Enforcement Of Labour Standards Research Articles

Freedmen and Day Laborers: Why Enforcement Matters

As the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Emancipation approaches, there are cautionary lessons for modern workers to be found in Reconstruction, the period that followed the abolition of chattel slavery. It was mostly due to vehement opposition that the promise of universal liberty at work was squelched after the Civil War, but the federal government also bears responsibility for not defending the rights it had granted to the freed slaves, or freedmen, when those rights were contested and eventually nullified in the working fields and cities of the South. In this sense, workers’ rights were the original civil rights, and the Freedmen’s Bureau, the original federal labor rights agency, was a founding failure of enforcement.This article argues that the lesson of this failure is that modern enforcement agencies must pay increased attention to labor standards enforcement for foreign born workers, in particular unauthorized immigrants, and that such a focus will benefit all workers in the national economy. The modern American underclass has expanded to substantially include unauthorized immigrants, and their presence in an industry or labor market, such as day labor, is a reliable marker that the most vulnerable workers may be found there. By focusing on these most vulnerable workers, enforcement efforts can help overcome the collective action problem that is created by any system of minimum labor standards.What primarily stands in the way of such an enforcement focus is the misplaced reliance on moral culpability that drives so much of the debate about unauthorized workers. This article argues that the exploitation of vulnerable workers is a behavior that has persisted through the centuries, and that this persistence matters as much as, or more than, the motivations for such behavior, like racism or hostility to foreigners. Finally, it offers some potential responses to what would be an expected backlash to this argument.

The US Labor Standards Enforcement System and Low-Wage Immigrants: Recommendations for Legislative and Administrative Reform

Low-wage immigrants in the United States, particularly the 8 million unauthorized workers, suffer from widespread labor standards violations. Their protection represents a singular challenge for modestly-resourced federal and state regulators, particularly in an era of record immigration enforcement. Many employers hire the unauthorized, knowingly or unknowingly, because they cannot attract sufficient numbers of authorized workers. An enduring minority, however, prefer to employ unauthorized workers in order to suppress wages and working conditions and to gain an advantage over their competitors. Their business model depends on the exploitation of workers who are less likely to complain, organize or pursue other remedies for mistreatment. Exacerbating matters, the unauthorized work disproportionately in jobs to which certain labor standards do not apply, and they belong to labor unions at lower rates than the US workforce as a whole (Schmitt 2010). Employers, in turn, face intense competition and pressure to cut costs. In addition, intensive immigration enforcement can make employees more vulnerable to retaliation for exercising their rights and less likely to challenge abuses (Cho and Smith 2013). This paper analyzes labor standards enforcement in light of the challenges posed by bad-faith employers, the historically high population of low-wage immigrant laborers (particularly the unauthorized), and record spending on immigration enforcement. It draws from a comprehensive report titled Labor Standards Enforcement and Low-Wage Immigrants: Creating an Effective Enforcement System (Kerwin and McCabe 2011). The paper identifies gaps in protection in the legal and regulatory labor standards framework, with a particular focus on the US Department of Labor's (DOL's) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) which enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).1 It argues that labor standards should be strengthened and enforcement resources bolstered. However, it also recognizes that federal and state agencies will never be able to investigate, penalize, or monitor a significant share of the employers subject to their jurisdictions. Thus, it concludes that the overall goal of these agencies should be to deter violations and to maximize compliance with the law. To achieve these goals, regulators must be able to identify industries, sectors and firms with vulnerable workers; map the structures, relationships, and the distinct incentives of employers within these industries; and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their enforcement strategies. WHD, in particular, needs to establish robust partnerships with other federal and state enforcement agencies, as well as with businesses, labor unions, and community-based organizations (CBOs) that enjoy direct access to low-wage immigrant workers. Status-blind enforcement and a coordinated response to the “misclassification” of employees as independent contractors must also be key priorities. In addition, a large-scale legalization program would strengthen the ability of immigrant workers to exercise and defend their rights.

