Labor Freedom Research Articles

Сertain problems of implementing the right to work under martial law

The article examines certain problems of implementing the right to work under martial law. The doctrinal approaches to the understanding of the right to work, the systems of labor rights are analyzed, and the peculiarities of the regulation of labor relations introduced under the conditions of martial law in Ukraine are clarified. It is justified that the constitutional right to work can be and is limited in wartime conditions.
 It has been proven that in Ukraine there was a timely response to the need for changes in the regulation of labor relations, which was done by adopting a special law "On the organization of labor relations under martial law". The provisions of the specified law allow more flexible regulation of labor relations, new norms have been introduced (for example, suspension of the employment contract), a number of guarantees are provided for the employee (the possibility of terminating the contract within the period specified in the application, etc.) and the employer (the possibility of dismissing the employee even during his temporary disability, etc.). Considering the fact that the war continues, amendments and additions were already made to this law in July, and obviously its provisions need to be improved, including for the proper protection of the rights of workers in the conditions of martial law.
 Losses to the economy and the labor market in Ukraine, approaches and forecasts of experts to the prospects of restoring the level of employment in Ukraine after the war were also analyzed. Empirical data on the issues of appeals for legal assistance of employees have been studied. It has been established that the loss of jobs and employment guarantees are key problems for millions of Ukrainians.
 Particular attention within the framework of the study is devoted to the analysis of the issue of freedom of labor in the conditions of martial law, when forced involvement in certain types of work is possible. In addition, the institution of suspension of the employment contract, under which a forced temporary termination of the employment contract takes place, has been carefully analyzed. The need to amend the labor legislation to guarantee employees the right to cancel the suspension of the employment contract is substantiated.

Summing of Worker’s Working Times with different Employers by an Employee - as an Infringement of Freedom of Parallel Employment and Illegal Processing of Personal Data

In the modern labor market, parallel employment of a person in different businesses is an opportunity to mitigate the economic dependence on only one employer and manage own welfare life. In 2019, the EU Labor Directive 2019/1125 on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions, legally strengthened the freedom of an employee to work with different employers in case of will. Restriction of this freedom is allowed only in reasonable and precisely defined cases.
 The article explains the legal norm of the Labor Code of Georgia regulating parallel employment. Some wrong Georgian practices between competitors (employers) are criticized. In order to use the norm in a uniform and good sense, in order to understand the real purpose of parallel labor freedom, the models of European legal regulations, the provisions of 2019/1125 directive, and various laws/norms of Georgia are synchronized and analysed.

Механизм закрепления принципов российского и армянского трудового права (сравнительно-правовой анализ)

A comparative analysis of the mechanism for securing the principles of labor law in Russia and Armenia is carried out. Proceeding from the positivist legal understanding, the author understands the principles of labor law as the normatively enshrined in the text of the Constitution and / or the Labor Code, the initial ideas underlying the regulation of labor and closely related social relations. The design of fixing the principles of labor law in the sectoral legislation of Russia and Armenia is recognized as quite successful. Despite the fact that the legislator of both states explicitly states in the relevant articles of codified acts in the field of labor relations that only the basic principles are set out there, in reality there are no other (non-basic) principles of labor law, except for those enshrined in them, as well as constitutional general legal principles. When classifying the principles of labor law, their specificity is revealed in comparison with the principles of a number of other branches of law. When classifying the principles of law according to the sphere of legal regulation, it turns out that neither Russian nor Armenian law has intersectoral principles of labor law, but only general legal and sectoral principles proper. When classifying the principles of labor law according to the source of their consolidation, it is noteworthy that the principles of the second group (constitutional principles of labor law, duplicated in sectoral legislation) include only one principle — the principle of freedom of labor.

Does the perception of government integrity differ across regions? A comparative study between several sub-Saharan and Asian countries

The study seeks to examine if the perception of government integrity differs or is similar across regions, mainly when some factors have been included in the assessment. The paper focuses on six sub-Saharan (Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Angola, and South Africa) and Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore) from 2016 to 2020. A nested pooled OLS regression model was employed. Government integrity was used as a predicted variable, whereas economic freedom and one government indicator (absence of violence) were independent variables. The obtained results yielded some differentiation for both regions. For instance, Sub-Saharan countries reacted positively to government spending, while the opposite reaction was detected in Asian countries. In terms of similarities, inflation has a negative impact on government integrity for both regions. In contrast, trade freedom and addressing unemployment by including it in the government’s agenda are seen as a proxy of good governance. The findings also show that labor freedom is only perceived negatively in sub-Saharan countries. On the other hand, FDI inflows show a positive effect for both regions, but it is only significant for sub-Saharan countries. Similarly, the absence of violence contributes positively to the degree of government integrity perception. This study is one of the first to conduct a comparative analysis between two regions in the context of determining factors that affect government integrity perceptions. Overall, the paper provides good insights for policymakers and official representatives to enhance the level of the state’s economic freedom.

