This book critically explores how increased regulation and governance of corporations can be used to help improve the rights of workers amidst an era of union decline. The book posits that soft law techniques such as codes of conduct are more effective in protecting workers than "hard law" i.e. domestic regulation. It starts by analysing the transnational regulation of corporations and codes of conduct, and then puts forward a model code of conduct that can be used by corporations to help increase the protection of workers. Through this model's use of a monitoring scheme, shareholders, activists, and NGOs put pressure on the corporation to reform itself and enact a code which has obligations flowing both ways between the corporation and its employees. The book then looks at the expansions of fiduciary duties and changes to corporate governance, including Benefit Corporations and how they can be used to increase the rights of workers. It then discusses changes to standard union contracts before concluding with an assessment of the best way forward for workers' rights. By providing a new contribution to the current dialogue on corporate social responsibility and codes of conduct, this book will be a valuable resource for academics working on labour, employment, and business law as well as corporate lawyers.

The numbers of women undergoing Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) treatments have risen steadily, yet they remain largely outside the scope of equality and employment law protection while undergoing treatment. Assisted Reproduction, Discrimination, and the Law examines this gap in UK law, with reference to EU law as appropriate, and argues that new conceptions of equality are necessary. Drawing from the literature on multidimensional and intersectional discrimination, it is argued that an intersectionality approach offers a more useful analytical framework to extend protection to those engaged in ART treatments. Drawing from Schiek's intersectional nodes model, the book critically examines two alternative interpretations of existing protected characteristics, namely infertility as a disability, with reference to the social model of disability and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, and redefining the boundaries of pregnancy and/or sex discrimination, with reference to attempts to extend associative discrimination to pregnancy. Comparisons are drawn with the US, where infertility has been recognised as a disability under the American's with Disabilities Act 1990 and as a pregnancy-related condition under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978. A specific right to paid time off work to undergo treatment is also proposed, drawing comparisons with the US Family and Medical Leave Act 1993 and the existing UK work-family rights framework. It is argued that the reinterpretations of equality law and the rights proposed here are not only conceptually possible, but could practically be achieved with minor, but significant, amendments to existing legislation.

Most employers will at some time need to monitor, record and read e-mails sent and received by their staff, or check on their employees' use of the telephone and internet, or access business correspondence received at work but addressed to a member of staff. There may also be clear cases where covert surveillance either by video camera or private investigators is considered as a means to collect evidence of criminal activity on site. The law in this area is complex and, in some cases, contradictory. Gillian Howard aims to set out the law clearly and give practical guidance, both to employers as to their legal rights, and to employees as to what safeguards to their privacy the law gives them. She provides precedents and useful examples of policies and procedures for monitoring employees at work. Vetting staff before taking them into employment can be equally fraught with legal issues. The Data Protection Act 1998 requires employers to obtain explicit consent from an employee before seeking and using certain sensitive information. This book gives guidance in this difficult area of employment law with practical advice, precedents and policies, and details of legal interpretations of the law by the Courts and Employment Tribunals.

Laboring for Justice highlights the experiences of day laborers and advocates in the struggle against wage theft in Denver, Colorado. Drawing on more than seven years of research that earned special recognition for its community engagement, this book analyzes the widespread problem of wage theft and its disproportionate impact on low-wage immigrant workers. Rebecca Galemba focuses on the plight of day laborers in Denver, Colorado-a quintessential purple state that has swung between some of the harshest and more welcoming policies around immigrant and labor rights. With collaborators and community partners, Galemba reveals how labor abuses like wage theft persist, and how advocates, attorneys, and workers struggle to redress and prevent those abuses using proactive policy, legal challenges, and direct action tactics. As more and more industries move away from secure, permanent employment and towards casualized labor practices, this book shines a light on wage theft as symptomatic of larger, systemic issues throughout the U.S. economy, and illustrates how workers can deploy effective strategies to endure and improve their position in the world amidst precarity through everyday forms of convivencia and resistance. Applying a public anthropology approach that integrates the experiences of community partners, students, policy makers, and activists in the production of research, this book uses the pressing issue of wage theft to offer a methodologically rigorous, community-engaged, and pedagogically innovative approach to the study of immigration, labor, inequality, and social justice.