The US Labor Standards Enforcement System and Low-Wage Immigrants: Recommendations for Legislative and Administrative Reform

Low-wage immigrants in the United States, particularly the 8 million unauthorized workers, suffer from widespread labor standards violations. Their protection represents a singular challenge for modestly-resourced federal and state regulators, particularly in an era of record immigration enforcement. Many employers hire the unauthorized, knowingly or unknowingly, because they cannot attract sufficient numbers of authorized workers. An enduring minority, however, prefer to employ unauthorized workers in order to suppress wages and working conditions and to gain an advantage over their competitors. Their business model depends on the exploitation of workers who are less likely to complain, organize or pursue other remedies for mistreatment. Exacerbating matters, the unauthorized work disproportionately in jobs to which certain labor standards do not apply, and they belong to labor unions at lower rates than the US workforce as a whole (Schmitt 2010). Employers, in turn, face intense competition and pressure to cut costs. In addition, intensive immigration enforcement can make employees more vulnerable to retaliation for exercising their rights and less likely to challenge abuses (Cho and Smith 2013). This paper analyzes labor standards enforcement in light of the challenges posed by bad-faith employers, the historically high population of low-wage immigrant laborers (particularly the unauthorized), and record spending on immigration enforcement. It draws from a comprehensive report titled Labor Standards Enforcement and Low-Wage Immigrants: Creating an Effective Enforcement System (Kerwin and McCabe 2011). The paper identifies gaps in protection in the legal and regulatory labor standards framework, with a particular focus on the US Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) which enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). [1] It argues that labor standards should be strengthened and enforcement resources bolstered. However, it also recognizes that federal and state agencies will never be able to investigate, penalize, or monitor a significant share of the employers subject to their jurisdictions. Thus, it concludes that the overall goal of these agencies should be to deter violations and to maximize compliance with the law. To achieve these goals, regulators must be able to identify industries, sectors and firms with vulnerable workers; map the structures, relationships, and the distinct incentives of employers within these industries; and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their enforcement strategies. WHD, in particular, needs to establish robust partnerships with other federal and state enforcement agencies, as well as with businesses, labor unions, and community-based organizations (CBOs) that enjoy direct access to low-wage immigrant workers. Status-blind enforcement and a coordinated response to the “misclassification” of employees as independent contractors must also be key priorities. In addition, a large-scale legalization program would strengthen the ability of immigrant workers to exercise and defend their rights. [1] Fair Labor Standards Act , Pub. L. No. 75-718, 52 Stat. 1060 (June 25, 1938).

Parallel Paths to Enforcement: Private Compliance, Public Regulation, and Labor Standards in the Brazilian Sugar Sector

In recent years, global corporations and national governments have been enacting a growing number of codes of conduct and labor laws to combat dangerous or degrading work conditions in global supply chains. On the receiving end of this activity, local producers must contend with multiple regulations and verification systems, but it is not clear how these systems interact and the results they produce. This paper examines the public and private enforcement of labor standards in the sugarcane, sugar and ethanol sector in Brazil. It finds that private and public agents refuse to communicate with each other, but they act in ways that reinforce each other’s actions. On one side, labor inspectors and prosecutors use their broad legal powers to outlaw some forms of outsourcing. On the other side, private auditors use their extensive access to targeted businesses and the trust they command as insiders to help them engage in a process of workplace transformation that makes it easier for firms to comply. Although these public and private agents refused to cooperate with one another, their parallel enforcement actions blocked the low road and steered targeted firms to a higher road that made compliance with labor standards not only viable, but sometimes even desirable.

Complements or Substitutes? Private Codes, State Regulation and the Enforcement of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains

AbstractRecent research on regulation and governance suggests that a mixture of public and private interventions is necessary to improve working conditions and environmental standards within global supply chains. Yet less attention has been directed to how these different forms of regulation interact in practice. The form of these interactions is investigated through a contextualized comparison of suppliers producing for Hewlett‐Packard, one of the world's leading global electronics firms. Using a unique dataset describing Hewlett‐Packard's supplier audits over time, coupled with qualitative fieldwork at a matched pair of suppliers in Mexico and the Czech Republic, this study shows how private and public regulation can interact in different ways — sometimes as complements; other times as substitutes — depending upon both the national contexts and the specific issues being addressed. Results from our analysis show that private interventions do not exist within a vacuum, but rather these efforts to enforce labour and environmental standards are affected by state and non‐governmental actors.

