National Labor Research Articles

Exploring the economic occupational health, safety, and fatal accidents in high-risk industries

Despite advancements in occupational health and safety (OHS) management, high-risk industries in China continue to report a significant number of fatal accidents, underscoring systemic challenges in protecting the well-being of workers while supporting economic development. This study analyzed 22 years of historical data on OHS incidents, labor dynamics, and economic growth in China’s high-risk industries via multiple regression and network analysis methods. The findings reveal hierarchical influence relationships, with coal mine fatalities emerging as critical upstream factors and transportation fatalities and national labor force dynamics emerging as key downstream factors. Notably, the study reveals a negative correlation between GDP and fatal workplace incidents: for every 0.461 trillion CNY increase in GDP, production safety accident deaths decrease by one. Conversely, each safety accident resulted in 1.052 coal mine fatalities and 0.153 cases of occupational disease. These results offer a novel quantitative perspective on the interplay between economic growth and workplace safety. The study’s models provide practical guidance for enhancing the effectiveness of OHS prevention and control efforts, contributing to sustainable economic and public health outcomes.

Employee Speech in the United States: The Two Regimes

This article explores the two distinct regimes that protect employee speech in the United States: one for public-sector workers under the First Amendment and one for private-sector workers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). While both regimes provide certain speech protections, they operate in fundamentally different ways, shaped by their underlying legal and policy frameworks. Public sector workers’ speech is protected by a limited version of the First Amendment, with protections only extending to speech on matters of public concern and subject to the government's interest in managing the workforce. In contrast, private-sector employees are protected by the NLRA, which focuses on speech related to workplace conditions and union activities. However, private-sector protections do not extend to broader political speech or matters of public concern. The article discusses how these two regimes reflect different priorities—protecting democratic discourse in the public sector versus safeguarding collective bargaining rights in the private sector—and how, despite occasional overlap through state laws, they rarely intersect. It also examines how modern developments, such as the rise of social media, challenge the adequacy of these speech protections and may require legislative or administrative action to better address the realities of contemporary communication. Ultimately, the article highlights the limited and targeted nature of employee speech protections in the U.S., consistent with the broader trend of limited employment protections due to the legacy of at-will employment.

Access to higher education during COVID-19: First-generation students in Austria

In Austria, educational upward mobility remains particularly low compared to other European countries, partly due to the prevalence of early tracking. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a severe economic crisis, and numerous measures were applied on the national labour market and in the higher education sector to counteract the negative consequences. In this paper we analyse how existing inequalities in access to higher education for first-generation students (i.e. students with parents without a tertiary degree) have developed in course of the pandemic, drawing on the unique pool of longitudinal register data collected for all Austrian students. We find that in the first year of the pandemic (2020/21), there is a clear peak in the number of students entering higher education in Austria. However, as this increase is mainly due to students with a tertiary family background, the share of first-generation students continued to decrease during this period. It shows that despite the disruptive effects of the pandemic and new labour market and higher education policies, the enduring downward trend in both the total number and the proportion of first-generation students has not been reversed.

Vulnerability of Indonesian Female Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted various social groups. The pandemic has had a potential disproportionately greater impact on vulnerable worker groups, including female workers. This condition will certainly worsen existing social and economic inequality in society, as evidenced by theories such as human capital theory, which highlights that women often have less accumulated work experience due to their domestic responsibilities, making them more susceptible to job losses and income reductions. This study aims to discuss the vulnerability of female workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The focus of this research looks at the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on the vulnerability of female workers, which is divided into three main aspects, namely the risk of losing their job, the risk of decreasing income, and changes in the number of working hours that women experience. This research uses logit regression analysis and data from the 2021 National Labor Force Survey (SAKERNAS). Our findings show that female workers are on average more vulnerable than male workers, both in terms of losing their jobs, reducing income, and having to be exploited by the number of hours worked, which must be excessive. In addition, several control variables such as demographics, individual characteristics, and employment sectors were also examined in our research. The implications of this research suggest that the government is expected to implement some high-road labor market policies.

