Worker Voice Research Articles

What Does Codetermination Do?

The authors provide a comprehensive overview of codetermination, that is, worker representation in firms’ governance and management. The available micro evidence points to zero or small positive effects of codetermination on worker and firm outcomes and leaves room for moderate positive effects on productivity, wages, and job stability. The authors also present new country-level, general-equilibrium event studies of codetermination reforms between the 1960s and 2010s, finding no effects on aggregate economic outcomes or the quality of industrial relations. They offer three explanations for the institution’s limited impact. First, existing codetermination laws convey little authority to workers. Second, countries with codetermination laws have high baseline levels of informal worker voice. Third, codetermination laws may interact with other labor market institutions, such as union representation and collective bargaining. The article closes with a discussion of the implications for recent codetermination proposals in the United States.

Inside the meetings: The role of managerial attitudes in approaches to information and consultation for employees

AbstractManagerial attitudes are often seen as critical to sustainable employee participation practices, yet very little is known about how managers act within employee voice fora. We examine managements’ decision to actively consult with employees, and by doing so contribute to industrial relations debates concerning the role of managerial prerogative and trust to better understand the attitudes of managers towards elected employee representatives. Using evidence from a 2‐year longitudinal study of non‐union employee representation, we report on how managements’ perception of risk about sharing information with employee representatives influences their decision as to how to consult with employees. The findings show that managers can be unwilling to share information with employee representatives, which constrains the depth and scope of consultation. The role of management decision‐makers, typically the I&C fora Chairperson, is highlighted as champion for, or obstacle to, consultation. Lastly, the data illustrate that I&C is viewed by management as a lower strategic organizational priority, and how extending worker voice is constrained by the importance management place on maintaining their presumed prerogative of control. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Ripe to be heard: Worker voice in the Fair Food Program

AbstractThe Fair Food Program (FFP) provides a mechanism through which agricultural workers’ collective voice is expressed, heard and responded to within global value chains. The FFP's model of worker‐driven social responsibility presents an alternative to traditional corporate social responsibility. This article identifies the FFP's key components and demonstrates its resilience by identifying the ways in which the issues faced by a new group of migrant workers – recruited through a “guest‐worker” scheme – were incorporated and dealt with. This case study highlights the important potential presented by the programme to address labour abuses across transnationalized labour markets while considering early replication possibilities.

Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy

AbstractThis article investigates why gig economy workers who see themselves as self-employed freelancers also engage in collective action traditionally associated with regular employment. Using ethnographic evidence on the remote gig economy in North America, the UK and the Philippines, we argue that labour platforms increase the agency of workers to contract with clients and thus reduce the risk of false self-employment in terms of the worker–client relationship. However, in doing so, platforms create a new source of subordination to the platform itself. We term this phenomenon ‘subordinated agency’, and demonstrate that it entails a ‘structured antagonism’ with platforms that manifests in three areas: fees, competition and worker voice mechanisms. Subordinated agency creates worker desire for representation, greater voice and even unionization towards the platform, while preserving entrepreneurial attitudes towards clients.

Triangular Worker Voice Antecedents: Towards a Conceptual Model and Research Propositions

The proliferation of employment agencies and digital platforms occasioned by outsourcing, information technology, and work patterns disruption, has led to an increasing rate of triangular work. Yet, limited research has examined the voice experiences of triangular workers and its determining factors. This is a significant neglect as voice opportunity for triangular workers offers a double benefit of protection from precariousness, and opportunity to creatively contribute to organisational improvement. This paper offers a conceptual model to illustrate the determining factors shaping triangular workers’ voice. In so doing, we explore contextual conditions of temporary agency and gig work at the external and internal firm levels. Our integrative model offers propositions that can inspire future empirical research and contributes theoretically to the study of voice among workers in non-traditional employment relationships.

