A new annual publication will examine how global challenges are shaping the world of work. The approach would be thematic and inter-disciplinary, with a strong focus on facts and empirical analysis.
Based on this analysis, the Summary would draw possible lessons for decent work policies - what works and what doesn't - and offer a reflection on the concept of socio-economic floors.
Globalisation and Decent Work
Globalisation and informal economy
As a follow up to the study on Trade and Employment: challenges for policy research, the Institute and the WTO Secretariat will jointly carry out a study on the links between globalisation, trade and employment in the informal economy. Greater economic growth associated with globalization may help reduce the size of the informal economy. However this is not necessarily the case and the linkages are likely to be complex. The purpose of this study is to i) present key facts on globalization, trade and informal employment in developing countries, ii) review the literature on this issue, and iii) undertake new empirical research with a view to identify causal links and assess how policies and institutions influence these links.
Internationalization of labour markets
The fourth dialogue between France and the ILO on the social dimension of globalization, to be held in Paris in May 2008, will be about the internationalization of labour markets. An associated book is being prepared, focusing on the contribution of migration in both origin and destination countries. Issues such as global production, transnational communities and employment in developing countries and the links between occupational and geographical mobility will be tackled. The factors driving the internationalization of labour markets will be discussed as well as the protection of workers under conditions of emerging global labour markets. Special attention will be paid to the services sector as this dynamic sector is growing worldwide and will increasingly characterize the world of work.
Global production and labour
A forthcoming volume looks at the impacts of global production upon the scale and quality of employment it generates in developing countries. Chapters in this book examine new policy approaches and emerging configurations of public and private regulation involving governments, global companies and their suppliers, workers' organisations, civil society organisations and multi-stakeholder initiatives to consider the possiblities of achieving economic upgrading together with social upgrading in global production.
Another report will examine India's rapid growth and integration into global patterns of trade and investment over the past decade. Images of high tech centres and knowledge workers in air-conditioned offices coexist with more prevalent backyard factories that draw upon a mass of poorly-educated, low-paid workers - including children - labouring in unsafe conditions and precarious employment relationships in the extensive supply chains that produce clothing, shoes and toys for European and American consumers. Little systematic academic research in India has been conducted - and rarely within a comparative perspective - upon this timely issue. The collected volume addresses this gap in the literature by joining a set of recent studies that map out the current picture of Indian labour in global production across a range of sectors, to consider the impacts and implications of participation in global production networks for upgrading of jobs and developmental opportunities this offers in India. A final chapter will draw initial policy implications arising from this set of studies.
Cross-border social dialogue and agreements: an emerging global industrial relations framework?
The volume is divided in four parts. Part I depicts the history of cross-border social dialogue, focusing on the initial steps leading to the transnationalization of union action vis-à-vis MNEs and key historical episodes associated with the emergence of transnational bargaining. Part II approaches the issue from an industrial relations perspective in an effort to depict those characteristics which appear to be key in analysing the actual functioning of IFAs. Part III analyses the legal dimension of IFAs as a new form of social regulation, which does not have a precise legal framework, thus leaving open many questions on IFAs' legal nature and impact. Part IV focuses on two of the most highly globalized sectors - textiles, clothing and footwear and maritime transport - in which few or no IFAs have been concluded. It explains recent developments in these sectors and the strategies and efforts of the relevant global unions aimed at developing cross-border social dialogue and regulation in the face of several obstacles. Finally, Part V explores the options for policy action available to two international public institutions heavily involved in IFAs - the EU (where most cross-border initiatives at the enterprise level originate) and the ILO (for which the transnationalization of industrial relations touches on the core of its mandate).
ILO Century Project
A history of ILO ideas and their impact
A volume will come out on the occasion of the ILO's 90th anniversary in 2009. This will be the first major output of the ILO Century Project. The volume looks at key areas of social progress since the ILO's foundation in 1919 and examine where and how the ILO's ideas and actions have supported or led change, and their cumulative impact in different parts of the world. Key themes which are being examined include human rights and rights at work, equality and empowerment; social protection and the welfare state; the quality of work; growth, employment and development; and international social and economic policy (with emphasis on the social dimension of globalization). The volume will set the analysis of ILO ideas within the context of the evolution of the Organization as a whole, in turn reflecting changes in the world of work in the course of the major social, political and economic developments of the century. It will conclude by looking at the challenges facing the ILO in the decade up to its centenary in 2019.