Gender and the Arab Spring: Women Shaping Change

Women tend to make up the largest portion of the informal labor force and women in the Arab region are no different (Carr & Chen, 2004). Indeed, women remain concentrated in hidden areas of the informal economy (e.g., domestic laborers, assistants in small family enterprises). Under such circumstances they endure hazardous employment status, low, irregular or no remuneration, little or no access to social security or protection, and limited ability to organize to ensure the enforcement of international labor standards and human rights (Chant & Pedwell 2008). Therefore it is no small achievement to see that women have been at the forefront of the Arab Spring- that is, the revolutions across the region. The potential contributions of women to the legal market economy as well as to the rebuilding of the region are enormous. Journalists and political analysts alike suggest that the Arab Spring represents a remarkable opportunity for women and other marginalized populations to take their rightful place partnering in the re- building and development of their societies (de Soto, 2011; Witts, 2010). Women can leverage the winds-of-change to challenge the status-quo and join the efforts of many female scholars, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who have been attempting to re-shape harsh patriarchal norms of gender relations institutionalized in the region for generations. It is within this context of change that we ground our proposed symposium to examine instances of change, struggles toward change and more indigenous recommendations needed for positive change in gender relations in the Arab MENA.Crafting Positive Identities: Changing the Stereotypical ‘Emirati Woman’ Role IdentityPresenter: Katty Marmenout; EM LyonWomen’s Progress to Business Leadership in the UAE: A Female Community Shapes ChangePresenter: Linzi J. Kemp; American U. of SharjahFemale Leaders, Mindsets and Change in the Arab Middle EastPresenter: Yusuf M. Sidani; American U. of BeirutPresenter: Alison M. Konrad; U. of Western OntarioPresenter: Charlotte M. Karam; American U. of BeirutArab School-to-Work: Never Ending TransitionPresenter: Ikhlas Ali Abdalla; Gulf U. of Science and TechnologyWomen, Islamic Feminism, Civil Society and Social Reform in the MiddlePresenter: Beverly Metcalfe; U. of Manchester

Minimum Labour Standards Enforcement in Australia: Caught in the Crossfire?

AbstractThe complex transition from convict to free labour influenced state intervention in the employment relationship, and initiated the first minimum labour standards in Australia in 1828. Since then, two principal sets of tensions have affected the enforcement of such standards: tensions between government and employers, and tensions between the major political parties over industrial and economic issues. This article argues that these tensions have resulted in a sustained legacy affecting minimum labour standards’ enforcement in Australia. The article outlines broad historical developments and contexts of minimum labour standards’ enforcement in Australia since 1828, with more contemporary exploration focusing specifically on enforcement practices and policies in the Australian federal industrial relations jurisdiction. Current enforcement practices are an outcome of this volatile history, and past influences remain strong.

Enforcing Labour Standards in Fissured Workplaces: The US Experience

AbstractThe employment relationship in a growing number of industries with large concentrations of low wage workers has become ‘fissured’, where the lead firms that collectively determine the product market conditions in which wages and conditions are set have become separated from the actual employment of the workers who provide goods or services. Instead, the direct employers of low wage workers operate in far more competitive markets that create conditions for non-compliance. We examine this evolution in employment and its implications for public policy in the US, discuss the factors driving fissured employment and sketch its main features and outcomes. We then look at the traditional methods used for labour standards enforcement in the US and discuss why they are poorly suited to address fissured workplaces. Finally, we survey how public policies might better address the realities of the modern workplace, including efforts in this regard by the Obama administration.

Activist Capitalism and Supply-Chain Citizenship

In this article I examine the new forms of citizenship that have resulted from the connections between the emergence of new corporate ethics (including fair trade) and outsourcing. The process I call “supply-chain citizenship” is based on a collection of long-distance promises of care that are economically and politically backed by transnational corporations. I analyze the trend toward what the New York Times recently called “activi[st]-capitalism” and how this move is changing relationships between corporations and consumers and consumers and people working along global corporate supply chains. This study builds on my previous research on workers’ bodies, citizenship, and sovereignty, now examined along global corporate supply axes. I observe the kinds of political mobilization that are coming into being as the result of links between corporate governance, negotiations between corporate and nation-state sovereignty, and the related setting and enforcement of global labor and environmental standards. In my investigation, I trace ethnical production from design houses to factory floors, from showrooms to department stores, and from NGO monitoring agencies to consumer protest networks.