Peer-to-peer online voice as emergent collective action

E-voice is now a common form of worker voice. Existing scholarship has focused on e-voice’s potential for grievance-airing and resistance; however, much work-oriented online discussion is not change oriented but more in the nature of information sharing and mutual aid. Even when not deliberately intended to be, mutual aid discussion can be an exercise of worker voice because it identifies and highlights pain points in the workplace, spreads awareness of these through online communities and constitutes an attempt to improve an objectionable state of affairs. As otherwise voiceless workers discover and act on these shared ideas en masse, they create an emergent form of collective action.

COVID‐19 and the uncertain future of HRM: Furlough, job retention and reform

The article argues that job retention should be a central aim and practice of human resource management (HRM). Set against the global COVID‐19 crisis, theoretical insights are drawn from strategic HRM planning and the economics of ‘labour hoarding’ to consider the potential benefits of workforce furloughing. Furlough has been supported in the UK by the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which represents a novel, but temporary, state‐led shift from the UK's market‐orientated restructuring regime. We argue that the withdrawal of state‐financed furlough may mean a quick return in UK firms to the management of redundancy. Yet, if the crisis is to generate any benefit it must create the conditions for a more collaborative HRM that delivers for workers as well as business, with job retention as a core priority. While change in this direction will mean confronting deep‐rooted challenges—such as job security, good work and worker voice—such change remains vital in creating better and healthier workplaces.

New Trajectories in Worker Voice: Integrating and Applying Contemporary Challenges in the Organization of Work

AbstractThis paper aims to encourage a debate on the proposed transactive relationship between voice and contemporary social, economic and technological (SET) developments. Specifically, we propose that SET developments change how work is approached, organized and designed, and that these changes challenge employee rights, roles and responsibilities. How employees deal with these challenges affects their well‐being and health, and whether organizations and societies can develop sustainably. While voice is a way for employees to have a say in these developments, we argue that SET changes can be times at which voice is threatened. Moreover, we propose that SET changes urge us to question and reshape our understanding of voice. We propose that a functional conceptualization of voice provides opportunities to integrate existing approaches which are often scattered across disciplines, and is inclusive of new opportunities and constraints that come with SET developments. Using examples of two meta‐trends, we illustrate how SET changes challenge traditional conceptualizations of voice and identify ‘new trajectories’ to expand more inclusive forms of voice and more useful research paradigms. These meta‐trends are digitalization (including new business models and employment forms, alternative/flexible work arrangements, technology‐mediated communication) and diversification (including internationalization and marginalized/minority groups).

School Social Worker Voice during COVID-19 School Disruptions: A National Qualitative Analysis.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented impacts on our schools and society, requiring school social workers (SSWs) to attend to layered and cascading effects for students and their families. This study presents rich qualitative data from a national survey of SSWs about their personal and professional roles supporting students, families, and staff members as schools shifted to remote instruction. Findings indicate that SSWs are highly concerned about a lack of basic needs resources, including food, housing, and mental health support for students and families. SSWs highlighted the unequal effects of school closures for families without technology and Internet access as well as the difficulties providing services during the pandemic. Recovery policies should target resources to schools with the highest needs while prioritizing food, housing, mental health, and access to tools for online learning. SSWs also need additional and refined professional support to overcome their isolated roles in schools and bolster their ability to deliver online services effectively.

Breaking the Managerial Silencing of Worker Voice in Platform Capitalism: The Rise of a Food Courier Network

AbstractThis paper examines food couriers’ utilization of voice mechanisms as mobilization against employer silencing within platform capitalism. The concepts of ‘worker silence’ and ‘worker voice’ are used to facilitate an understanding of the way in which workers respond to workplace problems, as well as their capacity to respond within this specific context. Findings illustrate the role of technology as a facilitator but also inhibitor of worker voice. In particular, online food delivery companies’ over‐reliance on algorithmic management and their online app drove couriers to silence. However, in reaction to managerial silencing, we show that couriers are not passive recipients of forces beyond their control, and attempt to explore new trajectories and modes of voice in order to influence their working conditions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Introduction to the symposium ‘Transforming our future: a new social contract at work’?

