Category

Social dialogue

Apr 13
0

Pakistan country study 2016: Labour standards in the garment supply chain

By | Pakistan, Social dialogue

Executive summary

The present country study on Pakistan, has been carried out in December 2016 for CNV Internationaal in the context of the Partnership for Supply Chain Transformation. It is based on desk and original research on the current status of the industry structure, social dialogue, gender-based violence and living wage debates in the apparel industry in Vietnam for use in the first phase of this project. The Fair Wear Foundation with its alliance partners CNV Internationaal and FNV Mondiaal has been selected by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a five year Strategic partnership for Garment Supply Chain Transformation starting 2016 as part of its “Dialogue and Dissent” policy framework.

The primary goal of this initiative is to improve the lobbying and advocacy capacity of Trade Unions and labour related NGOs by enhancing their understanding of international Ready Made Garments supply chains, access to critical information and know-how. Opportunities will be identified to develop pilot experiences in the supply chain resulting in good practices related to living wages, gender-based violence and freedom of association and collective bargaining, which will facilitate more effective social dialogue and monitoring of human rights compliance at the factory level and reinforce the value of NGOs and trade unions to all supply chain stakeholders.
This report gives insight into the garment/ textile industry of Pakistan and its related industry, labour laws, industrial
relations and industry. The study was developed after a desk study and a subsequent visit to Pakistan to interview
stakeholders on issues related to the garment industry.

 

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Apr 13
0

Country study Cambodia 2016: Labour Standards in the Garment Supply Chain

By | Cambodia, Case-study, Social dialogue

The present country study on Cambodia, has been carried out for CNV Internationaal in the context of the Partnership for Supply Chain Transformation. is based on desk and original research on the current status of the industry structure, social dialogue, gender-based violence and living wage debates in the apparel industry in Cambodia for use in the first phase of this project.

The Fair Wear Foundation with its alliance partners CNV Internationaal and FNV Mondiaal has been selected by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a five year Strategic partnership for Garment Supply Chain Transformation starting 2016 as part of its “Dialogue and Dissent” policy framework. The primary goal of this initiative is to improve the lobbying and advocacy capacity of Trade Unions and labour related NGOs by enhancing their understanding of international RMG supply chains, access to critical information and know-how. Opportunities will be identified to develop pilot experiences in the supply chain resulting in good practices related to living wages, gender-based violence and freedom of association and collective bargaining, which will facilitate more effective social dialogue and monitoring of human rights compliance at the factory level and reinforce the value of NGOs and trade unions to all supply chain stakeholders.

 

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Apr 13
0

Disputes Resolution through Social Dialogue: Evidence from Nigerian Organizations

By | Nigeria, Social dialogue

Social dialogue tries to create an objective process of bargaining in order to protect the interest of the organization which includes employers, employees and the environment. It would be useful to examine in depth the relevant components of the social dialogue and how they have imparted positively to the development of harmonious industrial relations in the country. This study takes data from a 280 sample size drawn from a population of 500 employees selected from 10 companies in Lagos state. It found out a significant relationship between collective process and success. It was recommended that employers and employees along with the government should consistently engage in a social dialogue process to improve the working conditions of labor and industrial harmony in the country.

 

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Apr 13
0

Labour Relations Quality and Productivity: an Empirical Analysis on French Firms

By | France, Social dialogue

Abstract

We empirically characterise how good labour relations can alleviate the negative impact on productivity of regulatory constraints or workforce opposition. The estimates are based on a unique survey of French manufacturing firms collected by the Banque de France over the period 1991-2008. Our main results may be summarised as follows:

i) workforce or union opposition interacted with regulatory constraints has a negative significant impact on total factor productivity (TFP). When this interaction is not taken into account, a deteriorated labour climate, through workforce or union opposition, weighs directly on TFP. But when this interaction is taken into account, this negative impact relies solely on the combination of regulatory constraints and labour opposition: workers or unions can successfully oppose managements decisions and weigh on TFP when they can use or threaten to use appropriate regulation; otherwise, their opposition may be harmless;

ii) regulatory constraints interacted with branch or firm agreement has a positive significant impact on TFP. These agreements, which can only be obtained if labour relations are supportive, would be used by firms to offset the negative impact of regulatory constraints. This favourable impact can be obtained through two channels: first, informally, a good labour climate can lead to a flexible implementation of regulation; second, formally, the French labour code incorporates provisions that allow firm or branch agreements to adapt or even alleviate the constraints of regulation.