Does Institutional Location Protect from Political Influence? The Case of a Minimum Labour Standards Enforcement Agency in Australia

Among the many factors that influence enforcement agencies, this article examines the role of the institutional location (and independence) of agencies, and an incumbent government's ideology. It is argued that institutional location affects the level of political influence on the agency's operations, while government ideology affects its willingness to resource enforcement agencies and approve regulatory activities. Evidence from the agency regulating minimum labour standards in the Australian federal industrial relations jurisdiction (currently the Fair Work Ombudsman) highlights two divergences from the regulatory enforcement literature generally. First, notions of independence from political interference offered by institutional location are more illusory than real and, second, political need motivates political action to a greater extent than political ideology.

Strengthening Labor Standards Enforcement through Partnerships with Workers’ Organizations

Structures of employment in low-wage industries, a diminished wage and hour inspectorate, and an unworkable immigration regime have combined to create an environment where violations of basic workplace laws are everyday occurrences. This article identifies four “logics” of detection and enforcement, arguing that there is a mismatch between the enforcement strategies of most federal and state labor inspectorates and the industries in which noncompliance continues to be a problem. In response, the authors propose augmenting labor inspectorates by giving public interest groups like unions and worker centers a formal, ongoing role in enforcement in low-wage sectors. In three case studies, the authors present evidence of an emergent system—one that harkens back to a logic proposed by the drafters of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) but never implemented—of empowering those closest to the action to work in partnership with government.

Labour Standards and WTO — Dilemma of Legitimacy and Efficacy

A lack of global management for dealing with global issues has necessitated the formation of a global governance framework to address global problems. The enforcement of labour standards in each national jurisdiction is now one of the most important items on the trade forum agenda. Even though during different negotiation rounds of the WTO, other trade linkage problems and standards have been addressed through trade laws and regulations, the issue of labour standards, although they are one of the most important sets of social standards related to human prosperity remains unresolved. The problem of labour standards is a dilemma that the WTO is faced with – between its legitimacy and efficacy. This article explores the problem of labour standards based on the Rawlsian concept and the distributive nature of Justice upon which the theories of global governance have been developed.

Regulatory enforcement of labour standards in an outsourcing globalized industry

Ship operators have largely contracted out the supply of seafarer labour to crewing agencies recruiting in developing world countries. This case study reports on the quality of seafarer training and on the local enforcement of international training standards in a developing country which has become a major supplier of outsourced seafarer labour. Maritime education and training institutions (METs) cannot compete freely to supply quality training at competitive prices because of the market-fixing activities of the crewing agencies who demand kickbacks from the METs. Other pressures on training quality include the existence of papermill METs (issuing certificates without training) and a developed market in forged cer tificates. This poses a considerable challenge for the national institutions charged with overseeing examinations and inspecting METs.The struggle to achieve effective governance of the training of outsourced labour in the shipping industry may arguably be viewed as a critical case for other globalizing industries.

Local Worker Struggles in the Global South: reconsidering Northern impacts on international labour standards

The offshoring of production from the global North to the South has been crucial to the ‘race to the bottom’ in global labour standards. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of Northern transnational corporations—particularly their ‘corporate codes of conduct’—have received much attention for their putative function of limiting this race by regulating labour standards in Southern workplaces. Similar attention has been given to campaigns by Northern anti-sweatshop ‘transnational advocacy networks’ (TANs) in promoting enforcement of labour standards in the South. However, evidence suggests that these CSR policies have little effect on labour standards enforcement, and that this ineffectiveness is embedded in structural constraints in the global political economy. Case studies of the role of the anti-sweatshop TANs suggests that, while they have provided important support to local worker struggles in the South, that support is less central than has often been understood. Instead, local workers, their organisations and community allies in the South have played more pivotal roles in this ‘globalisation from below’.

