Labor Law Research Articles

Evolution of work conditions for employees driving for work in France based on data from the 2003, 2010 and 2017 SUMER surveys (Surveillance Médicale des expositions aux risques Professionnels)

IntroductionThe occupational road-accident risk on public roads and the work conditions for professional driving is still an important issue in occupational health despite lower road-accident rates. This study presents the evolution over time of the work-related constraints for these employees based on the Sumer surveys carried out in 2003, 2010 and 2017. MethodData from the 2010 and 2017 surveys were restricted to match the scope of the 2003 survey in order to enable prevalence data to be compared in equivalent populations. The main variable of interest was “driving (car, truck, bus, and other vehicles) on public thoroughfares” for work (during the last week of work: yes/no). Work time characteristics, work rhythm, autonomy and scope for initiative, collective work group, standards and evaluations variables were completed by the occupational health physicians. A self-administered questionnaire was also provided to employees and contained the Job Content Questionnaire, which assesses decision latitude, social support and psychological demands, the reward scale of Siegrist questionnaire, the hostile behaviour with inspired questions for Leymann, sick leave and work accidents during the past 12 months and job satisfaction. Finally, prevention in the workplace was also completed by the occupational health physicians. ResultsAbout 25% of employees in France were exposed to work-related driving in 2017, which was stable in comparison with 2003 and 2010. However, the population was older and there were more females, more often from the clerical staff/middle manager category and working in companies with fewer than 10 employees. Employees exposed to work-related driving were also more frequently exposed to sustained work schedules and physical constraints, but less exposed to psychosocial risks. ConclusionsThe percentage of employees exposed to occupational road accident risk, i.e., exposure to work-related driving, remained stable at about 25% in 2017 compared with previous surveys. These employees were also more frequently exposed to sustained work schedules and physical constraints, but less exposed to psychosocial risks. Practical ApplicationsPrevention campaigns on work-related road accident risk should be provided to all employees in all companies since all jobs can be concerned.

Role of participation committee in developing workplace condition, safety and welfare services in Ready-Made Garment Industry of Bangladesh

An abstract is a summary of entire paper should be written in Cambria with font size- 10. The Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh plays a crucial role in the country's economy. Nonetheless, it frequently encounters challenges concerning workplace conditions, safety standards, and welfare services. This study investigates the participation committee's (PC) role in ensuring sustainable working conditions, workplace safety, and welfare within Bangladesh's RMG industry. Employing a qualitative research approach, the study conducted interviews with 30 respondents using semi-structured questions and employed a convenient sampling technique to select participants. The findings reveal that the participation committee has notably enhanced workplace safety in the RMG industry. Through active involvement, the committee has fostered improved communication between management and employees, leading to better working conditions, the eradication of labor rights neglect, and strengthened enforcement of national employment and labor regulations. The paper concludes by stressing the necessity for collaborative efforts involving stakeholders at various levels to consistently enhance workplace conditions, safety standards, and welfare services in Bangladesh's Ready-Made Garment industry. Originality in a study on participation committees in Bangladesh's ready-to-garment industry lies in presenting innovative approaches, methods, or insights, addressing literature gaps, or exploring uncharted territories, thus enhancing welfare services and workplace health and safety.

Promoting Health and Safety among Construction Workers in Pasay City: Towards an Enhanced Security and Safety Labor Policies

This research investigates the health and safety obstacles encountered by experienced construction professionals in Metro Manila. By addressing these challenges, the study aims to enhance worker well-being, safety practices, and policy formulation, potentially yielding economic benefits through cost reduction for construction firms and improved safety standards. Emphasizing social responsibility, the research advocates for promoting worker health and safety to bolster public trust and company reputation. Evidence-based recommendations provided can aid policymakers and regulatory bodies in updating regulations tailored to construction workers' needs, ensuring compliance and addressing sector-specific challenges. Valuable insights for the construction industry include strategies to retain and support experienced workers, anticipating reduced turnover rates and increased productivity. A safer construction environment not only benefits workers but also the broader community by reducing accidents and fostering societal harmony. The study prioritizes enhancing construction workers' quality of life by addressing physical hazards and safety protocol gaps, offering practical guidelines for employers to cultivate a culture of worker well-being and satisfaction. Furthermore, the research contributes to the academic discourse on occupational health and safety in physically demanding industries like construction, advancing understanding and facilitating future discussions on challenges and solutions in this field.

