Description
Book SynopsisThis comprehensive Handbook explores the complex and volatile debate over globalisation and labour standards. It offers key insights into the impact of globalisation on workers, the obligations of corporations and international legal bodies in protecting workers’ rights and maximising the opportunities offered by international trade and investment.
Multidisciplinary contributions illustrate the benefits and drawbacks of globalisation for labour standards, demonstrating the limitations of recent initiatives to improve working conditions. The chapters pay close attention to the buying practices of multinational corporations at the top of global value chains, the priorities of which too often diverge from the codes of corporate social responsibility, as well as the inadequate actions of national governments in enforcing labour standards, including through trade agreements and sanctions.
Offering an impressive overview of the key actors in the protection of workers’ rights, the Handbook provides an essential reference point and research agenda for scholars and researchers of global economics and labour policy, highlighting crucial gaps in the field that are in need of further study. Its practical, empirical insights will also benefit practitioners and policy-makers working in human rights and labour advocacy, as well as trade specialists and political and economic commentators.
Trade Review‘In this well-structured Handbook, Elliott has masterfully pulled together case studies and interdisciplinary reflections on globalisation and labour issues from the perspectives of business, economics, labour relations, international law, political science and sociology. The resulting volume provides a better understanding of the functioning of global value chains and the roles of public and private actors. Calling for more empirical work, the book points to the policy changes needed to arrive at improved working conditions worldwide.’ -- Anne Trebilcock, Georg-August University, Germany, and former ILO Legal Adviser
‘This Handbook on Globalisation and Labour Standards
is novel, engaging and manages to offer a coherent approach to a controversial topic, while also presenting diverse perspectives. It begins by identifying contemporary challenges to international labour standards in the context of globalisation, and then proceeds to analyse public, private and multi-stakeholder initiatives designed to address these. In this way, the editor, Kimberly Ann Elliott, has collated an exciting array of essays. The contributions come from leading experts, with each chapter offering original observations on a key issue. In short, this Handbook provides an invaluable resource for policy-making, teaching and further research in a field of study which is of ever-increasing importance.’ -- Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol, UK
Table of ContentsContents: 1 Handbook on globalisation and labour: introduction and overview 1 Kimberly Ann Elliott PART I INTERNATIONAL LABOUR STANDARDS UNDER GLOBALISATION 2 Globalization and freedom of association and collective bargaining rights 13 David Kucera and Dora Sari 3 Globalization and the persistence of forced labor and child labor 36 Eric V. Edmonds 4 Work, gender and discrimination in global production 65 Stephanie Barrientos 5 Protecting the vulnerable: migration, work and human rights due diligence 85 Janelle M. Diller 6 Workers’ rights and human rights: toward a new fundamental principle? 108 Zahra Yusifli and Colin Fenwick 7 Human resource management and abuse in global supply chains 127 Laura Babbitt, Drusilla Brown, Ana Antolin and Elyse Voegeli 8 Prospects for labor-related upgrading in global supply chains 143 Layna Mosley PART II PUBLIC APPROACHES TO PROTECTING LABOUR STANDARDS UNDER GLOBALISATION 9 Sovereignty and the ILO 167 Steve Charnovitz 10 The 1998 ILO Declaration: responding to globalization and impacting corporate labor behavior 184 Janice R. Bellace 11 The strategy and politics of linking trade and labor standards: an overview of issues and approaches 204 Sandra Polaski 12 Evidence on the impact of labor provisions in preferential trade agreements 227 Damian Raess 13 Labor standards in EU and US preferential trade agreements: mainstreaming the trade–labor linkage 244 Evgeny Postnikov 14 Developing country responses to demands for improved labor standards: case studies from the garment and textiles industry in Asia 257 Sanchita Banerjee Saxena 15 NAFTA’s lessons on labor standards and trade agreements 273 Lance Compa 16 Protecting the rights of migrant workers through trade mechanisms: lessons from NAFTA 296 Kimberly A. Nolan García 17 Enforcement of labor standards in trade agreements: the case of Guatemala 313 Tequila J. Brooks 18 Hard and soft law approaches to protecting worker rights 325 Kimberly Ann Elliott PART III PRIVATE AND MULTI-STAKEHOLDER APPROACHES 19 OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises 339 Kenneth A. Reinert, Oda T. Reinert and Gelaye Debebe 20 Pioneering a new approach to improving working conditions in developing countries: Better Factories Cambodia 358 Raymond Robertson 21 Sewing in the sand: how trade preferences created, and labor abuses nearly killed, the Jordanian garment industry 381 Kevin Kolben 22 Corporate social responsibility: codes, compliance and ESG ratings 399 Tim Bartley 23 The Bangladesh accord and alliance: addressing building safety through global supply chain co-governance 414 Mark Anner and Jennifer Bair 24 Can blockchain solve the puzzle of labour standards implementation in international trade? 430 Sangeeta Khorana and Hanna C. Norberg Index
