Social Responsibility In Labour Relations

Since 1945, socially moderated market economies have formed the cornerstone of the European socioeconomic model. Now, however due to powerful global economic, political and demographic tendencies tensions between social and economic interests and values are increasing. These developments create an urgent need for answers, actions and measures on the European level. This wide-ranging but focused collection of essays approaches this important trend from multiple perspectives. Compiled in honour of the major European labour law scholar Teun Jaspers, it encompasses a broad spectrum of analyses and insights by forty-one distinguished contributors from seven countries. Four major tensions are identified: between the European and national level, between fundamental rights and economic freedoms, between workers and employers, and between soft and hard law instruments. Throughout, a comparative approach is emphasized, not only within the EU but also between the EU and China and South Africa. Among the many topics covered are the following: relocation of labour to low-wage countries both within and outside the EU; conditions for tempering the excesses of the free labour market; the legal weight of voluntary standards such as codes of conduct; extending the scope of application of corporate social responsibility norms to transnational enterprises; pressure on national social law due to flexibilization, deregulation and individualization; contract termination protection; employability and training of employees; fixed-term work in the wake of the Mangold ruling; adjustment of working conditions for ill and disabled workers; right to strike; and restructuring of enterprises. In light of the Lisbon strategy, the authors address how the various tensions should be reconciled, especially in the context of the flexicurity approach. The book will be of great interest to academics and practitioners for its clear categorization of the issues which must be overcome when regulating employment and social policy in the context of todayand’s EU multilevel legal order. It pays detailed attention to the legal questions raised by emerging European labour and employment policies in respect of their specific materialization, the opportunities they offer, their feasibility, and the threats they pose to traditional workerand’s protection and, more generally, to traditional concepts of labour law.

Growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has focused attention on the relationship between businesses and key stakeholders, such as NGOs and local communities. Curiously, however, commentators on CSR rarely discuss the role of trade unions, while commentators on employment relations seldom engage with CSR. This situation is all the more remarkable since unions are a critically important social actor and have traditionally played a prominent role in defending the interests of one key stakeholder in the company, the employee. Written by dedicated experts in their field, this book addresses a key gap in the literature on both CSR and employment relations, namely trade union policies towards CSR, as well as union engagement with particular CSR initiatives and the challenges they face in doing so. The research covers eleven European countries which, when taken together, constitute a representative sample of industrial relations structures across the continent. This book will be essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners of international business, employment relations, public policy and CSR. Its foreword is written by Philippe Pochet and Maria Jepsen, Directors of the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels.

The emergence of voluntary corporate codes of conduct since the early 1990s is both a manifestation of and a response to the process of globalization. They have been part of a more general shift away from state regulation of transnational corporations towards corporate self-regulation in the areas of labour and environmental standards and human rights. This work provides a critical perspective on the growth and significance of corporate codes with a particular focus on working conditions and labour rights. It brings together work by academics, practitioners and activists.

Corporate social responsibility was one of the most consequential business trends of the twentieth century. Having spent decades burnishing reputations as both great places to work and generous philanthropists, large corporations suddenly abandoned their commitment to their communities and employees during the 1980s and 1990s, indicated by declining job security, health insurance, and corporate giving. Douglas M. Eichar argues that for most of the twentieth century, the benevolence of large corporations functioned to stave off government regulations and unions, as corporations voluntarily adopted more progressive workplace practices or made philanthropic contributions. Eichar contends that as governmental and union threats to managerial prerogatives withered toward the century's end, so did corporate social responsibility. Today, with shareholder value as their beacon, large corporations have shred their social contract with their employees, decimated unions, avoided taxes, and engaged in all manner of risky practices and corrupt politics. This book is the first to cover the entire history of twentieth-century corporate social responsibility. It provides a valuable perspective from which to revisit the debate concerning the public purpose of large corporations. It also offers new ideas that may transform the public debate about regulating larger corporations.

Labour Law and Sustainable Development is a detailed reconstruction of the regulatory framework and jurisprudential findings of sustainable development at the international, European and national level. The global crisis of the past decade has underlined the social unsustainability of the ultra-liberalistic theories through which the labour law deregulation represents the precondition for social and economic development coherent with the globalization imperatives. It is no exaggeration to assert that the existing foundations of labour law have been irreversibly compromised. It is essential to find a way out of the crisis, at the same time defining the founding values of new sustainable labour law. In linking labour law with the sustainability paradigm, this provocative book promises to widen the scope and terms of the reconciliation of interests, taking into account the multiplicity of the stakeholders interested in economic, social and environmental issues and, in particular, to practise an approach that achieves intergenerational equity. What’s in this book: In an unprecedented comparative study, including case law, of the network of principles, agreements, practices and norms concerning sustainable development and its different economic and social implications, the author examines such facets as the following: sustaining solidarity and equality of opportunity in current and emerging work situations; enhancing individual autonomy in the current world of (subordinate but independent) labour; reconciling personal needs, flexible organization of companies and reduction of external and internal costs to companies; collective action for the regulation of labour relations allowing for the exercise of individual autonomy; involving entire populations that have been so far excluded in the world scene; developing a sustainable pension system to promote intergenerational solidarity; implementing flexicurity policies positively; social clauses of international trade treaties; undoing the profound contradiction of gender and wage inequalities; and promoting corporate social responsibility. The objective of this book is to provide the reader with a reasoning basis to assess whether the choice to elect sustainable development as a new paradigm of reference for labour law is feasible, and if, in particular, this choice can be useful in order to define the founding values of a new ‘sustainable’ labour law. How this will help you: Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author emphasizes the need to consider the various dimensions of sustainability together, not only the original environmental but also the economic and social dimensions. This book offers a real strategic leap for both legislators and social actors, in particular leading the way to avoiding a fracture of the generational pact that has held together modern societies. Although the book presents a profound academic contribution to the analysis of labour law realities and trends, it will also be welcomed by corporate lawyers, judges, human rights experts, trade unionists, business managers, entrepreneurs and consultants interested in the issues of labour, sustainable development and social rights.

This book assesses the phenomenon of international framework agreements (IFAs), examining their implementation and impact around the world as well as their promotion of ILO standards. This volume includes contributions from fifteen international specialists to give a comprehensive discussion of the 80-plus IFAs that existed in July 2010.

How effective are multinational companies at improving working conditions in their supply chains? This book focuses on a crucial dynamic in private efforts at regulating labor standards in international production chains. It addresses questions regarding the quality of rules (Are existing efforts to privately regulate labor standards credible?) as well as business demand for private regulation (To what extent are different types of regulation adopted by companies?). This volume seeks to understand the underlying issue of whether private regulation can be both stringent and popular with firms. The study analyzes the nature and origins of, the business demand for and the competition between all relevant private regulatory organizations focusing on clothing production. The argument of the book focuses on the interaction between activists and firms, in consensual (developing and governing private regulatory organizations) and in contentious forms (activists exerting pressure on firms). The book describes and explains an emerging divide in the effort to regulate working conditions in clothing production between a larger cluster of less stringent and a smaller cluster of more stringent private regulatory organizations and their supporters. The analysis is based on original data, adopting both comparative case study and inferential statistical methods to explain developments in apparel, retail and sportswear sectors.