LEGAL QUALIFICATION OF LABOR CONTRACT AND CONTRACT OF MANDATE (SERVICE COTRACT) WHEN CHECKING LEGALITY OF DEFAULT JUDGEMENT

Freedom of labor is a constitutional human right. The state protects it by fulfilling positive and negative obligations. Due to the specifics of labor relations, the principle of subordination is one of the basic principles that apply in labor law. Accordingly, the employee is subordinate to the employer and directly obeys the rules and conditions set by him. The parties of the Contract of Mandate (Service Contract) are the mandator who gives an assignment to the mandatary and the mandatary who is obliged to perform mandated actions. It is often difficult to find the difference between the contract of the mandated employment agreement. No. AS-953-2020 decision of the Chamber of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of Georgia, issued on April 2, 2021, regarding the above-mentioned issue sets precedent, both in the case’s procedural history and in the legal complexity and reasoning, which is undoubtedly distinguished from the previously set practice. What makes this case special is the fact that, from a procedural point of view, the case went through the second and third instances twice. In addition, a repeated default (absentee) judgment was appealed, the legal legitimacy of which is the main focus of the legal proceedings of the courts. Accordingly, this article will assess the factual circumstances related to the legal dispute and the grounds and motivation for the decision made by the relevant court. Also, special attention will be drawn to the decision made by the Supreme Court and the decision will be assessed in the context of whether the judge applied the law he was supposed to apply or the law that he was not supposed to apply and whether or not he misinterpreted the law. It also determines which method of resolving a hard case was used by the judge

ICT Infrastructure, OTT Market Growth, Economic Freedom, and International Tourism: A Cross-Country Empirical Study

This study examined whether information and communication technology (ICT), over the top (OTT) market growth, and economic freedom affect tourism at the global level. Toward this end, the present study tested regression models of inbound tourism and outbound tourism with panel data from 50 countries covering the years 2013 to 2020. The results of the panel-data analysis suggest that high levels of OTT advertising revenue and mobile broadband penetration contribute to high levels of inbound tourism. The results also reveal that high OTT advertising revenue, labor freedom, and income are associated with high levels of outbound tourism. The obtained results underscore that ICT and media play key roles in promoting international tourism.

Job description as a management document: legal aspect

The job description as an act of the managerial and control function of the employer has a recommendation character. But many employers use it to determine the scope of an employee’s duties, qualification requirements, and responsibilities. In practice, there are many questions and disputes about the possibility of changing job descriptions. Judicial practice on the dismissal legitimacy’s recognition because of the job description change develops in different ways. In this regard, it is important to determine in the legal aspect what a “job description” is. The purpose of the study is to determine the meaning of the job description in the content of labor relations, its role in the personnel management system. The analysis of the job description as a legal phenomenon is implemented by the author through the definitions of labor function and freedom of labor. Analytical, comparative legal methods and a systematic approach made it possible to see the job description as an integral part of the labor function.

Choice of location for Foreign Direct Investment by multinational corporations: Do tax burden matter?

Abstract: Purpose: This paper investigated the effect of the tax burden on the inflow of FDI into the continent. The study employed a panel data set of 48 SSA countries covering a period of 2009 to 2018. Research methodology: In other to account for the endogeneity problems associated with most financial data, we employed a dynamic panel two-step-system-GMM. Results: The result indicates that tax burden is a negative determinant of the inflow of FDI. In other words, multinational corporations attach a significant premium to countries with low tax burdens than those with a high tax burden. Similarly, an increase in the mobility of labour is a negative determinant of the inflow of FDI into the continent. All the economic and financial freedom indices included in the model have a positive and significant influence on the inflow of FDI into the continent. A sustainable tax policy that will lessen the tax burden on foreign investors should be formulated to enhance the inflow of FDI into the continent. Limitations: This study employed Dynamic System GMM which can produce variant results depending on the choice of instrument. Contribution: This study provides insight on the role of fiscal policy particularly taxation in explaining the inflow of FDI. Policymakers, multinational corporations, and other players in the global FDI market will appreciate the influence that tax exerts on FDI inflow. Keywords: 1. FDI 2. Financial freedom 3. Investment freedom 4. Labour freedom 5. Monetary freedom 6. Tax burden