EU Labour Law is a concise, readable and thought-provoking introduction to the labor and employment law of the European Union. The book explores the subject's major policy themes, examines the various procedures by which EU labor law is made, and analyzes key topics such as worker migration, equality, working time and procedures for workers' participation in employers' decision-making. It sets the legal materials in their policy context and identifies the important issues which have shaped the development of EU labor law and are likely to determine its future, including the economic crisis and the debate about fundamental rights in the EU. This accessible yet rigorous book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate law students, academics and practitioners working on domestic and EU labor and employment law, as well as those with an interest in this increasingly important subject from the perspective of business and management, economics, sociology or politics.

This book studies caste and community dynamics in India and offers a critical view of social mobility from below. Building on the theories of the eminent sociologist M N Srinivas, the essays in this volume reformulate the debate on caste as they document the changing inter-caste dynamics and caste-based violence in contemporary India. The volume showcases the new language of change in caste relations, articulated mostly from the perspective of the marginalised as experiences, differences, contestations, assertions and as citizenship rights. It focusses on the clash between traditional structures of inequality and the ideals of equality and justice in a liberal, democratic India. It also highlights the persistence of caste and endogamy and the interlocking nature of caste, gender and disability, struggles of ethnic groups and informal workers in the market economy, discrimination in the labour market and the dissolution of dissent in the public sphere. With contributions from leading scholars of social change and development in India and abroad, this volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of sociology, social anthropology, minority and subaltern studies, and development studies.

This international book analyses the impact of digitisation in labour markets, on labour relationships and also on labour processes. The rapid progress of modern disruptive technologies and AIs and their multiple applications to each phase of the labour production system, are changing the production rules on a global scale with significant impacts in every aspect of work. As new technologies transform work patterns and change the type of jobs available - destroying some while creating others - and even the nature of the tasks performed, numerous legal problems arise which are challenging to legislators and legal scholars who need to find appropriate solutions to them. Considering the labour law issues which have been created by technological developments and currently affect the work of millions worldwide, this book highlights the full scope of these issues, suggesting solutions to emerging problems and ways to mitigate the risks brought about through technological advancement. Approaching the present debate with perspectives on legal problems with expertise from a wide range of different countries, this book presents informed and scholarly studies which answer the challenges that new technologies present in labour markets, private lives and labour processes.

By adopting a theoretical analysis, this monograph examines the tension between corporate rescue laws and employment protection laws during corporate insolvency in the US and the UK and how this tension may be remedied or balanced. The monograph analyses the policy objectives of corporate rescue laws and employment protection laws as set out in the statutes, parliamentary and congressional debates proceedings as reported in the Hansard (UK) and the Congressional Record (US), ministerial statements, Government consultative documents and case law of both the US and the UK.

This book analyses novel and important issues relating to the emergence of new forms of work resulting from the introduction of disruptive technologies in the enterprises and the labour market, especially platform work. The first part of the book examines the platform economy and labour market, to address the more general challenges that the recent labour platforms pose for employment and the labour market, while the second part of the book considers the implications of the rise of different ways of work in the enterprises due to the incorporation of technology in a global context. Providing a rich analysis and evaluation of the numerous theoretical and practical regulatory problems arising from constantly developing technology, this book makes important and informed suggestions on how to solve the numerous problems which have arisen. The collection of chapters in this volume are varied and are dealt with from different disciplinary angles, and from a diverse range of countries and legal systems to create an interesting and unique global picture on the topics studied therein. With an international perspective, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of economy and technology law.

South Africa has become a nation defined by its protests. Protests can, and do, bring societal problems to public attention in direct, at times dramatic, ways. But governments the world over are also tempted to suppress this right, as they often feel threatened by public challenges to their authority. Apartheid South Africa had a shameful history of repressing protests. The architects of the country's democracy expressed a determination to break with this past and recognise protest as a basic democratic right. Yet, today, there is concern about the violent nature of protests.

Protest Nation challenges the dominant narrative that it has become necessary for the state to step in to limit the right to protest in the broader public interest because media and official representations have created a public perception that violence has become endemic to protests. Bringing together data gathered from municipalities, the police, protestor and activist interviews, as well as media reports, the book analyses the extent to which the right to protest is respected in democratic South Africa. It throws a spotlight on the municipal role in enabling or mostly thwarting the right.

This book is a call to action to defend the right to protest: a right that is clearly under threat. It also urges South Africans to critique the often-skewed public discourses that inform debates about protests and their limitations.

