The active pursuit of social and labor rights is seen as a crucial response to globalization. Essays by leading scholars from the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. question the effectiveness of the new rhetoric of rights (such as decent work and security; equality of opportunity; adequate food and housing; and healthcare). The contributors examine emerging new approaches at the international and E.U. level in several European countries, Japan, and the U.S. and in codes of practice of multinational companies.

Most Americans-even those with significant disability-want to live in their homes and communities. Unpaid family members or friends often work as "informal" caregivers, helping those who need assistance- and many feel they have no option but to serve. In contrast, paid personal assistance services workers (PAS) provide a lifeline to those consumers with complex needs and limited social networks. However, there is a crisis looming in the increasing needs for paid PAS and the limited available PAS workforce. Making Their Days Happen explores disability, health, and civil rights, along with relevant federal and state labor policies related to personal assistance services. Lisa Iezzoni addresses the legal context of paid PAS as well as financing mechanisms for obtaining home-based personal assistance. She also draws upon interviews she conducted with paid PAS consumers and PAS workers to explore PAS experiences and their perspectives about their work. Offering recommendations for improving future experiences of PAS consumers and providers, Iezzoni emphasizes that people with disabilities want to be a part of society, and PAS workers who do this low-wage work find satisfaction in helping them achieve their goals.

Most Americans-even those with significant disability-want to live in their homes and communities. Unpaid family members or friends often work as "informal" caregivers, helping those who need assistance- and many feel they have no option but to serve. In contrast, paid personal assistance services workers (PAS) provide a lifeline to those consumers with complex needs and limited social networks. However, there is a crisis looming in the increasing needs for paid PAS and the limited available PAS workforce. Making Their Days Happen explores disability, health, and civil rights, along with relevant federal and state labor policies related to personal assistance services. Lisa Iezzoni addresses the legal context of paid PAS as well as financing mechanisms for obtaining home-based personal assistance. She also draws upon interviews she conducted with paid PAS consumers and PAS workers to explore PAS experiences and their perspectives about their work. Offering recommendations for improving future experiences of PAS consumers and providers, Iezzoni emphasizes that people with disabilities want to be a part of society, and PAS workers who do this low-wage work find satisfaction in helping them achieve their goals.

'For the modern welfare state support' for those who are out of work through no fault of their own remains a foundation stone. Now, however, under pressure form market-driven ideology focused on business performance, its composition and the way support is delivered is in a state of flux. With the avowed objective of minimizing dependence on social benefits and increasing labour market efficiency, many national policies with varying degrees of thoroughness are shifting from a bureaucratic approach to some form of contract arrangement that demands a higher level of personal responsibility from the unemployed worker. The contractualisation process is usually administered through a 'reintegration service' that may be partly or wholly privatised. This remarkable book is the first comparative in-depth study of the process of contractualisation. It offers seventeen penetrating analyses, by leading labour market and labour law authorities, of recent policy initiatives to activate employment by contract and the implications of these initiatives from both legal and a socioeconomic perspective. Among the issue explored are the following: motivation, mobility, and flexibility in the labour market; effect of contractualisation on public accountability and responsibility; effect on the individual's statutory relationship under social security; whether and to what extent the conditions on which one country successfully introduces contractualisation apply to other countries; and, the unemployed individual as 'contract partner': What conditions can he or she set? The analyses focus on experience with contracts as service deliverance in the labour markets of eight countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Finland. Because a certain measure of experience has already been built up by governments, providers, and clients, now is the time to try and learn form good as well as bad practices in order to build coherent institutional frameworks to help the unemployed. This book is sure to bring insight and effectiveness to the work of professionals, officials, and politicians in this policy field, and will be of special practical value to labour law practitioners, academic researchers and libraries, trade unions, policymakers, and corporate counsel.

Until recently, age discrimination attracted little social opprobrium. However, ageism has now been thrust onto the equality agenda by the spectre of an ageing population. This has led to a range of policies on 'active ageing.' Most importantly, legally binding legislation prohibiting age discrimination in employment will need to be in place by 2006. Remarkably little attention has been paid to the key issues. To what extent is age inevitably linked with declining capacity? What are the central aims of a policy on age equality, and how can these be realised in law? How should law and policy address age discrimination in health, education and employment? What lessons can be learned from the US and Europe? And should young people be dealt with in the same way as older people? This book answers these questions in a series of chapters by experts from a wide range of disciplines. It begins by examining the nature of the ageing process and then turns to a detailed analysis of the concept of age equality. In the light of this analysis, the following three chapters critically assess employment, education, and health. A separate chapter is devoted to discrimination against children. The last two chapters consider the experience in the US, and other European countries.