Black Atlantic Republicans and the Limits of the Plantation

This article engages with two bodies of literature—the interdisciplinary studies of the Haitian Revolution and republican political theory—to make two corresponding interventions. First, I show how, despite republican political philosophy’s exclusion of the slave from the practice of freedom, Haitian revolutionaries and radical abolitionists—whom I call Black Atlantic Republicans—challenged this exclusion using republican logic. To make this point, I engage with shared understandings of tyranny and domination in David Walker’s Appeal and Toussaint Louverture’s personal correspondence. Second, using Jean Casimir’s notion of the counter-plantation system and Louverture’s proclamations on labor, I argue that despite the Black Atlantic universalization of republican freedom, the ideology fails to properly theorize the domination inherent to plantation labor. This inability to theorize labor freedom, I claim, is endemic to republican political thought itself. We can arrive at this insight by centering the revolutionary Haitian masses rather than their leadership.

Analyse comparative de la liberté économique dans les pays d'Amérique du Sud au cours des années 1996-2022

L'objectif de l'article est de présenter les résultats d'analyse sur la σ-convergence et la σ-divergence, ainsi qu'une analyse comparative multivariée de la liberté économique dans les 13 pays d'Amérique du Sud. Les pays concernés sont suivants : Argentine, Bolivie, Brésil, Chili, Colombie, Équateur, Guyane, Paraguay, Pérou, Suriname, Trinité-et-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela. Pour mener des analyses comparatives, les indices de liberté économique publiés par The Heritage Foundation à Washington et Wall Street Journal seront utilisés. Ils mesurent 12 aspects quantitatifs et qualitatifs regroupés autour des quatre piliers de la liberté économique : 1) état de droit - droits de propriété, efficacité judiciaire, intégrité gouvernementale ; 2) taille du gouvernement - dépenses publiques, fardeau fiscal, santé budgétaire ; 3) efficacité de la réglementation - liberté d'entreprise, liberté du travail, liberté monétaire ; 4) ouverture du marché - liberté commerciale, liberté d'investissement, liberté financière. Les données statistiques seront complétées par l'indice global de liberté économique pour chaque pays. Dans la recherche empirique, les mesures de σ-convergence et σ-divergence sont utilisées pour déterminer le degré d'homogénéité ou d'hétérogénéité des pays étudiés du point de vue de 12 zones et de la liberté économique moyenne à l'horizon temporal analysé. Le fait d'appliquer les méthodes sélectionnées d'analyse comparative multivariée, y compris l'analyse par grappes basée sur les méthodes hiérarchiques, représete le point culminant de la recherché empirique. L'analyse typologique est effectuée séparément pour 12 indicateurs partiels et l'indice global de liberté économique pour les 13 pays. Les matrices de similarité des pays, qui sont déterminées à cet effet, représentent les distances entre les séries temporelles des indices de liberté économique calculées sur la base de l'algorithme Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). Le programme R et les packages dtw et dtwclust sont utilisés pour l'analyse des clusters. Cet article est un complément important aux connaissances sur la création de la liberté économique dans les 13 pays Amérique du Sud dans les années 1996-2022.

Problems of temporary transfer of an employee (part 1 of Art. 72.2 of the Labor Code): A practical aspect

This article discusses various problems that may arise regarding the realization of the right to transform an agreement regarding an employee’s temporary transfer to another job being made permanent (Part 1 of the Art. 72.2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). In the authors’ opinion the wording provided in this article is unfortunate, as it does not regulate the employer’s obligation to warn the employee about the end of the period of temporary transfer. In such a situation, the employee is actually deprived of the right to freedom of labor, as well as to receive timely information about the possible transformation of his temporary transfer to a transfer on a permanent basis. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that for the duration of a worker’s temporary transfer, the former labor legal relationship, which corresponds to the conditions fixed in his labor contract, is “suspended” and resumes at the expiration of the transfer period, when the worker will be given at the previous job. Otherwise the effect of the principle of stability of the employment legal relationship is called into question and the threat of the employee being forced to work in another position (job) to which he/she has agreed to be transferred only for a certain period of time, but not on a permanent basis, is created. The absence of the employee’s consent to his transfer on a permanent basis to a position that he was temporarily replacing represents a violation of the constitutional principle of the freedom of the individual, including the disposal of his abilities to work. It should be taken into account that the concept of “deemed” is vague and abstract. It is difficult to imagine that an agreement on the temporary nature of a transfer “loses” force and “counts” as permanent. Any transfer, especially on a permanent basis, must be supported by specific actions, both on the employer’ and the employee’ part.