Contributors to this symposium argue that a new social contract at work is needed to ensure that the mutual expectations of workers, employers and communities can be achieved in relation to work and employment relationships. Russell Lansbury advocates that this should be built on three pillars: full employment, revitalisation of post‐secondary education and industrial relations reforms. Glenn O’Rourke argues for a new workplace model which meets the work and lifestyle preferences of employees, fosters strong team connections and high performance. Robin Kramar urges the adoption of ‘sustainable HRM’ which seeks broader performance outcomes beyond profit maximisation. Finally, Thomas Kochan draws on research in the US to argue for the transformation of labour policy, rebuilding worker voice and life‐long learning. This symposium concludes that a new social contact should be based on increased collaboration across key interest groups and institutions, new workplace models, sustainable HR practices and genuine work reforms.

Gender Matters: A Multilevel Analysis of Gender and Voice at Work

AbstractThe role of gender in shaping a range of work experiences and outcomes is well documented, yet there remains limited knowledge of the gendered dimensions of voice. In addressing the understudied topic of gender and voice, we propose a multilevel framework for analysing the relationship, which goes beyond thinking of gender only in terms of individual‐level gender identities. We conceptualize gender at three levels – as embedded in individual identities, in organizational policies and practices and in labour market segmentations – and show that gender, at each level, is associated with variations in worker voice opportunities and practices. We test our model using data from a mixed‐methods Australian study that consisted of a national survey with young working women and men and a series of targeted focus groups with young working women. We find no individual‐level differences in women's and men's reported voice, measured as managerial consultation and as perceived influence over workplace matters. However, we do find a diminished voice among both women and men employed within specific gendered work environments, namely in organizations where workers perceive high levels of gender inequality and in women‐dominated industries. Qualitative findings provide additional detail on how women's voice materializes and is constrained within gendered work settings.

Workplace reform: a new social contract for Australia

The COVID‐19 crisis impels us to think about the future of Australia in many dimensions and from different perspectives including our social, economic and governance structures. A new social contract at work in Australia should rest on three pillars: a full employment policy coupled with a strong safety net for those not able to find work; a comprehensive system of post‐secondary and vocational training, and easy transition between them; industrial relations reforms to provide a stronger voice for workers in decisions affecting them in the workplace. These pillars should be based not only on the historical experience of Australia but also draw on successful examples from elsewhere. The Nordic countries, for example, have based their social and economic systems on a social partnership approach that relies on voluntary cooperation between interest groups rather than legislation.

Resistant Transparency and Nonprofit Labor: Challenging Precarity in the Art + Museum Wage Transparency Campaign

Drawing upon contemporary academic debates about nonprofit worker precarity combined with needed theoretical re-orientations toward transparency, this paper explicates the situated communication practices and politics of resistant transparency. Resistant transparency describes communication aimed at revealing and publicizing previously obscured or hidden wage data and employment conditions to challenge powerful actors. Resistant transparency involves dynamic shifts in control over information, modes of in/visibility, and surveillance of powerful actors. We develop the case of Art + Museum Transparency, a collective of arts and museum workers employing Google spreadsheets and Twitter to publicize salary information and challenge norms of self-sacrifice and unpaid labor. Moving beyond an understanding of transparency as an institutional demand, our analysis develops how technical affordances shaped the collective’s efforts. We argue that transparency functions as a resistant communicative practice with potential for increasing worker voice and furthering the goals of collective resistance to precarious work across sites of employment.

The Need for Disclosure About Worker Voice

The Need for Disclosure About Worker Voice

A New Voice in the Labor Movement? Organizing for Social Responsibility in the Tech Sector

In recent years, U.S. tech workers have staged various walkouts, circulated petitions and utilized online venues to protest development of technologies for purposes to which they see as socially irresponsible, perhaps even immoral, and do not wish to contribute through their work. Yet, present U.S. labor law does not protect collective worker action regarding employer policies and decisions that do not influence material working conditions. Animated by the recent tech organizing, this article offers a fresh look at the underlying objectives of labor protections and presents six potential normative approaches for anchoring workers’ right to organize surrounding socially irresponsible employer business decisions. Assessing the strengths of each framework in providing robust support for collective worker voice on such issues, this piece offers a new foundational framework for understanding collective worker action and organizing, while initiating a discourse regarding the goals of labor relations and how a new labor law should be crafted in order to realize such objectives.

