráfico de escravizados e da própria escravidão em regiões africanas.

Trafficking in persons: a health concern?

Human trafficking is a phenomenon that has now been documented in most regions in the world. Although trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is the most commonly recognised form of trafficking, it is widely acknowledged that human trafficking also involves men, women and children who are trafficked for various forms of labour exploitation and into other abusive circumstances. Despite the violence and harm inherent in most trafficking situations, there remains extremely little evidence on the individual and public health implications of any form of human trafficking. The Brazilian government has recently launched a national plan to combat human trafficking. However, because the health risks associated with human trafficking have not been well-recognised or documented, there is extremely limited reliable data on the health needs of trafficked persons to inform policy and practices.. Brazilian policy-makers and service providers should be encouraged to learn about the likely range of health impacts of trafficking, and incorporate this into anti-trafficking protection and response strategies. As well as prevention activities, the government, international and local organisations should work together with the public health research community to study the health needs of trafficked persons and explore opportunities to provide safe and appropriate services to victims in need of care.

‘Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)’: Zimbabwean Migrants and the UK Care Industry

This article contributes to the literature on ‘global care chains’ by examining the narratives of Zimbabwean women and men working as carers in the UK. It investigates why social care has become an important focus of employment for Zimbabweans, and explores the means by which migrants of different legal status have negotiated work in a diverse sector. The article explores the experiences of a highly educated, middle-class migrant group, who left their country in the context of deepening economic and political crisis. Some Zimbabweans have been able to use transnational mobility and care work as a means of coping, finding opportunities to meet family obligations and personal ambitions, while entrepreneurs have found openings to set up in business as care agencies, providing work for their compatriots and others. Yet the article also emphasises the stress and deskilling most Zimbabwean care workers have experienced in trying to support themselves and dependents through excessive hours of low-status and often poorly paid work, the strain of working in strongly feminised and racialised workplaces, and the insecurities and abuse produced by informality, including ‘tied’ and other forms of labour exploitation. There is a need for greater attention to be paid to the dynamics of race and gender in social care workplaces, and to means of securing the rights of migrant careworkers, who are playing an increasingly important role in caring for some of the most vulnerable members of British society.

Indigenous populations of the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro coast: trade, aldeamento, slavery and extinction.

(primeiro parágrafo do artigo)This essay will provide an estimate of the Amerindian population on the southern littoral of the state of Rio de Janeiro, at the time of first contact with Europeans in 1500. It will also attempt to trace the decline of that population up to 1600, taking into consideration forms of labor exploitation and disease. Environmental impact of this population will then be assessed as an essential aspect of human occupation. It will be possible to extend these observations to the littoral of São Paulo, with whose inhabitants those of Rio de Janeiro had considerable interaction.