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

Contains articles written by 13 different contributors covering different aspects of dispute resolution. Topics covered include the psychology of mediation, environmental disputes in communities, specialized arbitration and mediation, and arbitration and mediation in the construction industry.

This book analyses the impact that stabilization clauses have on the development of human rights and gender laws in resource rich nations. Given the fact that stabilization clauses freeze the law for as long as the contract subsists there has been debate on the negative impact stabilization clauses have on the progressive development of human rights in the host State. Firstly, the book examines the mechanisms investors utilise in protecting themselves from host State prerogatives. It then explores the theoretical basis on which stabilization clauses are applied and upheld by arbitral tribunals, and assesses how they can be drafted in a way that protects human rights, particularly in relation to gender discrimination, without forcing the resource rich nations to lose momentum in attracting foreign direct investment. Using Zambia and the Gender Equity and Equality Act of 2015 as a case study, the book explores the compatibility of the legislation with the stabilization clauses contained in the country's Development Agreements. The book will be of interest to practitioners, scholars and students of international investment law, human rights law and contract law.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 various contributors are leading academics in the children's rights field drawn from a wide range of countries and jurisdictions (including those with common law, civilian and mixed traditions) in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia

Higher education is the site of an ongoing conflict. At the heart of this struggle are the precariously employed faculty 'contingents' who work without basic job security, living wages or benefits. Yet they have the incentive and, if organized, the power to shape the future of higher education. Power Despite Precarity is part history, part handbook and a wholly indispensable resource in this fight. Joe Berry and Helena Worthen outline the four historical periods that led to major transitions in the worklives of faculty of this sector. They then take a deep dive into the 30-year-long struggle by California State University lecturers to negotiate what is recognized as the best contract for contingents in the US. The authors ask: what is the role of universities in society? Whose interests should they serve? What are the necessary conditions for the exercise of academic freedom? Providing strategic insight for activists at every organizing level, they also tackle 'troublesome questions' around legality, union politics, academic freedom and how to recognize friends (and foes) in the struggle.

This is an extremely insightful book on an important and timely topic - how to get women on to corporate boards. I am proud to have been a part of the discussion and processes presented in this book, and I am impressed by how the editors have put together a systematic and comprehensive overview of the snowball effects of the Norwegian gender balance law. This book will definitely be influential when policy-makers and politicians in various countries are considering voluntary actions or legal regulations to empower women in corporate life.' - Kjell Magne Bondevik, Director, Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights and Former Prime Minister of Norway (1997-2000 and 2001-2005)'This book provides significant and important insight into the continuing challenge in getting more women on to corporate boards globally. Catalyst has always believed that competing in a global economy requires that companies leverage the talents of both men and women leaders. This book's evidence-based reflections about gender balance in the boardroom, from Norway and beyond, help further the dialogue on this important business issue.' - Ilene H. Lang, President and CEO, Catalyst This book provides unique insights into how the idea of quota laws to get women on to corporate boards gained international momentum from its origins in Norway. Invaluable insights are gained through the stories of actors involved in shaping the discourse and practice on women of boards. In exploring political contexts, the role of the advocacy movement, experiences of women directors themselves and latest research findings, the contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the rationales, processes and outcomes of formal approaches to gender diversity on boards. Drawing on insights from political, business and academic actors, the book discusses how and why the Norwegian law on gender equality on corporate boards is turning into a blueprint for action internationally. Getting Women on to Corporate Boards will prove an invaluable resource for policy-makers, principle-setters, practitioners and students interested in the international lessons from Norway, as well as for current and potential female directors. Contributors: K. Bergsto, H. Bjorkhaug, A. Bolso, M. Brogi, A.D. Buhrmann, L. Davoy, C. Finocchi Mahne, H. Foust-Cummings, K. Hansen, V. Heidenreich, E. Hurvenes, M. Huse, G. Ladegard, M. Lutken, S. Machold, D.P. Moore, I.R. Myhre, N.H. Nergaard, V. Reding, M. Schulz-Strelow, R. Sealy, C. Seierstad, S.O. Sorensen, E.G. Standal, M. Torchia, S. Vinnicombe, D. Weber-Rey, C. Wetli, T. Widvey

The latest title in the Oxford Monographs on Labour Law series, this study elucidates the general legal rules and principles of the law of unfair dismissal, as well as offering an account of the social, political, and philosophical context in which the idea of protection from `unfair dismissal at work' has developed and currently operates, and will appeal not only to legal academics working in the field of labour law but also to readers interested in jurisprudence and legal theory.