Roundtable discussion: Domestic worker organizing in Latin America and beyond

AbstractIn 2011, the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted the Domestic Worker Convention (no. 189), which established labor standards for household workers, including protection from abuse, provisions to ensure freedom of movement for migrant domestic workers, coverage under national minimum wage, overtime, child labor, and human rights laws, and access to contact information of private employers and appropriate legal resources, among others. Domestic worker advocates throughout Latin America rallied behind the ILO's Domestic Worker Convention to ensure its ratification at the national level. Latin American and Caribbean nations account for 55% of the national signatories to the convention; at the same time, 77% of domestic workers in the region remain informally employed. The roundtable discussion brought together scholars conducting research in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, and among Central Americans in the United States, to address the impact of the ILO convention and to share their research on domestic work and domestic worker movements. How have the changes in domestic work regulation affected the organizing efforts of domestic workers? How are domestic workers advocating for their rights in the wake of the ILO Convention?

The Impact of The 'Saudization' Policy on Indonesian Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

This study aims to analyze the impact of the Saudization policy on Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Saudization is a Saudi government initiative that aims to increase local labor participation in the economy, reduce dependence on foreign labor, and is part of a broader effort designed under Vision 2030. This research uses qualitative methods through literature review and analysis of relevant government policies to assess how this policy affects employment opportunities, working conditions, and remittances sent by Indonesian migrant workers. The results show that Saudization has resulted in a significant decrease in employment opportunities for Indonesian migrant workers, with the construction sector experiencing a decrease in migrant worker acceptance of up to 20% and a 25% decrease in remittances to Indonesia. Working conditions for migrant workers remaining in Saudi Arabia have also deteriorated, including a 15% reduction in average wages. In response, migrant workers are adopting various adaptation strategies, including skills upgrading, diversification of migration destinations, and self-employment. The Indonesian government has increased diplomatic efforts to protect migrant workers, signed new agreements for worker protection, and promoted training to improve workers' skills. This study suggests that policies such as Saudization require a broader international coordination approach to ensure that national labor policies do not harm migrant workers and disrupt the global economy.

Informality as deviancy: the problem of difference in the Decent Work Agenda

More than half of workers globally are informal workers; operating in non-standard, temporary employment that is often, but not always, poorly paid and unprotected. The Decent Work Agenda (DWA), pioneered by the International Labor Organization (ILO), has been broadly adopted to bri- dge the concerns of workers and states by pursuing “Decent Work for all”. A core component of the DWA is the reduction of informality. Almost ten years later, however, informality is increasing in many countries. In this paper, I explore the conceptual foundation of the DWA by asking: how does the ILO understand “work” in their 2015 Decent Work Agenda? What are the consequences for those whose rights are protected within global governance projects? I compile a corpus of 36 ILO documents to demonstrate three interlocking discursive schemas: development, paternalism, and colorblindness. While the DWA progressively shifts regulatory discourses, its conceptualiza- tion of work constitutes informality as a condition of deviancy. This positions informal workers, who often occupy other vulnerable intersectionalities, as outside the scope of contemporary so- cial protections. Gender, race, class, location and more factor into the formation of global and national labor policies; achieving equitable conditions for all workers requires grappling with the complexity of informality.

“Do good and talk about it”: informal representation and migrant-led civil society organizations’ mediation between low-wage labor migrants and state institutions in the GCC countries

Low-wage labor migrants experience major human and working rights abuses in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries despite national labor laws and signatures to various human rights conventions. On paper, India has established an institutional framework of transnational social protection for its officially estimated 5.5 million low-wage workers migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, e.g., financial emergency support, repatriation services, and walk-in centers. However, migrants in low-wage employment often cannot access substantive social rights in practice. Indian upper/middle-class migrant civil society groups mediate their access to Indian embassies’ services and the destination countries’ state institutions. The realization of social rights via informal, third-party representation stems from a representational disjuncture between low-wage labor migrants and the Indian state, which is rooted in their historical socioeconomic marginalization, limitations of the formal political system, and the constitutive role of informality in shaping and structuring citizen-state interactions in India. Through the lens of Piper and von Lieres’ (2015) concept of mediated citizenship and based on data from semi-structured interviews and participant observation of migrant support networks in the Gulf countries, this article examines why mediation takes place and how volunteers speak and take action for marginalized migrants in low-wage employment and consequences of mediation. It argues that migrant volunteer organizations and individuals are powerful stakeholders in the migration governance in the GCC region, as they possess leverage over who has (better) access to state institutions and the provision of social and human rights. Their status as intermediaries underlines the disaggregation of Indian citizenship along class and caste lines, which can be (mis)-used by mediators to pursue their interests, resulting in ambiguous effects. The article contributes to perspectives on migration governance in the GCC region, transnational social policies, and migrant volunteering.