Low-Skilled Labor Shortages Contribute to Forced Labor — Evidence From Myanmar and Thailand

Over 25 million people are victims of forced labor globally; the vast majority are low-skilled migrant workers who migrated from a different country or region. Evidence so far indicates that much of labor exploitation has roots in the recruitment process. This motivates the question of whether there are characteristics common to low-skilled labor recruitment that can serve as reliable indicators of forced labor risk in the workplace. Leveraging unique data sets from the Myanmar Government and the Issara Institute on weekly demand for Burmese migrant workers in Thailand by Thai companies, and on worker voice hot-line data from 2018-2020, we find that unexpected labor shortages in the workplace significantly increase migrant worker abuse. Using an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach, we find that an increase of one standard deviation in low-skilled labor shortages in the workplace leads to a 34.5% or higher increase in worker-reported labor abuse in the two to four weeks that follow. Shocks of such magnitude occur about 10% of the time. We also find a visible correlation between provinces whose labor markets are more stressed on average and the frequency of unexpected labor shortages in a province, suggesting that stressed labor markets are also more prone to unexpected shortages and abuse. Overall, this research suggests that inefficiencies in matching supply and demand for low-skilled labor play an important role in determining labor abuse outcomes, and that reducing these inefficiencies in the labor recruitment process could help mitigate labor abuse.

Engagement with sustainability at the International Labour Organization and wider implications for collective worker voice

AbstractSustainability objectives have been recognized by the ILO primarily in terms of the impact of environmental protection in the form of “just transition” and “green job” initiatives. Arguably, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) now offer richer scope for ILO engagement with social sustainability. This can be attributed to the prominent recognition of “decent work” in SDG 8 and the need for “responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision‐making at all levels” in SDG target 16.7. This article examines how the ILO could further promote collective worker voice in the context of debates over a sustainable “future of work”, particularly considering to whom voice is given and how it is exercised.

Corporate Governance, Employee Voice and the Interests of Employees: The Broken Promise of a ‘World Leading Package of Corporate Reforms’

Abstract Following a series of corporate governance scandals which involved exploitative treatment of workers, reforms were introduced to the UK’s corporate governance system in 2018, presented both as an attempt to rebuild trust and to afford a stronger voice for workers in that system. This paper explores the new landscape from a workers’ voice and protection perspective. It highlights that, while corporate governance has a role in ensuring workers’ needs are met, there is a tension between the goals of any reforms in this territory: board-level employee representation could be seen as a way of democratising the economy and valuing the part played by labour in that process, but it could also be seen as a way of increasing corporate value, economic performance or employee motivation, and disregarding the implications for labour. It is argued in this paper that worker protection requires a more genuine workplace democracy with full involvement of trade union representation. This would also help to broaden the corporate governance framework’s horizon towards a more genuine stakeholder vision beyond the existing tokenistic legal and regulatory nods in that direction.

A Proposal for Four Key Reforms to New Zealand's Labour Law

This paper proposes four key reforms intended to reinforce and support the fundamental values that should underlie any contemporary system of employment law. The reforms support and enhance the key objects of the Employment Relations Act 2000 stated in s 3 and specifically support and recognise sub-objects that recognise “(ii) the inherent inequality of power in employment relationships”, and those of “(iii) promoting collective bargaining” and “(iv) protecting the integrity of individual choice.” The proposals build on the positive changes to employment law made by the Employment Relations Act 2000 and in particular its pluralistic vision of labour relations including the broad statutory duty of good faith and the restoration of trade unions as the primary form of worker representation. They also are intended to promote, in the context of the twenty-first century, something of the pluralist vision that was the philosophical foundation of the arbitration system by promoting genuine pluralism and effective worker voice and to reassert that workers are not a commodity and are entitled to the full benefits and rights of citizens in a democratic country.