The implementation of national labour legislation in England after the Black Death, 1349–1400

AbstractThe responses of labour markets to global pandemics are attracting renewed interest, although the English labour laws in response to the Black Death of 1348/9 – capping wages, imposing annual contracts, and restricting mobility – have a long and established scholarship. The conventional wisdom is that the legislation represented an extension of existing local practices and created common cause among all categories of employer. Yet this view is hard to reconcile with the fact that, despite subsequent revisions, the legislation soon failed. These arguments are tested through original research into how the legislation was actually enforced in a variety of legal tribunals (manorial, borough, and royal). A clear distinction is maintained between public presentments and private litigation, and a robust methodology is pursued to record their absence as well as quantifying their presence. This casts new light on the novelty of the labour laws, the reasons for their failure, and their influence on contract law. The analysis exemplifies the potential for short‐term legal responses to infectious diseases to have unintended and unanticipated long‐term consequences.

Prevalence Rates of Tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and Hepatitis B and C among Migrant Workers in Jordan

Abstract Introduction: Migration across national borders is an influential factor of consideration in the control of infectious diseases. Therefore, including migrants in surveillance and screening programs as well as linkage to care is mandatory to meet the public health targets of countries and regions. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) among migrant workers applying for work permits in Jordan during the period 2018–2020. The findings of this study are expected to guide health policy to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in Jordan. Methods: During the period 2018–2020, 439,622 migrant workers underwent routine testing for TB, HIV, and hepatitis B and C. Demographic, laboratory, and clinical data for those migrants were retrieved from the Directorate of Chest Diseases and Immigrants Health records. The overall prevalence of the mentioned diseases as well as by subgroups was calculated. Results: The prevalence rates of TB and HIV among migrants were 54 per 100,000 migrants (11 per 100,000 male migrants and 138 per 100,000 female migrants, P < 0.001) and 21 per 100,000 (11 per 100,000 male migrants and 41 per 100,000 female migrants, P < 0.001), respectively. The prevalence of hepatitis B was 10 per 1000 migrants (12 per 1000 male migrants and 7 per 1000 female migrants, P < 0.001) and the prevalence of hepatitis C was 37 per 1000 (51 per 1000 male migrants and 10 per 1000 female migrants, P < 0.001). The prevalence of all studied conditions varied significantly according to gender, age, occupation, and country of origin. Conclusions: The prevalence rates of TB, HIV, HBV, and HCV were generally higher among migrants than Jordanians. Evidence-based health policies need to be drafted that aim to address migrant workers health care to ensure the lowest possible risk from infectious diseases to the people of Jordan is maintained. The study findings can inform the formulation of immigration and public health policies, including screening requirements for migrant workers, health insurance provisions, labor regulations, and support services for those with these conditions.

Enhanced labour protection for prisoners of war

Abstract The principle of prohibiting forced labour exists in both treaty and customary international law. However, there are limits to this prohibition, in that certain types of forced labour are actually permitted; this is the case for forced labour performed by prisoners of war (PoWs). This paper examines the legal regime applicable to such labour. It starts by setting out the current rules, following a brief historical review. It then explains the shortcomings of those rules, which are open to abuse and are not focused exclusively on the rights and interests of the PoWs, before proposing two possible ways of improving the situation by means of a systemic approach. The first is based on international humanitarian law itself, while the second is based on the complementary relationship between that body of law and international human rights law. Such improvements would give PoWs the right to perform any available work while continuing to require them to carry out work exclusively dedicated to running the PoW camp.

Child Labor in English Literature

Child labor is an old social problem. It peaked during the Industrial Revolution which greatly influenced English society, such as rural exodus, lack of equal job opportunities, miserable living and working conditions, social classes, lack of mandatory education, poverty, and, most importantly, child labor. The paper investigates the crimes against children carried out under the cover of child labor and poses the question of whether authorities, governments, religious institutions, businesses, and even parents are complicit in these crimes or have chosen to overlook them in spite of the constant backlash against them. The main aim of this study is to show the positive role of some authors like Charles Dickens, William Blake, Frances Trollope, Charles Kingsley, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Caroline Norton, and Elizabeth Barret Browning who refused to ignore such atrocities and their consequences. These writers showed their opposition to child labor through great literary works such as Oliver Twist, Hard Times, David Copperfield, The Chimney Sweeper, A Voice from the Factory, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land- Baby, and The Cry of the Children. The study follows the close reading method and the sociology of literature approach. The study concludes that poverty and urbanization were some of the adverse outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. It reveals the official’s role in profiting from child labor and presents the authors’ role in changing The Poor Laws and Factory Acts to ban hiring minors. The study recommends national child labor regulations that should be enacted and enforced in order to prevent or at least control child work, as recommendations for further research.

