When industrial democracy meets corporate social responsibility – a comparison of the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance as responses to the Rana Plaza disaster

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Industrial Democracy are two paradigmatic approaches to transnational labour governance. They differ considerably with regards to the role accorded to the representation of labour. CSR tends to view workers as passive recipients of corporate-led initiatives, with little attention paid to the role of unions. Industrial Democracy centres on labour involvement: Those affected by governance need to be part of it. Examining the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance as governance responses to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, this article offers a comparative perspective of how Industrial Democracy-oriented and CSRoriented translate into differences in implementation. The paper highlights that while CSR can foster effective problem-solving in the short run, Industrial Democracy is necessary to build governance capacities involving workers in the long run

Uneven development, uneven response: the relentless search for meaningful regulation of GVCs

The regulation of employment in global value chains (GVCs) is a story of the interaction of corporation and state in transnational space, where uneven international development has allowed the commodification and exploitation of international labour. Global standards are well articulated by bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN. We know what ‘decent work’ should look like as well as what all workers should enjoy as basic employment and human rights. Yet, internationally, the different mechanisms of private and public regulation fail at the point of implementation and across the world we see no fundamental shift in the condition of labour in terms of its capacity for social or economic upgrading. This article examines the regulatory mechanisms, and outcomes of regulation, of industrial relations in GVCs. It commends a future research agenda to illuminate the interaction between different sources of standards and rules and the complexities of intersecting private and public regulation, in the pursuit of enforceable, meaningful regulation of work and employment in international supply chains

The strange non-retreat of the state : implications for the sociology of work

The article critically reviews the reasons for the decline in the engagement with the state in the sociology of work after the 1970s, and for its resurgence after the financial crisis of 2008. It assesses three separate streams of literature (sociology of work, political sociology and welfare state sociology), and argues for the benefits of their integration. Articles in this special section of Work, employment and society provide examples of the mutual utility of such integration. This introduction concludes by identifying some important avenues for future research on the state and work

Brexit : EU social policy and the UK employment model

Big claims that are often unsubstantiated are made about the likely impact of Brexit on the UK labour market. This paper seeks to go beyond the rhetoric and present a careful assessment of the employment relations consequences of Brexit for the UK. It addresses four key questions in particular: will Brexit end UK engagement in the EU’s free movement of labour regime and if so what will be the labour market consequences for the UK?; to what extent will Brexit weaken employment rights in the UK?; what impact will Brexit have on the behaviour of trade unions and on the functioning of collective bargaining in the UK?; and finally what will be the effect of Brexit on the interactions between London and Brussels on wider employment policy questions. The paper argues that Brexit poses acute policy dilemmas for the UK Government that are likely to generate considerable political and economic uncertainty. The fallout from this uncertainty is hard to predict in advance. It could either open the door to a Corbyn-led Labour Government or alternatively to an even more thorough-going deregulation of the UK labour market

Global supply chains and social relations at work: Brokering across boundaries

© 2018, © The Author(s) 2018. Global supply chains are not just instruments for the exchange of economic goods and flow of capital across borders. They also connect people in unprecedented ways across social and cultural boundaries and have created new, interrelated webs of social relationships that are socially embedded. However, most of the existing theories of work are mainly based at the level of the corporation, not on the network of relations that interlink them, and how this may impact on work and employment relations. We argue that this web of relations should not just be seen in economic, but also social terms, and that the former are embedded and enabled by the latter. This article argues for the value of focusing on the role of brokers and boundary workers in mediating social relat ions across global supply chains. It develops four approaches that lie on a spectrum from structural perspectives focused on brokers who link otherwise unconnected actors to more constructivist ones focused on boundary workers performing translation work between domains

Global supply chains and social relations at work : brokering across boundaries

Global supply chains are not just instruments for the exchange of economic goods and flow of capital across borders. They also connect people in unprecedented ways across social and cultural boundaries and have created new, interrelated webs of social relationships that are socially embedded. However, most of the existing theories of work are mainly based at the level of the corporation, not on the network of relations that interlink them, and how this may impact on work and employment relations. We argue that this web of relations should not just be seen in economic, but also social terms, and that the former are embedded and enabled by the latter. This article argues for the value of focusing on the role of brokers and boundary workers in mediating social relations across global supply chains. It develops four approaches that lie on a spectrum from structural perspectives focused on brokers who link otherwise unconnected actors to more constructivist ones focused on boundary workers performing translation work between domains

The life and death of Irish social partnership : lessons for social pacts

From 1987-2009, Irish social partnership operated as a national framework for industrial relations. The contribution of the paper is twofold. We seek to link the institutional dynamics of social partnership with the Régulation School’s notions of modes of accumulation and regimes of régulation This framework is used to explain the rise and fall of social partnership in Ireland. We argue that the regime of social partnership in Ireland can be divided into two distinct periods. In the first, social partnership contributed positively to a benign productivity-led mode of accumulation. In the second, it lost its economic functionality due mostly to financialization taking a grip in the Irish economy. The conclusion is that social partnership had both positive and negative features, but it is unlikely to be repeated in the foreseeable future, at least not in Ireland

Deliberation, employment relations and social partnership in the Republic of Ireland

This article discusses the potential role of deliberation as an alternative to bargaining in industrial relations. This is carried out through the examination of a case study of a working group designed to formulate mechanisms to encourage workplace financial participation in the Republic of Ireland. It suggests that a specific set of circumstances are required for effective deliberation and that the reality of achieving these in industrial relations contexts is unlikely. In particular, the inability of parties to take an impartial stance hinders them from taking a more detached perspective. In conclusion, the article questions the usefulness of the deliberation concept in industrial relations