Focusing on posting of workers, where workers employed in one country are send to work in another country, this edited volume is at the nexus of industrial relations and European Union studies. The central aim is to understand how the regulatory regime of worker "posting" is driving institutional changes to national industrial relations systems. In the introduction, the editors develop a framework for understanding the relationship of supra-national EU regulation, transnational actors and national industrial relations systems, which we then apply in the empirical chapters. This unique volume brings together scholars from diverse academic fields, all of whom are experts on the topic of "worker posting." The book examines different aspects of the posting debate, including the interactions of actors such as labour inspectorates, trade unions, European legal/political regulators, manpower firms, transnational subcontractors and posted workers. The main objective of this book is to explore the dynamics of institutional change, by showing how trans- and supra-national dynamics affect European industrial relations systems. This volume will represent the "state of the art" in research on worker posting. It will also contribute to debates on European integration, social dumping, labour market dualization and precariousness and will be of value to those with an interest employment relations, law and regulation.

Drawing on data from a Europe wide project, together with existing data on equality and diversity initiatives, this book explores the work of trade unions in supporting equality and anti-discrimination policies across Europe and, in particular, the processes and collaborations involved in incorporating equality and diversity policies into trade union agendas. It considers theoretical issues of equality and diversity, the role of EU legislation, multiple discrimination and exclusion and disadvantage in the labour market in relation to the role of trade unions, and addresses central questions about the actions and challenges faced by trade unions in promoting equality in the workplace and in implementing anti-discrimination policies at local, national and European levels. With research spanning 34 European countries and extending to over 250 interviews and 15 case studies, Workplace Equality in Europe examines the impact of a period of economic crisis on workplace diversity, exploring forms of inter-union cooperation at European and international levels and shedding fresh light on the processes that lead some trade unions to adopt equality policies while others remain reluctant to develop or expand policies in this area. A detailed European study of trade union activity and workplace diversity, this book will be of interest to scholars of the sociology of work and organisations, labour relations and workplace diversity.

Globalization of the economy and increased integration in Europe has led to a stronger focus on EU labour, employment and equality law. The Research Handbook on EU Labour Law draws together contributions from leading academics in this field at an important historic moment in its development. As well as assessing the 'state of the art', they identify key research questions for the future. Split into four distinct parts, this Handbook provides a comprehensive examination of the major topics in EU labour, employment and equality law. Part one addresses cross-cutting themes, such as the relationship between EU law and national law, the role of human rights in EU labour law, and the impact of austerity measures. The subsequent parts offer in-depth treatments of specific topics: part two focuses on various issues in individual and collective labour law at EU level, including working time and job security; part three provides an analysis of collective labour law, including its implications for trade unions and industrial democracy; and part four explores the EU's interventions in equality law, considering its impact across a range of different protected characteristics. Contemporary and far-reaching, the Research Handbook on EU Labour Law will prove to be an unrivalled reference work for academics and scholars seeking further understanding of EU labour, employment and equality law as well as further direction for ongoing research. Practitioners and policy-makers will also find it useful as a source of policy evaluation and theoretical perspectives. Contributors include: D. Ashiagbor, N. Bamforth, C. Barnard, A. Bogg, N. Busby, C. Costello, N. Countouris, A.C.L. Davies, R. Dukes, P. Eeckhout, S. Fredman, M. Freedland, A. Koukiadaki, A. Lawson, V. Mantouvalou, W. Njoya, C. O'Cinneide, J. Prassl, I. Solanke, K. Strauss, P. Syrpis, L. Vickers, L. Waddington

This book goes beyond traditional minimum wage research to investigate the interplay between different country and sectoral institutional settings and actors' strategies in the field of minimum wage policies. It asks which strategies and motives, namely free collective bargaining, fair pay and/or minimum income protection, are emphasised by social actors with respect to the regulation and adaptation of (statutory) minimum wages. Taking an actor-centered institutionalist approach, and employing cross-country comparative studies, sector studies and single country accounts of change, the book relates institutional and labour market settings, actors' strategies and power resources with policy and practice outcomes. Looking at the key pay equity indicators of low wage development and women's over-representation among the low paid, it illuminates our understandings about the importance of historical junctures, specific constellations of social actors, and sector- and country-specific actor strategies. Finally, it underlines the important role of social dialogue in shaping an effective minimum wage policy. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and policy-makers and practitioners in industrial relations, international human resource management, labour studies, labour market policy, inequality studies, trade union studies, European politics and political economy.