Authoritarian liquid transgressions: the case of P&O Ferries

AbstractOn 17 March 2022, P&O Ferries summarily dismissed 786 seafarers without notice or consultation in a clear and openly admitted transgression of legality, but two months later its parent company's chief executive officer claimed that ‘nobody was hurt’. Drawing on the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Alain Supiot, this article offers a critical account of the scandal based on three main arguments. First, it develops the new concept of an ‘authoritarian liquid transgression’ (ALT), defined as a transgression of a democratic legal norm that seeks to leave no trace or excess (that which resists immediate liquefaction), thus aiming at complete erasure. Second, it argues that the P&O event is a paradigmatic example of an attempted ALT by dissecting three main steps in the business strategy (liquefaction, effacement, and simulation) but also traces competing privatized and politicized narratives of its excess. Third, the article suggests that the event will be viewed as a liminal event for the United Kingdom's authoritarian neoliberalism since it acted as a window that offered a brief glimpse of the brutal nature of authoritarian neoliberalism at work but also of an alternative solid construction of labour law and its remedial framework.

La subordinación como elemento necesario en la existencia de la relación laboral

The objective of this article is to identify how subordination is integrated as a decision-making element in the employment relationship within labor law; Accordingly, documentary - legal review was used on this subject, with the use of a qualitative methodological approach and the application of methods such as analytical - synthetic and descriptive, those that allowed to fulfill the objective of the investigation, finding that, from the analysis of the different modalities of work, although apparently, they are autonomous jobs not subject to any subordination, in certain cases they can be framed in a relationship of dependency, thus configuring the employment relationship. An analysis of subordination / dependence is proposed as a primary element, for consideration by the judge, when they are raised to his knowledge within a legal contest, where the emphasis on other predominant sources of law is required as the application of the principle of primacy of reality, to determine the situation adjusted to the facts and thereby extend the simple recognition or not of the role of employer of one of the parties, after a labor test, with the so-called reality contract.

Effective enforcement of the EU framework on the posting of workers: Empirical evidence

This article addresses the issue of effective enforcement of EU labour law by looking at the case study of the enforcement of the EU framework on the posting of workers. While recent years have seen a revival of Social Europe in the form of the European Pillar of Social Rights, scholars have also expressed concern over the effectiveness in practice of transnational labour law, and EU labour law in particular. Rasnača (2022) argues that ineffective enforcement creates a ‘justice gap’ between formal rights on paper and access to these rights in practice. One example of an area of EU labour law plagued by enforcement issues is the posting of workers. It is a peculiar type of intra-EU labour mobility, where posted workers, despite often being EU citizens, cannot benefit from the protection afforded by the EU's fundamental principle of the free movement of workers. As the original Directive 96/71/EC on the posting of workers proved manifestly inadequate to safeguard the rights of posted workers, the EU enacted Directive 2014/67 to improve the framework's enforcement. This article offers an evaluation of the Enforcement Directive based on data collected from 29 qualitative interviews. The effectiveness of the Enforcement Directive will be assessed based on the theoretical framework of precarious work. It will be argued that while the Enforcement Directive has contributed to narrowing the justice gap, posted workers continue to be exposed to precarity.

Vitamin C Levels in Pregnant Women and the Efficacy of Vitamin C Supplements in Preventing Premature Rupture of Membranes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Premature rupture of membranes (PROM) is defined as the leakage of amniotic fluid before the onset of labor and delivery contractions. Some studies found that women who experienced PROM had significantly lower vitamin C blood levels than those who did not, while others found no significant differences. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the efficacy of vitamin C in the prevention of PROM had conflicting results. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine if there was a significant difference in vitamin C blood levels in women who had PROM versus the control group who did not and to determine if vitamin C supplements could help prevent it. Systematic review and meta-analysis. We registered our protocol with PROSPERO (CRD42022371644). We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus through February 15, 2024. Additionally, backward and forward citation searches were conducted. Studies were selected based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meta-Essentials: Workbooks for Meta-Analysis (Version 1.5) was used for analysis. Twenty-five studies (26 reports) met all eligibility criteria, with 18 studies (18 reports) assessing vitamin C levels and seven studies (eight reports) evaluating efficacy. Women with PROM, whether preterm or term, had significantly lower vitamin C levels [Hedges' g, -1.48; 95% confidence interval (CI): -2.82, -0.14; p = 0.020; I2 = 94.08%) and specifically preterm PROM after removing the outlying study [Hedges' g, -1.29; 95% CI: -1.85, -0.73; p < 0.001; I2 = 87.35%). Vitamin C supplementation significantly reduced the risk of preterm or term PROM [risk ratio (RR), 0.57; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.81; p < 0.001; I2 = 12.17%), particularly for preterm PROM (RR, 0.67; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.99; p = 0.001; I2 = 0.00%). There were no significant differences in vitamin C levels between women with term PROM and controls, and there were no differences in the risk of developing term PROM between women taking vitamin C supplements and controls. Results were not robust in all sensitivity analyses. Women with PROM, particularly those who developed it preterm, appear to have significantly lower vitamin C levels, and vitamin C supplementation appears to be effective in reducing the risk of PROM, particularly preterm PROM. More high-quality studies with low risk of bias, more homogenous, and larger samples are needed to confirm these findings.