Options for enforcing labour standards: Lessons from Bangladesh And Cambodia

AbstractThis study examines labour standards enforcement and compliance in two Asian economies (Bangladesh and Cambodia) that have amongst the lowest labour costs in the world but are experiencing strong pressures to improve the price competitiveness of their textile and garment exports. Analysis of survey, focus group and inspection data indicate differing trajectories in compliance with basic labour standards. While extremely low wages and poor working conditions have persisted in Bangladesh, compliance has begun to improve in Cambodia following a trade agreement with the United States that linked positive trade incentives with labour standards enforcement. These contrasting experiences suggest that in less developed countries, governments consider trade‐linked schemes to achieve improvements in working conditions without hindering export growth or job growth. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Global Labor Solidarity Attempts and the Lessons Learned

This review essay uses recent books by Kate Bronfenbrenner and Gay W. Seidman to examine what types of transnational labor activism are most effective in defending the interests of workers. A number of themes are explored, including cultural distrust between unionists and activists in the Global South and Global North, the tension between reliance on international pressure and the need to build local organization, problems with global enforcement of labor standards, and above all, the important role of the state in enforcing worker rights and standards. Some conclusions are drawn, and the need for additional research is noted.

When Jack Gets out of the Box: The Problems of Regulating a Global Industry

This ar ticle considers the challenge of regulation across national borders using the example of the shipping industry. It examines the success of different global regulator y strategies in the sector, specifically the implementation of smar t regulation and enforced self-regulation. In doing so it draws upon empirical research into the enforcement of labour standards via por t-State control in India, Russia and the UK, and the regulation of training in Singapore, Philippines and the UK. It concludes that effective global regulation faces considerable challenges. Within the relatively conducive environment of shipping it finds that smar t regulation has been vitiated by perceived inconsistency in inspection practice and that enforced self-regulation has been rendered less effective by cross-national differences in resourcing and regulator y commitment, compounded by the difficulties of paper-based validation. It argues that, in relation to issues of effective global governance, the shipping industr y may stand as a critical case.

Too Weak for the Job

The shift of economic production from higher labour standard regimes in the global North to lower standard regimes in the South is undermining enforcement of global labour standards. Responding to criticisms from the ‘anti-sweatshop’ movement, consumers and governments, many transnational corporations (TNCs) have adopted codes of conduct to regulate labour standards in their supplier factories. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly used to monitor compliance with these codes. This article analyses the monitoring effectiveness of three kinds of such ‘third party’ NGOs. It concludes that major monitoring deficiencies reflect, first, significant organizational weaknesses of the NGOs and their dependence on TNCs for whom they monitor; second, powerful limits imposed on NGO effectiveness by corporate restructuring and market competitiveness; and third, inadequate pressures from anti-sweatshop movements, consumers and governments. These constraints suggest that this NGO-centred, ‘soft law’ policy approach is ‘too weak for the job’.

Enforcing Labor Rights against Multinational Corporate Groups in Europe

Voluntary corporate codes of conduct for multinational enterprises can have certain quasi‐legal effects for national legal systems, but the enforcement of labor standards remains at the national level. Two main obstacles to the enforcement of labor rights against multinationals are limited access to justice in multinationals’ home countries and the concept of limited liability. These obstacles are understood differently in common law and civil law jurisdictions and require different approaches to overcome them.

Ruminations on the Past, Present and Future of International Labor Standards: Empowering Law in the Brave New Economic World

International labor standards are among the oldest international standards pertaining to the conduct of private, as well as public, economic actors. Far from being settled, however, nearly every aspect of the current international labor standards regime is in flux: the role of labor standards in the international legal, economic, political, and social order, as well as in the parallel domestic orders; the modes by which standards are brought into being; the manner and means of their implementation and enforcement; the degree to which they may be binding solely on nation-state parties, and enforceable only at their behest; and the extent to which private actors, such as employer associations, trade union associations, worker rights non-governmental organizations, and individuals, play roles in the creation and enforcement of international labor norms. Although the substantive content of international labor standards is changing at a far less blistering pace, important alterations in priorities for these standards also gradually are becoming manifest. This article sketches out the historical trajectory of transformation in the manner and means, participants and roles involved in creation, implementation and enforcement of international labor standards, as well as their content. It concludes with some speculative remarks about their future. The future of international labor standards may be more formal standards, covering fewer and fewer countries, companies and workers, posing ever greater obstacles to turning the law on the books into workers' reality in fact. On the other hand, innovative trade union and worker organizations are combining across boundaries to push the limits of transnational labor cooperation, pooling their economic and political power to improve each other's collective bargaining power. In the longer term, at least some of the workers of the world may unite, combining their shared collective leverage with the moral suasion of international norms, to make a reality of international labor standards.