This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

Global Governance of Labour Rights provides an outstanding collection of essays examining how international trade relations, trade agreements and non-state actors influence labour rights governance. This well-crafted, coherent, and thoughtful volume will make important contributions to the ongoing debates on the regulation and enforcement of labour rights.' - Aseem Prakash, University of Washington, Seattle, US'The Editors have managed to make, through this volume, a major contribution to the on-going discussion regarding the 'internationalization' of labour rights. Their single most important achievement is that they have produced a coherent 'whole' out of many heterogeneous parts. Both the intra-EU, as well as the international dimension, are skillfully debated in a volume that does not simply view the former as a hothouse for the latter, but discusses the interactions of the two orders in the most systematic way.' - Petros C. Mavroidis, Columbia Law School, New York City, US 'This excellent collection of essays provides fresh transnational and critical perspectives on the often ignored topic of labour rights. Ugly reports of collapsed factories and buried workers, of slave-like conditions among migrants and children, continue to horrify readers and viewers worldwide. What can be done? This book contains some long-awaited answers.' - Thomas G. Weiss, The City University of New York's Graduate Center, US 'The bulk of the world's governments and a growing number of firms now say they respect labour rights. Yet scholars, activists and policymakers have little understanding of the effectiveness of ILO conventions and government initiatives. In this important and well-written book, we get answers to many of the most pressing questions about how governments and private sector actors can advance labour rights and conditions. Kudos to Marx, Wouters, Rayp and Beke for a must-read book.' - Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and Director eBay policy scholars, Elliot School, GWU Stories and images of collapsed factories, burned down sweatshops, imprisoned migrant workers, child workers and many other violations of internationally recognized labour rights continue to spread across the globe. This highly topical book examines the different instruments which are intended to protect labour rights on a transnational scale, and asks whether they make a difference. With perspectives from law, management, sociology, political science and political economy, the topics discussed include the protection of international labour rights in a globalizing economy, the EU's social dimension in its external trade relations, Asian and US perspectives on labour rights in international trade agreements, the role of (trade) unions in global labour governance and the transformative capacity of private labour governance regimes. Academics and advanced students from different disciplines will benefit from the up-to-date empirical material in this study. Policymakers, NGOs and Unions will find the discussions of the instruments used to protect labour rights of great value to their work. Contributors: L. Beke, R.C. Brown, R. Coervers, Y. Dahan, J. Donaghey, P. Glasbergen, F. Hendrickx, D. Klink, S. Koch-Baumgarten, M. Kryst, H. Lerner, A. Marx, F. Milman-Sivan, A.-G. 'Tobi' Oshodi, P. Pecinovsky, C. Pekdemir, G. Rayp, J. Reinecke, J. Soares, W. Van Acker, L. Van den Putte, P. van der Heijden, S. Velluti, J. Wouters, R. Zandvliet

Written in accessible language, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of a topical subject that is being widely debated across Europe. The work presents an overview of emerging case law from the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as from national courts and equality bodies in European countries, on the wearing of religious symbols in public spaces. The author persuasively argues that bans on the wearing of religious symbols constitutes a breach of an individual's human rights and contravene existing anti-discrimination legislation. Fully updated to take account of recent case law, this second edition has been expanded to consider bans in public spaces more generally, including employment, an area where some of the recent developments have taken place.

In contemporary pluralist states, where faith communities live together, different religious symbols and practices have to coexist. This may lead to conflicts between certain minority practices and the dominant majority, particularly around the manifestation of belief in the public domain which may be seen both by the religious and secular majorities as a threat to their cultural heritage or against the secular values of the host country. The law has to mitigate those tensions in order to protect the public from harm and preserve order but in doing so, it may where necessary have to limit citizens' ability to freely manifest their religion. It is those limitations that have been disputed in the courts on grounds of freedom of religion and belief. Religious symbols are often at the heart of legal battles, with courts called upon to consider the lawfulness of banning or restricting certain symbols or practices. This book analyses the relationship between the state, individuals and religious symbols, considering the three main forms of religious expression, symbols that believers wear on their body, symbols in the public space such as religious edifices and rituals that believers perform as a manifestation of their faith. The book looks comparatively at legal responses in England, the U.S.A and France comparing different approaches to the issues of symbols in the public sphere and their interaction with the law. The book considers religious manifestation as a social phenomenon taking a multidisciplinary approach to the question mixing elements of the anthropology, history and sociology of religion in order to provide some context and examine how this could help inform the law.