Соглашения о неконкуренции: проблемы теории и практики

The realization of freedom of labor by the employee through the termination of employment and the subsequent conclusion of an employment contract with a company that competes with the previous employer is detrimental to the interests of the later. The article contains an attempt to substantiate the necessity and possibility of introducing noncompetition agreements in the Russian labor legislation. In the light of the wide spread of such agreements abroad, the experience of various countries is represented, and the main aspects to be taken into consideration while concluding non-competition agreements are analyzed: 1) the reasonableness of conclusion of such agreements; 2) the form of conclusion; 3) the information about the actions to be performed/not performed by the employee; 4) the categories of employees with whom non-competition agreements may be concluded; 5) the term and the territory of the agreement; 6) compensation of the employee. Author reviewed the current positions of state authorities and the scientific community on the raised issue. In addition, the author provides arguments in favor of using this type of agreements, as well as possible options for adapting it to national legal conditions, taking into account the principle of freedom of labor.

Economic Governance Quality and Chinese OFDI: Evidence from the “Belt and Road” Countries

China’s foreign direct investment in 54 countries along the “Belt and Road” from year 2003 to year 2019 are adopted as sample data, and economic system indicators such as business freedom, currency freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and fiscal freedom are introduced as the proxy variable for the quality of host-country’s economic governance, to analyze the impact of different economic governance levels of countries along the route on China’s foreign direct investment. Due to the missing data and the non-random characteristics of China’s investment in sample countries, the Heckman two-step model is adopted to solve the issue of self-selection bias, and policy impact of the “Belt and Road” initiative is introduced to explore the quality of economic governance of the countries along the route on China’s foreign direct investment. The findings show that, 1) China is more inclined to invest in host countries with a large market, and its investment preference is market-seeking; 2) the host-country labor freedom and financial freedom have a positive impact on Chinese direct investment, while trade freedom and investment freedom negatively affects Chinese investment; 3) the implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative has affected the mechanism of host-country’s economic governance on China’s foreign direct investment.

CRIMINAL LAW PROTECTION OF RELATIONS ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH INSOLVENCY (BANKRUPTCY) IN THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION: COMPARATIVE LEGAL RESEARCH

The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was signed on May 29, 2014 in Astana by thePresidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It came into force on January 1, 2015. Currently, the fivemember States of the Eurasian Economic Union, in addition to ensuring the freedom of movement ofgoods, services, capital and labor, have set the goal of conducting a coordinated, coordinated or unified policy in economic sectors. Insolvency, being an objective economic phenomenon characterized by an acuteconflict of interests of participants, needs an effective system of protection, including criminal law. In thispaper, the author analyzes the current criminal law norms on liability for crimes in the field of insolvency(bankruptcy) in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. On the basis of the general historicaland theoretical development of criminal legislation in the post-Soviet space, reflected in the Model CriminalCode of the CIS member states, the author highlights the features of criminal law norms formed during theperiod of independent lawmaking of all states. Based on the conducted research, the author comes to theconclusion that the possibilities of unification of criminal legislation on liability for crimes in the field of nonproperty (bankruptcy) for the Union states have not been lost. Such integration should become one of thepriority areas for improving criminal legislation.

The Concept of "Women's Rights" and Constitutional Freedom of Labor: Terminology Clarifications and Implementation Problems

The publication is aimed at defining the essence of the concept of "women's rights". The article shows that the concept of “women's rights” is widely used in the system of normative legal acts in Russia. The domestic legislator, resolutely opposing gender asymmetry, understands the rights of women as a system of integral and inalienable rights, freedoms and obligations for every woman, girl, adolescent girl, regardless of her age, citizenship, race, ethnic or religious affiliation.
 Using hermeneutic tools, an attempt is made to show the content and problems of the implementation of the labor rights of females. The article emphasizes that horizontal segregation develops under the influence of many factors due to the mentality and preference of various types of activities for men and women. Ultimately, women in general end up with lower income jobs.
 The authors found that the problems in Russia are the separation of professions into "male" and "female", which entails different wages; the feminization of poverty and unemployment; horizontal professional mobility for women. The increasing number of appeals associated with the violation of the socio-economic rights of women and their making the most of their labor potential become the subject of justice, in particular of constitutional justice in the Russian Federation.

