Transnational private authority, regulatory space and workers' collective competences: Bringing local contexts and worker agency back in

The impact of transnational private regulation on labour standards remains in dispute. While studies have provided some limited evidence of positive effects on 'outcome standards' such as wages or occupational health and safety, the literature gives little reason to believe that there has been any significant effect on 'process rights' relating primarily to collective workers' voice and social dialogue. This paper probes this assumption by bringing local contexts and worker agency more fully into the picture. It outlines an analytical framework that emphasizes workers' potential to act collectively for change in the regulatory space surrounding the employment relationship. It argues that while transnational private regulation on labour standards may marginally improve workers access to regulatory spaces and their capacity to require the inclusion of enterprises in them, it does little to increase union leverage. The findings are based on empirical research work conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa

Governance by Contract? The impact of the International Finance Corporation's Social Conditionality on Worker Organization and Social Dialogue

This study considers the question of the relationship between private labour regulation and workers' capacity to take collective action through the lens of an empirical study of the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) 'performance standards' system of social and environmental conditionality. The study covered some 150 IFC client businesses in four world regions, drawing on data made public by the IFC as well as the results of a dedicated field survey that gathered information directly from workers, managers and union representatives. The study found that the application of the performance standards system has had remarkably little impact on union membership and social dialogue. In those few cases where change could be causally linked to the standards, the effect depended on the presence of workers' organizations that already had the capacity to take effective action on behalf of their members. The study also uncovered some prima facie evidence of breaches of freedom of association rights occurring with no reaction from IFC. The study concludes that the lack of impact is largely due to the private contractual structure that supposedly guarantees standards compliance

Looking ‘beyond the factory gates’:towards more pluralist and radical approaches to intra-organizational trust research

The aim of this paper is to suggest new avenues for trust research by critiquing the extant literature on this topic. We analyze the most influential research on intra-organizational trust from the perspective of a classic industrial sociology framework from the 1970s – Alan Fox’s work on frames of reference and trust dynamics. Our analysis of intra-organizational trust studies leads us to three conclusions. Firstly, the large majority of intra-organizational trust research has strong unitarist underpinnings, which support a managerial agenda that is potentially detrimental to employees’ and (indeed managers’) long-term interests. Secondly, most of this research fails to explain how trust in organizations is embedded in societal and field level institutions, hence it would benefit from looking ‘beyond the factory gates’ for a more complete understanding of trust dynamics in organizations. In this connection, we argue that Fox’s pluralist and radical perspectives, which are under-represented in intra-organizational trust research, could provide new lines of inquiry by locating internal trust relations in a wider institutional context. Thirdly, Fox’s explanation of how low and high trust dynamics in organizations are embedded in wider society may help address the concerns about under-socialized, endogenous explanations and open the way for structure-agency analyses of building, maintaining and repairing intra-organizational trust

Is Transnational Private Regulation Potentially an Effective Means of Promoting Collective Industrial Relations?

This paper asks whether collective industrial relations can be promoted by means other than seeking change in public policy. Recent research points to the increasing significance of transnational private regulation (TPR) in developing economies. There is an emerging consensus that market incentives to improve wages and conditions of work can have a modest positive effect on measurable outcomes like hours of work, and health and safety. However, it appears that TPR has little impact on the capacity of workers to pursue such improvements for themselves via collective action. The paper takes a closer look at the potential of TPR to enhance worker voice and participation. It argues that this potential cannot be properly evaluated without understanding how local actors mobilise the social and political resources that TPR provides. The case studies presented show how different TPR schemes have been used by unions in Africa as a means to pursue the interests of members. The authors found that the scale of the impact of TPR in all of the contexts studied depended almost entirely on the existing capacities and resources of the unions involved. TPR led to the creation of collective industrial relations processes, or helped unions to ensure that certain enterprises participated in existing industrial relations processes, but did virtually nothing to enhance the political and organisational capacity of the unions to influence the outcomes of those processes in terms of wages and conditions of employment. The paper concludes that the potential of TPR to promote the emergence of collective industrial relations systems is very low

