Deirdre McCann

Measuring Labour Market Institutions: Conceptual and Methodological Questions on ‘Working Hours Rigidity’

Research on the effects of labour market institutions on employment performance has recently been extended from industrialized to developing countries, using institutional indicators far more extensive in their coverage than those at the core of the OECD debates. These indicators extend to the regulation of working conditions, including working time, and are being used as the basis for the contention that ‘rigid’ regulation of employment conditions is to a large extent responsible for aspects of poor labour market performance such as low productivity and high unemployment and informal employment.

The Impact of Labour Regulations: Measuring the Effectiveness of Legal Norms in a Developing Country

It is paradoxical that the recent flourishing of research on the economic impact of labour regulations has exposed the simplistic understandings that pervade this literature and that underpin deregulatory policy agendas. The debate among economists is conducted between two competing schools, which might be characterized as ‘distortionists’ and ‘institutionalists’. These accord different weights to the economic costs and benefits of labour regulation and have embarked upon divergent quests for optimal institutions (for a review, see Bertola 2009 and Freeman 2009). Both strands of this research are problematic, however, especially in their relevance to developing countries, in that most of the studies assume the de jure and de facto reach of labour laws to be coterminous. In consequence, they neglect to consider the effectiveness of legal regulations (Aherling and Deakin 2007; Lee and McCann 2008).

New Directions in Labour Regulation Research

This volume is an international and interdisciplinary response to the most influential account of the role and significance of labour market regulation, namely that derived from orthodox economic theory. It also responds to the most prominent alternative to the orthodox narrative: the contention that the central objective of labour and development policies, including in their regulatory dimensions, should be to realize and sustain ‘decent work’. In recent years, these theoretical and normative approaches have galvanized research on labour market regulation. This volume highlights certain of the more significant and novel developments reflected in these literatures. The aim is to feature innovative ideas and approaches, new subjects and debates, and theoretical perspectives and methodologies that characterize contemporary research on labour market regulation. In doing so, it is hoped that this book will enrich and advance the academic and policy debates on post-crisis labour regulation.

Regulatory indeterminacy and protection in contemporary labour markets : innovation in research and policy.

The first volume drawn from the work of the Regulating for Decent Work network, Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation, responded to the simplistic empirical studies on the economic impact of labour regulations that have become increasingly influential since the 1990s (Lee and McCann 2011a). That volume identified the use of indicator-based methodologies to quantify and compare labour regulations, most prominently in the World Bank’s Doing Business project, as a key evolution in the deregulatory project that has been associated with Washington consensus policy agendas and fuelled by the neoclassical economic tradition (Lee and McCann 2011b). This empirical work, and its absorption into policy discourses, was argued to significantly expand the deregulatory narrative along two axes: (1) to extend the preoccupation with minimum wage and employment protection laws to other facets of labour law; and (2) to reach beyond the advanced industrialized economies more firmly to embrace the regulatory frameworks of the developing world (Lee and McCann 2008).

Equality through precarious work regulation: lessons from the domestic work debates in defence of the Standard Employment Relationship

Precarious work is a crucial impediment to substantive equality. This paper examines the regulation of precariousness in the light of two recent trends: the casualisation of employment in the wake of the crisis, and global efforts to regulate domestic work (e.g. ILO Domestic Workers Convention (No 189)). It takes these developments as an opportunity to explore the effective regulation of contemporary labour markets, and in particular the role of the Standard Employment Relationship (SER). The paper returns to two prominent accounts of the SER: Voskos critique of SER-centrism in non-standard work regulation and Boschs notion of the flexible-SER. It argues that the domestic work debates confirm the value of a modernised SER in its temporal dimensions. Yet the literature on precarious work tends to focus on regulatory settings in which the standard model remains dominant. The key contemporary challenge is to identify strategies that will embed this model in settings in which it is in decline or was never deep-rooted. Drawing on the notion of ‘reconstructive labour law’, the paper argues for innovative legal mechanisms that prompt the construction of flexibilised SER-type relationships. It concludes, however, that for these strategies to be effective, casualisation must be identified not only in contractual arrangements but also in working-time practices.

Negotiating Working Time in Fragmented Labour Markets: Realizing the Promise of ‘Regulated Flexibility’

This book examines the ways in which collective bargaining addresses a variety of workplace concerns in the context of today’s global economy. Globalization can contribute to growth and development, but as the recent financial crisis demonstrated, it also puts employment, earnings and labour standards at risk. This book examines the role that collective bargaining plays in ensuring that workers are able to obtain a fair share of the benefits arising from participation in the global economy and in providing a measure of security against the risk to employment and wages. It focuses on a commonly neglected side of the story and demonstrates the positive contribution that collective bargaining can make to both economic and social goals. The various contributions examine how this fundamental principle and right at work is realized in different countries and how its practice can be reinforced across borders. They highlight the numerous resulting challenges and the critically important role that governments play in rebalancing bargaining power in a global economy. The chapters are written in an accessible style and deal with practical subjects, including employment security, workplace change and productivity, and working time.