Required to sign away their legal rights as authors as a condition of employment, professional writers may earn a tidy living for their work, but they seldom own their writing. Writing for Hire traces the history of labor relations that defined authorship in film, TV, and advertising in the mid-twentieth century. Catherine L. Fisk examines why strikingly different norms of attribution emerged in these overlapping industries, and she shows how unionizing enabled Hollywood writers to win many authorial rights, while Madison Avenue writers achieved no equivalent recognition. In the 1930s, the practice of employing teams of writers to create copyrighted works became widespread in film studios, radio networks, and ad agencies. Sometimes Hollywood and Madison Avenue employed the same people. Yet the two industries diverged in a crucial way in the 1930s, when screenwriters formed the Writers Guild to represent them in collective negotiations with media companies. Writers Guild members believed they shared the same status as literary authors and fought to have their names attached to their work. They gained binding legal norms relating to ownership and public recognition-norms that eventually carried over into the professional culture of TV production. In advertising, by contrast, no formal norms of public attribution developed. Although some ad writers chafed at their anonymity, their nonunion workplace provided no institutional framework to channel their demands for change. Instead, many rationalized their invisibility as creative workers by embracing a self-conception as well-compensated professionals devoted to the interests of clients.

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations was established in 1996 by the Centre for Industrial Relations, Keele University, to provide an outlet for, and to stimulate an interest in, historical work in the field of industrial relations and the history of industrial relations thought. Content broadly covers the employment relationship and economic, social and political factors surrounding it - such as labour markets, union and employer policies and organization, the law, and gender and ethnicity. Articles with an explicit political dimension, particularly recognising divisions within the working class and within workers' organizations, will be encouraged, as will historical work on labour law.

This book addresses the questions of discrimination, vulnerable consumers, and financial inclusion in the light of the emerging legal, socioeconomic, and technological challenges. New technologies - such as artificial intelligence-driven consumer credit risk assessment and Fintech platforms, the changing nature of vulnerability due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the sophistication of digital technologies, which help circumvent legal barriers and protections - necessitate the continuous study of the existing legal frameworks and measures that are capable of tackling these challenges. Organized in two major parts, the first addresses, from multiple national angles, the idea of a human rights approach to consumer law, in order to replace the mantra of economic efficiency that characterizes financial services with those of human dignity and freedom from discrimination and from debt-induced servitude. The second tackles the challenges posed by increased usage of technology in connection with financial services, which tends to solve, but also creates, additional issues for consumers in general, and for vulnerable groups in particular.

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), as amended, is intended to help employees balance work and family life. The act provides eligible employees with two types of job-protected leave: regular leave and military family leave. In turn, military family leave consists of qualifying exigency leave and military caregiver leave. This book provides an overview of the FMLA and discusses the policy issues involved.

Legal professionals are thought to have higher levels of mental health issues and lower levels of wellbeing than the general population. Drawing on qualitative data from new research with legal practitioners, this in-depth study of mental health and wellbeing in the UK and Republic of Ireland's legal sector is a timely contribution to the urgent international debate on these issues. The authors present a comprehensive discussion of the cultural, structural and other causes of legal professionals' compromised wellbeing. They explore the everyday demands and difficulties of the legal working environment and consider the impacts on individuals, the legal profession and wider society. Making comparisons with systems overseas, this is an invaluable resource that provides evidence-based suggestions for swift and effective organisational and policy-related interventions in the legal sector.

'Jane Holgate is a brilliant thinker' - Jane McAlevey In Arise, Jane Holgate argues that unions must revisit their understanding of power in order to regain influence and confront capital. Drawing on two decades of research and organising experience, Holgate examines the structural inertia of today's unions from a range of perspectives: from strategic choice, leadership and union democracy to politics, tactics and the agency afforded to rank-and-file members. In the midst of a neoliberal era of economic crisis and political upheaval, the labour movement stands at a crossroads. Union membership is on the rise, but the 'turn to organising' has largely failed to translate into meaningful gains for workers. There is considerable discussion about the lack of collectivism among workers due to casualisation, gig work and precarity, yet these conditions were standard in the UK when workers built the foundations of the 19th-century trade union movement. Drawing on history and case studies of unions developing and using power effectively, this book offers strategies for moving beyond the pessimism that prevails in much of today's union movement. By placing power analysis back at the heart of workers' struggle, Holgate shows us that transformational change is not only possible, but within reach.