Power and Political Verve of Teachers Unions: A Fitful Five Years for America's Teachers, 2018–2023

This paper provides an overview of major public school teacher union issues that made headlines in the demi-decade from 2018 to 2023, weaving several threads to present a current look at America's educators, the unions that represent them, and the institutional structures that influence our nation's schools. Consideration is given to the U.S. Supreme Court Janus ruling that outlawed agency fees and its impact on teacher unions, the Red for Ed groundswell of union protests that swept the nation in 2018–2019, educator activism reflected in the increased cadence of teacher strikes post-COVID, levers of power being flexed by state politicians, and membership trends of the National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union. Using Malin's (2012) analogy of “tsunami” to describe the rollbacks of ten states’ public sector collective bargaining rights from 2010 to 2012, another round of seismic sea waves characterized the 2018–2023 period, their energy and awe on full display.

Full-Time Employment: An Empirical Study of the Impact of Internet Use in Indonesia

The impact of digital transformation era by utilizing the internet has achieved job market outcomes. This study aims to analyze full-time employment probability as a result of using the internet in his work. The data used 8,436 samples from the February 2023 National Labor Force Survey microdl.hilata sorted by formal sector employment. With the analysis technique of the logistic binary regression model, several dominant determinants of the probability to work full-time were obtained. The use of the internet for promotion and marketplace affects labor market outcomes measured by working hours. Probability for workers as full-time workers by using these two things becomes greater. This study also shows that several economic variables such as income, pension security and attending training significantly have a greater effect on workers’ chances of working full-time (>40 h/week). In addition, the influence of demographic variables in the form of age, marital status and domicile of workers in Sumatra provides greater probability for full working hours.

Regulatory influence on the overall quality of platform work: Lessons from the Chilean context

This study examines the impact of Chile’s new regulation (Act N° 21.431) on the quality of platform work via 23 detailed interviews with gig workers and trade unionists. It reveals that regulation helped but fell short in its attempts to enhance job quality in the platform economy. By providing empirical evidence on the efficacy of regulation, this article enriches the discourse on platform work regulation, while offering a nuanced understanding of the pitfalls of new legislation, delivering key insights for shaping national labour policies. This contribution is central for policymakers aiming to navigate the complexities of regulating platform work and ensuring meaningful improvements in job quality.

СТАЛИЙ РОЗВИТОК ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ОСВІТИ НА ОСНОВІ ДЕРЖАВНО-ПРИВАТНОГО ПАРТНЕРСТВА

The importance of sustainable development as one of the key concepts of modern society aimed at achieving a balance between economic, environmental and social aspects is described. It is determined that Ukraine is an active participant in international initiatives, such as Agenda 2030, integrating them into national policy. The need to develop professional education to ensure the training of specialists capable of meeting the current challenges of sustainable development is substantiated. It is revealed that the sustainable development of vocational education is based on a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills and is realized through cooperation between the state and business. The impact of public-private partnerships on reforming the vocational education system, in particular through the creation of new educational and training programs and infrastructure modernization, is considered. The participation of the private sector in financing vocational education is outlined, taking into account the current needs of the labor market. The author emphasizes the importance of integrating innovative technologies into the educational process, which contributes to the formation of the necessary competencies of future professionals, and adapting educational programs to new challenges facing the national economy and labor market.