Verification within wave resource assessments. Part 1: Statistical analysis

Interest in wave energy as a viable renewable energy has increased greatly in the past couple of decades. To determine the potential that a certain location has to harvest wave energy, a resource assessment must be performed for that location. As wave energy converter technologies get closer to market, it is becoming necessary to undertake more detailed resource assessments in order to determine the optimal location for deployment as well as the design and operating sea states. This study shows the level of sophistication that must be included in the verification process within a wave resource assessment. We describe the methodology in two articles. The first part shows how doing a complete statistical analysis of the fit of the model at the location of interest is essential for determining the reliability of the model data. Part 2 of this study will investigate the systematic trends of the fit of spectral values. In Part 1, it is shown that spatial analysis, the examination of distributions to reveal overall trends, and the careful choice of the appropriate statistical model to describe the fit of the wave model to buoy observations are all critical steps that must be added to verification processes. Part 2 demonstrates that looking closely at the fit of spectral values can reveal potentially vital issues for energy extraction. Better statistical validation gives the predictions of a particular resource assessment greater credibility or reveals areas where model accuracy must be improved. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

High Resolution Wind Power and Wind Drought Models

We present high resolution wind power statistical models fitted to meteorological data for the island of Ireland. We find that a discrete Burr model efficiently represents the number of consecutive hours of wind power availability. Burr models are also useful to model the complement of the wind power availability events, wind droughts, when wind speed is insufficient to produce wind power. The models developed in this study may be most useful at time resolutions less than six hours to capture zero power and short bursts of wind power potential. They could serve as a useful complement to other wind power modelling approaches such as MERRA reanalysis models. Wind power duration models, and their wind drought complements, also provide insights for investors on potential wind power availability at geographic locations.European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)University College Dubli

Verification within wave resource assessments. Part 2: Systematic trends in the fit of spectral values

Interest in wave energy as a viable renewable energy has increased greatly in the past couple of decades. To determine the potential that a certain location has to harvest wave energy, a resource assessment must be performed for that location. As wave energy converter technologies get closer to market, it is becoming necessary to undertake more detailed resource assessments to determine the optimal location for deployment as well as the design and operating sea states. This study shows the level of sophistication that must be included in the verification process within a wave resource assessment. We describe the methodology in two articles. Part 1 described a procedure for a complete statistical analysis of the fit of the model. This paper will demonstrate how investigating systematic trends in the fit of spectral values is essential for determining the precise problem areas of the model and is thus required as part of the verification processes. Lacking this detail could mean failing to notice potentially vital issues for energy extraction at the location of interest. The identification of specific problem areas will enable a well-informed consideration of the necessary next steps for improved prediction of energy extraction. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

High Resolution Wind Power and Wind Drought Models

We present high resolution wind power statistical models fitted to meteorological data for the island of Ireland. We find that a discrete Burr model efficiently represents the number of consecutive hours of wind power availability. Burr models are also useful to model the complement of the wind power availability events, wind droughts, when wind speed is insufficient to produce wind power. The models developed in this study may be most useful at time resolutions less than six hours to capture zero power and short bursts of wind power potential. They could serve as a useful complement to other wind power modelling approaches such as MERRA reanalysis models. Wind power duration models, and their wind drought complements, also provide insights for investors on potential wind power availability at geographic locations.European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)University College Dubli

High Resolution Wind Power Models - An Irish Case Study

This paper focuses on high resolution wind power statistical models fitted to meteorological data for the island of Ireland. A discrete Burr model efficiently represents the number of consecutive hours of wind power availability. The models developed in this study may be most useful at time resolutions less than 6 hours to capture zero power and short bursts of wind power potential. They could serve as a useful complement to other wind power modelling approaches such as MERRA reanalysis models.European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)UCD Energy2