INTRODUCTION
People are confused. Are uncontrolled global forces determining their incomes and their chances for decent employment? Government seems paralysed. Is it helpless in the face of increasingly rapid capital flows and the decisions of multinationals to relocate jobs? Is there little scope for national macroeconomic, labour or social policy? There are real anxieties which inhibit constructive action. Are they justified? The foundation of these fears must be addressed logically and empirically. That is done here by Eddy Lee, who takes up in turn the major anxieties undermining the real potential for moving towards full employment worldwide. Has globalization unleashed forces that cause rising unemployment and inequality in industrialized and developing countries alike? Has the labour market become so globalized that decent wages and labour standards are impossible goals? Has national policy autonomy been undermined? By sorting out the elements of truth in these fears from the doomsday scenarios, the misapprehensions from a lack of political will, he lays a basis for making real progress.
At the workplace there is confusion as to what constitutes acceptable behaviour of men and women towards each other. Within the past decade many countries have adopted legislation specifically to address various behavioural abuses, and sexual harassment in particular. Others have started to apply non-discrimination or other general legislation to claims of sexual harassment such that a body of jurisprudence has been built up even where there is no specific legislation against it. The proportion of women in the labour force continues to rise, and it behoves all participants therein to understand the limits so that the workplace can be both human and respectful of human rights. Women and men, employers and workers, personnel managers, lawyers and judges all need to know what constitutes sexual harassment at work, what rules apply, what are the limits. In this issue Jane Aeberhard-Hodges describes current trends in action against sexual harassment in employment, drawing on a wide literature. She points out the use of labour and other legislation on equal employment opportunities, human rights, health and safety, even tort and criminal law for countering sexual harassment. The questions of liability, remedies and sanctions are also taken up. This is an invaluable review of a difficult and controversial subject.
There is at least one area where people are perhaps less confused than they ought to be: there are some surprising ways in which data do not convey what they seem to. In order to determine the pattern of changes in the labour force and to design policies to redress discrimination or other unacceptable inequities it is essential to obtain accurate and relevant data by sex, marital status, race, ethnic or linguistic group or other category. Yet data that appear to be factual and objective may rather be the result of highly distorted inquiries. Few people can mislead as to their sex, but replies to questions on race, ethnicity or caste may be quite another matter. And incentives to being included in one or another category are not unimportant factors in the production of "data". There can be substantial discretion, especially in those countries where data are obtained from respondents rather than from administrative records. People "can choose to downplay or emphasize the characteristics of their birth and upbringing, motivated by personal, cultural, financial or political factors" - in the words of Carolyn Shaw Bell. The desirability of being identified with one or another category of the population may change, making time series even more problematic. As a result, social scientists may unwittingly collect flawed data which then constitute false premises for social policy. This article sounds an alarm - be wary when collecting or using data. It may be tempting to leave out or ignore the small print and long annexes to data sets, but you do so at your peril.
It is rare to find comprehensive data and analysis on the pattern of change in income distribution by ethnic group. And in few countries has it been as important a matter for economic and social policy than in Malaysia. Thus when good data exist on a subject of great interest it is a reason to take note. The results are of far more than academic interest when they concern a country which has experienced one of the highest sustained rates of economic growth over the past decade. In this issue Robert Lucas and Donald Verry examine the impact of the New Economic Policy (1970-90) on the absolute and relative economic position of the Bumiputera, Chinese and Indian populations of Malaysia. In the process they explain the crucial role of government in achieving both sustained economic growth and improvement in income distribution. Once the economic bases were well established a focus on human resource development helped to ensure a consolidation of gains and the mitigation of tensions.
While one need applaud the existence of good data their use (or misuse) can also be cause for concern. A significant concern of workers and managers is the handling of personal information .1 In October 1996 an ILO-constituted group of experts adopted a code of practice on the protection of workers' personal data. Now the distribution and dissemination of that code has been approved by the ILO's Governing Body. In view of its wide relevance it is reproduced in the Perspectives section of this issue, along with brief comment on the background and nature of this and other codes of practice.
1 For that reason the International Labour Review recently published an article that outlined the protection of workers' privacy in constitutions, legislation and jurisprudence. See Américo Plá Rodríguez, "The protection of workers' privacy: The situation in the Americas", Vol. 134 (1995), No. 3, pp. 297-313. Back to text
This issue concludes with reviews of books on the youth labour market and on explanations of women's subordinate place in the labour market, book notes and information on new ILO publications.
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