These results emphasise that the implementation of regulatory constraints and their impact on productivity crucially hinges on the quality of labour climate.

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Apr 13
0

Worker Voice, Managerial Response and Labour Productivity: An Empirical Investigation

By | Social dialogue

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between worker voice practices, employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness and labour productivity. It argues that managerial responsiveness is a critical but under-investigated variable in the study of the relationship between worker voice, human resource management and performance. Our results suggest that managerial responsiveness to worker voice does lead to superior labour productivity. However, this relationship is only found in non-union workplaces and there is little relationship between formal voice regime and productivity. One important implication of this finding is that more responsive management will result in improved productivity, so policy interventions should focus on how to motivate managers to become more responsive to their employees.
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Apr 13
0

What do unions do at the large scale? Macro-economic evidence from a panel of OECD countries

By | Case-study, Social dialogue, UK

Abstract

This paper investigates the long-run relationship between trade unionism and productivity using a panel data set comprising of 18 OECD economies. Much of the existing evidence on this issue derives from micro-economic studies, with limited attention paid to long-run dynamics and economy-wide effects. Using the mean group and pooled mean group estimation techniques on cross-country panel data, the paper offers support to the “productivity-increasing face of unionism” hypothesis, revealing a positive relationship between trade union density and per worker output.

 

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Apr 13
0

Productivity, innovation strategies and industrial relations in SMEs. Empirical evidence for a local production system in northern Italy Article

By | Case-study, Italy, Social dialogue
Abstract
The paper aims to provide an original contribution to evaluating several kinds of relations between four areas of innovation activities – training, technology, organization, ICT (information and communication technologies) – and industrial relations and firm’s economic performance. Quantitative evidence for a SME‐based local production system is provided by exploiting two datasets: the first is derived from a direct survey carried out in 2005 collecting data on innovations, labour flexibility and industrial relations; the second is represented by a panel of official balance sheets data for the period 1998–2004. The analysis is divided in two consequential parts. We first examine the drivers of different innovation strategies and subsequently we exploit innovation indicators as potential drivers of firm’s productivity. The results show that training activities and organizational changes have strong links with many industrial relations indicators, thus emerging as industrial relations driven innovations. On the contrary, ICT and technological innovation seem to be more influenced by firms’ past performances than by industrial relations. The analysis on labour productivity drivers shows that training activities are the most relevant factors; then, ranked consequently, technological innovation, organisational innovations and, finally, ICT also appear to impact on productivity levels. It is worth noting that the role of ICT emerges more robustly when endogeneity is specifically addressed. Finally, the role of firm size seems here to be overshadowed by other drivers.

 

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Apr 13
0

Industrial Relations, Techno-Organizational Innovation and Firm Economic Performance

By | Italy, Social dialogue

Abstract

In the last decades the changes in firm’s organizational structures has attracted great interest because of their widespread diffusion. At the same time technological innovation, especially in the domain of ICT, has also experienced a rapid diffusion. Several works have tried to disentangle the linkage between innovation and its determinants as well as to uncover the relation between techno-organizational changes and firm economic performances. I likewise conduct an empirical investigation using original information collected through a questionnaire administered to union representatives of manufacturing firms with at least 20 employees located in a province of Northern Italy, Reggio Emilia. The phases of the analysis are two: at first, the aim is to uncover the relationship between a participative industrial relations regime, contractual flexibility and the propensity to innovate; secondly, I investigate on the existence of linkages between several innovation activities, namely technology, organization, ICT and training, on the one hand, and firm economic performance, on the other. The results can be summed up as follows. First, the participative aspects of the industrial relations system and contractual flexibility show a nexus mainly with two kinds of innovative spheres: organization and training. Second, firm performance is linked to all four innovation spheres. Since the regressions are also conducted in principal components, evidence of complementarities between innovation spheres is provided.

 

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Apr 13
0

The Cost and Benefits of Collective Bargaining

By | Social dialogue

Abstract

Co-ordination through collective bargaining is recognised as an influential determinant of labour market and macroeconomic performance. This paper provides a systematic review of the empirical literature on the subject. We focus on comparative studies of labour institutions in the OECD area that try to disentangle the impact of different institutional approaches to collective bargaining from other determinants of macroeconomic performance, and review the recent literature on the interaction between labour market institutions and monetary policy.
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