Additional Measures to Support Families with Disabled Children

The article presents an analysis of certain legislative norms aimed at maintaining the stability of the legal status of workers with disabled children. Based on statistical data, some positive results of state policy in the field of social support for families with a disabled child are noted, a conclusion is made about the stabilization of the growth rate of child disability at the present stage in comparison with indicators of previous years, the importance of additional benefits and guarantees provided to employees with disabilities is emphasized. a disabled child, both at the federal, regional and collective bargaining levels of legal regulation of labor. The author substantiates proposals for improving certain norms of labor legislation regarding the procedure for providing additional days off to working parents with disabled children, which will strengthen the emerging trend of stabilizing the social situation of these subjects.

Do Labour Welfare Policies Matter for Workers? Evidence from the Garment Supply Chain Industry in Bangladesh

AbstractThe paper focusses on workers’ opinions in regard to welfare policies enacted under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006. The study investigates two questions: Do labour welfare policies under labour law really matter for workers? If so, to what extent are such welfare policies practised in the global garment supply chain industry in Bangladesh? The Binary Logistic Regression technique has been used to assess the opinions of garment workers as to whether their level of satisfaction increases by workers’ welfare facility interventions. The data were collected from compliant and export-oriented factories between July 2021 and August 2021 in three Upazilas-Savar Ashulia (Dhaka District) and Gazipur Sadar (Gazipur District) in Bangladesh. This study demonstrates that overtime facilities, medical facilities, safety measures, restroom facilities, lunchroom facilities, and childcare facilities can play a pivotal role in increasing the satisfaction level of the workers. Given the similar socio-economic and geographical backgrounds, this research can be applied to the garment manufacturing industries of other South Asian countries. It serves as a valuable tool for understanding workers' attitudes and beliefs about welfare provisions. By applying the findings of this study, one can better comprehend the needs of the workers in terms of various labor welfare motivational tools.

Formal Legal Approach to Defining the Concept of “Social Security”

Currently, in the science of social security law, a generally accepted definition of the concept of “social security” has not been developed. Analysis of existing definitions makes it possible to distinguish several semantic elements: 1) social security is an activity to provide material goods in cash or in kind; 2) these material goods are provided only to individuals; 3) material goods are provided in the event of circumstances recognized as socially respectful.These semantic elements are present in all definitions. At the same time, not all definitions clearly reflect who provides material goods through which sources. Two points of view can be distinguished on this issue: (1) Social security is provided by the State from the State budget and extrabudgetary funds; 2) social security is carried out not only by the state, but also by private individuals at the expense of private funds.The article justifies that the first point of view is correct. Social security is the provision on the basis of the law of material goods by the state at the expense of the budget and extrabudgetary funds. This activity is subject to social security law.Material security provided by an individual at the expense of his own funds on the basis of a contract is a charitable activity that is regulated by civil law. The material security that the employer, on the basis of a collective agreement, provides at its own expense to the employee and his family members is a relationship closely related to labor relations and is regulated by labor law.

On Understanding of the Definition of «Labour» in the Aspect Effective Implementation of the New Constitutional Principles

It is necessary to continue analysis of the new understanding of the definition of “labour” proposed by the author in terms of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation approved during the all-Russian vote on July 1, 2020. The purpose of the article is to develop and formulate an innovative concept of labour for the effective implementation in the future of new constitutional principles, which for the first time in the history of labor law were fixed at the level of the Basic Law of the country. In view of this circumstance it is important to reflect the concept “labour” in the Labour code of the Russian Federation in a broad aspect , and in the legislation of the Federal Act “On Employment in the Russian Federation”, equating the concept of “employment” to the definition of “labour” that will allow to define more clearly the implementation of such constitutional principles as: respect for the labour, respect for man of labour; establishing a minimum wage not less than the subsistence minimum of the working-age population in the Russian Federation; ensuring social partnership.The legal consolidation of the definition of “labour” in a broad aspect will contribute to the development of not only labour legislation, but also the theory of labour law in terms of a correct understanding of the nature of such principles as respect for labour and respect for the man of labour, which, in our opinion, should also be fixed in the Labour Code of the Russian Federation . These principles are undoubtedly cross-sectoral in nature, since they are the basis not only of labour law, but also of civil and administrative law.