ROLE OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FREEDOM IN COUNTRY'S ATTRACTIVENESS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI): EVIDENCE FROM THE SOUTH EAST EUROPE

<jats:p>The aim of this research is to empirically explore impact of economic and political freedom as two nontraditional factors on FDI inflows in eight of South East Europe countries between 2002 and 2020. Accordingly, the study hypothesis that high level of economic and political freedom is positively associated with FDI. The study uses panel data techniques. The obtained findings of the study failed to confirm contribution of economic freedom on FDI in eight South East European countries. It can be explained that a given level of reforms conducted in the field of business freedom, trade freedom, monetary freedom, investment freedom, government size, property rights, freedom from corruption, labour freedom, financial freedom, and fiscal freedom are still lagging from developed countries. On the contrary, the findings confirmed the impact of political freedom on FDI attractiveness and that given level of political freedom contributes to growth of FDI.</jats:p>

A Pragmatic Study for Enhancing Agricultural Efficiency through Labor Freedom

The study aims to explore labor freedom in the agricultural sector for enhancing the efficiency of farming through policy change towards assigning property rights, rental contracts, and better wage-employment options to rural workers. Labor freedom emphasizes land reform and development policy for improving the economic status and capabilities of rural workers. The paper assessed the labor freedom index, weighted through agricultural property rights, labor wage contracts, and rural development policy. Data envelopment analysis is used to assess farm-level efficiency under the framework of Tobit regression for different size-based farm categories. Farm-level information was collected through a primary survey of 336 rural households of an advanced agricultural state in India. The study found a positive association between farm size and intensity of labor freedom, although the extent of freedom differs among farms. Size-specific variation was also observed for allocative efficiency such that marginal and medium-sized farms are more efficient than smaller ones. Tobit regression indicated labor freedom to be positively and significantly related to the efficiency of marginal, small and overall farms with enhancing efficiency of 25, 17 and nearly 20%, respectively; however, estimates of labor freedom insignificantly increased the efficiency of mediums farms, by 4.8%. This result suggests that labor freedom positive and significantly affects the efficiency of farms in general, and marginal and small farms in particular. Of course, the elasticity estimate of enhancing efficiency through labor freedom for medium farmers is found at a lower level.

BANK TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY, PURE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AND SCALE EFFICIENCY, DOES ECONOMIC FREEDOM MATTER? EVIDENCE FROM CENTRAL EUROPE

The current study attempts to investigate the impact of the limitation of economic freedom on conventional bank technical efficiency and its components (pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency) by using data from the region of central Europe. Non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed to measure the bank's technical efficiency and its components levels. The applied method of estimation consists of “pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Fixed Effect Model (FEM), Random Effect Model (REM), and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)” to investigate the influence of economic freedom and other potential determinants on bank efficiency. This study has found that the indicators of Government Spending, Fiscal Health, Business Freedom, Labor Freedom, and Financial Freedom have positive relationships with bank’s technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. Contrariwise, Overall Economic Freedom, Monetary Freedom, and Investment Freedom exhibit a negative impact on a bank’s technical efficiency and its components. Implications from the study permit the related parties to identify the significant dimensions of economic freedom to the efficiency of the banks to ensure better bank performance.

Labor is free or freedom of labor? Russia and international law

This article explores the problem of exercising the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of labor. Analysis is conducted on the current Russian legislation in comparison with the legislation of the Soviet period in the area of regulation of questions of the freedom of labor. Functionality of the institution of the freedom of labor is viewed on the practice of Russian reality and its compliance with the norms of international law. The questions of the freedom of labor are also examined in a number of foreign countries. The author reveals the flaws in the Russian legal framework on the subject matter, and makes recommendations for amending the current legislation. Research methodology leans on the comparative-legal method, as well as such general scientific methods as historical, linguistic and others. The scientific novelty of this article is defined by the absence within the domestic legal science of comprehensive legal research of the entirety of problems related to constitutional guarantee of the freedom of labor. An attempt is made to carry out a comparative study of the international normative regulation of relations in the area of the freedom of work with the norms established in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

ON THE QUESTION OF THE EXERCISE BY RUSSIAN WOMEN OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF LABOR

Within the framework of this publication, the authors analyze some of the problems of the realizationby Russian women of the constitutional right to freedom of labor. The emphasis is placed on the principleof equality as a basic platform that allows women to effectively exercise their right to freedom of work. The authors proceed from the fact that equality as a principle of law is nothing more than the ideal of ajust structure of the state and society, which is characterized by the comprehensive implementation andprotection of human and civil rights and freedoms. Therefore, equality canonizes parity in the relationshipbetween the individual and the state, discrimination on the part of state bodies with this interpretation isexcluded.The article shows that the Russian state, striving to improve the conditions of women’s work, in orderto effectively protect their constitutional rights, creates a system of normative legal acts that fix the list ofprofessions and types of professional work, which women have no right to replace. This, in turn, leads to thelatter’s appeal to the courts, up to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court ofHuman Rights in Strasbourg.