This book compares legally allowed dismissal conditions in employment contracts in Taiwan and Japan and then examines the possibility of introducing the Taiwan-style severance payment system into Japanese employment contracts. A significant difference exists between employment regulations of Japan and Taiwan. In Japan, dismissal of an employee on the grounds of ability is not easily upheld in a court of law, and a set rule for dismissals with severance payment does not exist. On the other hand, in Taiwan, where regulations do not allow dismissal at will, an employee can still be dismissed with severance payment, as long as due process is followed. Written by labor lawyers and labor economists from both Taiwan and Japan, this book describes the procedures that must be followed in the dismissal process in the two countries. It also shows that this difference in dismissal conditions between the two countries explains the low labor mobility in Japan and high labor mobility in Taiwan, and that this difference in labor mobility, in turn, caused the shift of IT production from Japan to Taiwan in the 1990s. The final chapter of the book elucidates the need for introducing the Taiwan-style severance payment before carrying out further deregulation in Japan.

'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.

Despite the growing global consensus regarding the need to ensure minimal labour standards, such as adequate safety and health conditions, freedom of association, and the prohibition of child labour, millions of workers across the world continue to work in horrific conditions. Who should be held responsible, both morally and legally, for protecting workers' rights? What moral and legal obligations should individuals and institutions bear towards foreign workers in their countries? Is there any democratic way to generate, regulate, and enforce labour standards in a global labour market? This book addresses these questions by taking a fresh look at the normative assumptions underlying existing and proposed international labour regulations. By focusing on international labour as a particular sphere of justice, it seeks to advance both the contemporary philosophical debate on global justice and the legal scholarship on international labour.

A complete overview of developments in statutory and common law that provide increased protection for whistleblowers and authorize punitive and compensatory damages in wrongful discharge actions. An overview of court decisions and the constitutional roots of whistleblower protection is included along with available legal remedies under both state and federal law. An extensive appendix lists texts of whistleblower protection laws.

"Human Resource Management NewS"

Beginning with an overview of the jurisprudential and constitutional roots of whistleblower protection, the authors go on to outline the numerous legal remedies under both state and federal law available to whistleblowers. They demonstrate that although no comprehensive federal whistleblower laws exist, many laws and doctrines are sufficiently interrelated to offer a safety net of protection. Turning their attention to the private sector, the authors explain state court developments concerning liberalization of the traditional employment at will doctrine. They then analyze the case law of the twenty-six states that have adopted a public policy exception to the doctrine and the new tort created by this exception which offers additional protection by permitting suits for damages by private sector whistleblowers. An extensive appendix lists the texts of thirty federal whistleblower protection laws, an expecially valuable feature for practicing labor law attorneys.

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 collection presents an array of policy debates and implications emerging from virtual work. The authors cover a range of areas, including: conceptual debates, measuring virtual work; discourses and levels of policy intervention; the role of the sharing and collaborative economy; and resultant challenges for organized labour, law and regulation. The authors of the chapters analyse the ways in which processes of digitalization leading to virtual work impact so many aspects of our lives: the way we buy, sell, network, communicate, participate, create, consume, and, of course, the way we work. In turn they focus on the subsequent implications for the future of work as well as the viability of existing social protection systems. The developments examined here are salient for both policy stakeholders and for the academic community in areas such as labour sociology, industrial relations, gender studies, political economy, and economic geography.

When we speak of "legal language," we refer to a mode of communication that works hard to convey a degree of precision that clearly establishes the extent and limits of rights and obligations between parties. This endeavour must strive to overcome numerous obstacles-notably societal context and ideology- that are ineluctably present in language itself. And when legal bonds apply internationally, problems of translation add yet another and more complex dimension. It can be said that these problems of language and meaning particularly affect the application of labour law and social security law, as these legal regimes colour the day-to-day lives and livelihoods of virtually everybody. This extremely useful book assumes the monumental task of codifying the terminology of European labour law and social security law in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. It is the only book of its kind in existence. The initial classification follows the fifteen European legislative acts that cover the field. For each of these acts, all the terms and notions are listed (in alphabetical English order) with their definitions as provided in the legislation itself and the interpretations given to them in the case law of the European Court of Justice - all in five languages. In this way, the full spectrum of potential misunderstanding and contradiction is exposed, and all relevant subtleties come into clear focus. This efficient aggregate of vital material gives both practitioner and academic the means to make as complete a judgement as humanly possible concerning the application of European labour law and social security law in any context. The book is sure to become a fundamental work for bothpractice and research in the field.