Material and Tort Liability: Problems of Correlation between the Norms of Civil and Labour

The author notes the inconsistency of the current institution of material liability with the basic provisions of civil legislation on tort liability. Financial liability by its characteristics is a kind of tort liability. The presence in the labor legislation of a mention of bringing participants in labor relations to civil liability creates conditions for full compensation for harm, including lost profits according to the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, after receiving compensation under the rules of limited or full liability. With such legal regulation, taking into account judicial practice, there is either a diminution of the importance of categories of labor law, or a non-uniform application of the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Gaps and imperfections in the construction of liability should be eliminated by completely isolating this institution or by observing all the rules and principles of tort liability.

Transformations of the Russian Labor Market: First and Second Waves

The research significance is determined because over the past three years the Russian labor market has gone through two waves of transformations. The COVID-19 epidemic caused the first wave of transformations, which continued until the end of 2021. The second one, caused by introducing sanctions against Russia, began in February 2022 and continued to this day. The subject of the study is the functioning parameters of the Russian labor market and the major new trends in its development. The paper aims to identify problem areas in the labor market and analyze measures for its development. It also examines the reform of the public employment service and improvement of labor legislation. Information sources: Russian and foreign scientific publications, specialized studies, as well as official open data from the state bodies. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the multidimensional approach to the analysis of the Russian labor market transformation in two waves, trends and for its outlooks growth.

Dualism of Labor Law: Private Law and Public Law Aspects

The relevance of the topic of this article is due to the fact that the structure of labor law as a regulator of public relations contains the principles of both power and subordination, and equality of the parties. Despite the prevalence of the concept of dualism in labor law, there is no consensus in legal science regarding its content.The purpose of this article is to develop scientific provisions reflecting the features of dualism in labor law. Proceeding from the designated goal, the author set tasks: to determine the private and public legal aspects in the dual nature of labor law. In the process of studying national interests, the dialectical method of cognition was used as a philosophical basis, as well as general scientific research methods: ascent from the abstract to the concrete, the system-structural method. private scientific methods: formal legal, as wellas logical means of cognition — analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction.As a result of the analysis of scientific and regulatory sources, the following conclusions were formulated: 1) The state performs several functions in achieving a balance of private and public legal interests in the field of labor regulation: legislative, control, social, intermediary. 2) By promoting a balance between the interests of workers and the State, civil society contributes to ensuring fairer and more stable working conditions for all.

Genetic and Digital Discrimination in Labor Law: Problem Statement

The last few decades have been characterized by the most active development of medicine and genetics, leading to the emergence of new knowledge about the functioning of the human body. The identification of a genetic predisposition to the development of certain diseases requires a rethink of traditional approaches to the use of employee personal data, labor protection, and the balance of public and private interests in labor legislation. This article analyzes approaches to determining the legal nature of genetic information, identifies possible areas of restriction of workers’ rights depending on the identification of hereditary predisposition to certain diseases, draws a line between discrimination based on genetic characteristics and differentiation. In the context of the active digitalization of personnel processes, the risks of possible digital discrimination in the selection and evaluation of employees using artificial intelligence technologies are noted.

Re-interpreting basic values underlying social security law in times of climate change and ecological crisis

Shaping solidarity, guaranteeing basic subsistence, maintaining income and employment activation can be seen as basic values underlying social security law in many European welfare states. This article argues that the meaning of these values or concepts is determined by legitimating discourses within which they are interpreted. While so far Rawls's theory of justice and related egalitarian liberal philosophies have had a great impact on these discourses, the ecological crisis has given rise to new discourses which are inspired by neo-republican theory and green republicanism. Instead of legitimising a capitalist economy based on economic growth, these discourses promote a post-productive society that seeks to realise human flourishing and meaningful lives. The aim of this article is to contribute to the emerging debate on social security reform by explaining how neo-republican theory and green republicanism can fill social security law's basic values or concepts with meaning that is more in line with current ecological concerns. In contrast to previous contributions that have sought to rethink labour and social security law (‘social law’) in a way that is more compatible with our ecological and climate crisis, this article builds on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory to develop its argument.