New FTAS as catalysts for gender equality: The case of Vietnam’s compliance with ILO standards on gender discrimination

This research delves into the relationship between new-generation Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958 (C111), illustrating how the international trade instruments facilitate the integration and implementation of gender-based discrimination standards. As Vietnam becomes increasingly involved with various new FTAs, this study critically evaluates the extent to which such standards are effectively engaged and enforced within the national labour context, which is observed through the process of internalizing C111 into domestic law. Using a legal comparative and analytical approach, the research examines the opportunities and challenges of aligning Vietnamese domestic laws with international gender discrimination labour standards. The findings underscore that employing a male-centric strategy within the labour legal framework emerges as a potential tool for promoting gender equality in employment and aligning Vietnam’s commitments to international gender discrimination standards. The significance of this study lies not only in its approach to addressing persistent inequalities within the labour context but also in its innovative strategy for promoting gender equality sustainably, based on the State’s commitments to international trade. This dual focus enhances the contribution of the research, providing a comprehensive and progressive framework for understanding and tackling gender issues in the labour market.

Organization capital, dividends and firm value: International evidence

This study investigates the relationship between organization capital, dividends, and firm value across 61 countries. We find that firms with higher organization capital distribute more dividends. By exploiting changes in the stringency of national labor regulations, we demonstrate that this effect strengthens when labor markets become more flexible. Additionally, we document that the market places a premium on dividend payouts from firms with higher organization capital. Further analysis reveals that this premium differential and the positive organization capital-dividend payouts relationship, are more pronounced in firms and countries marked by substantial agency issues. The robustness of our evidence is affirmed through several endogeneity tests, supporting the agency view of organization capital.

Captive Audience Meetings Under Increasing Regulation

A captive audience speech has been a staple of union campaigns. Conducted on paid time, with required attendance, such meetings have traditionally been a superior means for management to communicate messages en masse to its workers. The tool, however, has been the subject of increasing attention by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), who has communicated her interest in prohibiting such conduct. It has also been the subject of state regulation. California recently joined the ranks of Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine to prohibit employers from conducting captive audience meetings.

The Motives of Lithuanian Inhabitants to Enrol in Kaunas Self-defence Battalions in Summer and Autumn 1941

This article examines the biographical data of Lithuanian inhabitants who served during the Nazi occupation (1941-1944) in Kaunas National Labour Protection battalion (TDA), and in the Auxiliary Police Service (PPT) 1st and 2nd battalions, formed in August 1941 on TDA’s basis. The number of people they killed distinguishes these battalions from other Lithuanian self-defence units. Throughout the history of Lithuania no other military structure killed as many innocent people as they did. Among other reasons, these battalions were chosen because more data on them survived. The goal of the article is to answer the question on what motivated Lithuanian inhabitants to join these battalions. This historical cognitive question is also relevant because it was not researched in the works of other historians on the Nazi period in Lithuania. The clues about the motives for joining these battalions can only be evaluated as hypotheses, the validity of which should be either confirmed or denied. The facts on the battalions’ participation in exterminating Jews and other groups of people leads one to the impression that Lithuanians joined these as well as other Nazi battalions with the incentive to murder. After completing the research on the biographical data it was ascertained that the opinion about joining for the motive of murder was not correct. This is confirmed by the circumstance that when joining the self-defence battalions, people were not aware that they would have to take part in the extermination operations of Jews and other groups. The troops were divided into four groups according to their motives for enrolling in military structures: 1) Patriots; 2) Unemployed and other jobseekers; 3) victims; 4) the insecure. Such classification is not strict, i.e. some persons can be attributed to several groups. By analysing the biographical facts of the troops who served in these battalions it was established that their motive for joining them was their patriotic inclinations, desire to have a job and receive payment, ambition to avenge the wrongs of the Soviet regime, willingness to avoid punishment for joining the Soviet regime, deportation to labour camps in Germany and to escape the fate of prisoners of war. In determining these inner motives, not only historical knowledge, but also knowledge of other science disciplines was used. The analysis of biographical data suggests that the inhabitants of the land who joined the self-defence units were motivated not by one, but rather several motives. They saw Kaunas TDA, 1st and 2nd PPT battalions as a means to satisfy their own inner motives. These motives led them to enrol in these military units in summer and autumn of 1941.

