The Fissured Workplace
Title | The Fissured Workplace PDF eBook |
Author | David Weil |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 421 |
Release | 2014-02-17 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 067472612X |
In the twentieth century, large companies employing many workers formed the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Today, on the list of big business's priorities, sustaining the employer-worker relationship ranks far below building a devoted customer base and delivering value to investors. As David Weil's groundbreaking analysis shows, large corporations have shed their role as direct employers of the people responsible for their products, in favor of outsourcing work to small companies that compete fiercely with one another. The result has been declining wages, eroding benefits, inadequate health and safety protections, and ever-widening income inequality. From the perspectives of CEOs and investors, fissuring--splitting off functions that were once managed internally--has been phenomenally successful. Despite giving up direct control to subcontractors and franchises, these large companies have figured out how to maintain the quality of brand-name products and services, without the cost of maintaining an expensive workforce. But from the perspective of workers, this strategy has meant stagnation in wages and benefits and a lower standard of living. Weil proposes ways to modernize regulatory policies so that employers can meet their obligations to workers while allowing companies to keep the beneficial aspects of this business strategy.
The Notion of Employer in the Era of the Fissured Workplace
Title | The Notion of Employer in the Era of the Fissured Workplace PDF eBook |
Author | Roger Blanpain |
Publisher | Kluwer Law International B.V. |
Pages | 301 |
Release | 2017-01-15 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 9041184716 |
The word 'fissured' aptly describes the effect on the workplace of the enormous retreat from direct employment on the part of large enterprises that began several decades ago and shows no sign of slowing down. Market-leading companies, even though they continue to wield considerable influence on the fate of actual workers, may thus be relieved of legal responsibility as employers. How extensive is this phenomenon? Do recourses exist in labour law? What ongoing trends can be discerned? This groundbreaking book tackles these questions and more, with thoroughly researched reports from ten of the world's leading market-driven economies - Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Recognizing that law should squarely grasp and tackle this new reality, the authors consider such questions as the following: - How far can current labour law go in determining the responsibility of persons who have no direct contractual relationship with the workers? - Do other measures such as soft law or reputation mechanisms in the market deal with the undesirable consequences of the fissurization more properly? - What managerial motives and socioeconomic backgrounds give rise to such fissurization? - What distinct phenomena compose fissuring? - Are measures available to protect workers that go beyond the boundary of the legal entity (e.g., initiatives toward piercing the corporate veil)? Each contributor describes, for his or her country, how far the fragmentation and externalization of employment has gone, current legislation protecting workers in a multilayered contractual relationship or indirect employment relationship (e.g., on health and safety, wages, bargaining, dismissal), and emerging developments and trends. This book ably responds to the question posed by a recent study: Why has work became so bad for so many and what can be done to improve it? Although concerned scholars worldwide will rally to the call, the reports in this volume will also be of great practical value to business persons and labour and employment lawyers everywhere.
Reconsidering the Notion of "employer" in the Era of Fissured Workplace
Title | Reconsidering the Notion of "employer" in the Era of Fissured Workplace PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 219 |
Release | 2016 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Reconsidering the Notion of Employer in the Era of the Fissured Workplace
Title | Reconsidering the Notion of Employer in the Era of the Fissured Workplace PDF eBook |
Author | Tess Hardy |
Publisher | |
Pages | 28 |
Release | 2020 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
This chapter begins by exploring the available evidence on the extent to which Australian workplaces have become fissured. This chapter then provides an overview of the central statutory responses in the respective regulatory spheres of labor, work health and safety, and competition and consumer protection. In reviewing this legislative landscape, this chapter reveals that while Australian statutes are innovative and inclusive in some respects, critical regulatory gaps remain. This can be linked, at least in part, to the way in which these statutory regimes conceptualize the principal subject and object of the relevant regulation.
Theorising Labour Law in a Changing World
Title | Theorising Labour Law in a Changing World PDF eBook |
Author | Alysia Blackham |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 301 |
Release | 2019-09-05 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 1509921575 |
This collection brings together perspectives from industrial relations, political economy, political theory, labour history, sociology, gender studies and regulatory theory to build a more inclusive theory of labour law. That is, a theory of labour law that is more inclusive of non-traditional workers (including those in atypical work, or from non-traditional backgrounds); more inclusive of a variety of collective approaches to work regulation that foster solidarity between workers; and more inclusive of interdisciplinary and complex explanations of labour law and its regulatory spaces. The individual chapters speak to this theme of inclusivity in different ways and offer different suggestions for how it might be achieved. They break down the barriers between legal research and other fields, to promote fruitful and integrative conversations across disciplines. In the spirit of inclusivity and intergenerational dialogue, the book blends contributions from early career and emerging scholars with those from leading scholars in the field, featuring critical commentary from senior labour law figures alongside theoretically and empirically informed work.
The Concept of the Employer
Title | The Concept of the Employer PDF eBook |
Author | Jeremias Prassl |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 289 |
Release | 2015 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 0198735537 |
The concept of the employer has been surprisingly ignored in employment and corporate law, leaving protective norms unable to grapple with modern work arrangements. This book scrutinises the received concept of a unitary employer providing a functional reconceptualization as a framework for future arguments and coherent judicial decision-making.
The Future of Unions and Worker Representation
Title | The Future of Unions and Worker Representation PDF eBook |
Author | Anthony Forsyth |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 368 |
Release | 2022-01-13 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 150992499X |
This book charts the path to revitalisation for trade unions in Australia, the USA, the UK, and Italy. It examines the examples of innovation and digital campaigning that are enabling unions to build new forms of worker power – and overcome decades of declining membership wrought by neoliberalism, globalisation, and hostility from employers and the state. The study evaluates the responses of unions in each country to falling membership levels since the 1980s. It considers the US 'organising model' and its adoption in Australia and the UK, comparing this with the strategies of Italian unions which have been more deliberately focused on precarious and migrant workers. The increasing reliance of US unions on community alliances, as seen in the 'Fight for $15' and similar campaigns, is scrutinised along with new union prototypes like Hospo Voice in Australia, the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain and SI Cobas in Italy. The book includes an in-depth analysis of union responses to the gig economy in the four countries, and the emergence of self-organised worker collectives to combat this exploitative business model. The vital role played by unions in defending the interests of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is also examined. As well as highlighting the most successful union initiatives to meet the challenges of the past 30 years, the book assesses the strengths and deficiencies of the legal framework for union representation in the four nations. It identifies the labour law reforms needed to rebuild collectivism, but argues that more is needed than favourable laws. This cross-national study provides a rich basis for identifying the combination of reforms, strategies and linkages required to ensure that unions can remain relevant for a new generation of digitally-active workers.