The International Problem of HIV/AIDS in the Modern World: A Comprehensive Review of Political, Economic, and Social Impacts

This comprehensive review explores the international problem of HIV/AIDS, focusing on its multifaceted political, economic, and social impacts in the modern world. Since its identification in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has evolved into a global public health crisis, with over 38 million people currently living with HIV. The review examines the global landscape of the epidemic, highlighting the progress and challenges in prevention, treatment, and care. It delves into the political impacts of HIV/AIDS, emphasizing the role of government policies, international influence, and political commitment in shaping the response to the epidemic. The economic impacts are analyzed, including the strain on national economies, labor markets, and healthcare systems, exacerbating poverty and income inequality. The social impacts are discussed, with a focus on stigma, discrimination, and the effects on family dynamics and vulnerable populations. The review also explores the intersection of HIV/AIDS with other global issues, such as migration, conflict, and technology, emphasizing the need for a rights-based approach and global collaboration. The conclusion highlights persistent challenges, including stigma, healthcare access, and funding gaps, while outlining future directions for research, policy, and practice to sustain progress and ultimately end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, global health, political impact, economic impact, social impact, public health.

Analisis Sosial Ekonomi Terhadap Pasar Tenaga Kerja Wanita yang Bekerja di Sumatera Barat

This research uses secondary data sourced from the SAKERNAS National Labor Force Survey, (2022) from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency. This research aims to determine the influence of education, marital status, age, and regional on female workers working in West Sumatra. This type of research is quantitative research. This research uses the Logistic Regression analysis method. Based on the results of the analysis and hypothesis testing, it was found that the Education and Region variables had a positive and significant influence on the female workforce working in West Sumatra. Meanwhile, the age variable had a negative and significant influence on the female workforce working in West Sumatra, then the Marital Status variable was not significant on the workforce. Women working in West Sumatra.

Innovations for Labour Market: International Experience in Building National Competency (Skilling) Systems

The article is dedicated to the crucial issue of identifying synchronization points between the labour market and the vocational education system in international practice. The aim of the research was to identify the optimal conditions capable of ensuring synchronization of labour market demands with the responses of the vocational education system at the national level. To achieve this goal, a number of tasks was solved: the development trends of the global labour market at its current stage were analyzed; an analysis was conducted on the leading international experience in creating and operating national competency systems — ecosystems in which participants collectively ensure the synchronization of knowledge, skills, and abilities of the workforce with the demands of the labor market. Special attention was paid to the analysis of leading international practices in forming system operators, as well as the structures and tasks that national competency systems perform in the national labour and vocational education markets. The authors used general theoretical methods such as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, as well as empirical methods (benchmark analysis): studying the experience of leading international practices in ensuring the synchronization of national labour market demands with vocational education systems. In conclusion, the authors suggest the need to supplement the tools used today by the Russian operator for synchronizing labour market and vocational education system agendas — the National Qualifications Development Agency with a high-precision and constantly updated labour market demand forecast, both at the federal level and in regional and sectoral sections. In the future, the authors see the necessity to develop a methodology for constructing this forecast, taking into account the already identified limitations of the proposed methodology within the framework of the national project “Personnel”.

The impact of healthcare worker migration in source countries: Colombia, Indonesia, and Jordan

Abstract Background To address domestic shortages, high-income countries are increasingly recruiting healthcare workers from low- and middle-income countries. This practice is much debated, yet empirical evidence is rare. This study fills this knowledge gap by reporting high-level stakeholders’ perspectives on health system impacts of international migration and active recruitment of HCWs in Colombia, Indonesia, and Jordan. Methods We used a multiple case study methodology, based on qualitative methods integrated with information available in the published literature. Results All respondents decried a lack of robust and detailed data as a serious challenge in ascertaining their perspectives on impacts of healthcare workersmigration. Stakeholders described current emigration levels as not substantially aggravating existing healthcare workforce availability challenges. This is due to the fact that all three countries are faced with healthcare worker unemployment grounded in unwillingness to work in rural areas and/or overproduction of certain cadres. Respondents, however, pleaded against targeting very experienced and specialised individuals. While observing little harm of healthcare worker migration at present, stakeholders also noted few benefits such as brain gain, describing how various barriers to skill enhancement, return, and reintegration into the health system hamper in practice what may be possible in theory. Conclusions Improved availability of data on healthcare workers migration, including their potential return and reintegration into their country of origin’s health system, is urgently necessary to understand and monitor costs and benefits in dynamic national and international health labour markets. Our results imply that potential benefits of migration do not come into being automatically, but need in-country supportive policy, such as favourable reintegration policies or programs targeting engagement of the diaspora.