Rethinking the Regulation of Vulnerable Work in the USA: A Sector-based Approach

Abstract

This article discusses one of the major challenges of US workplace policy: protecting roughly 35m workers who are vulnerable to a variety of major risks in the workplace. After laying out the dimensions of this problem, I show that the vulnerable workforce is concentrated in a subset of sectors with distinctive industry characteristics. Examining how employer organizations relate to one another in these sectors provides insight into some of the causes as well as possible solutions for redressing workforce vulnerability in the US as well as other countries facing similar problems.

Protecting workers through supply chains: Lessons from two construction case studies

“…The findings obtained therefore echo other analyses pointing to the way in which supply chain relationships are crucially influenced by the nature of surrounding institutional environment (Gereffi et al, 2005;Marchington and Vincent, 2004;Weil, 2009) by indicating that positive supply chain effects are most likely to occur in contexts where regulatory and wider social pressures act to create supporting market contexts. That is in institutional contexts where market, and related inter-organisational, logics are importantly shaped by supplemental regulatory and reputational risks which together create a supportive 'organisational field' (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983).…”

“…One approach advocated to affording such protection has been to encourage powerful actors to utilise the power and influence they wield over the often multi-tiered networks of purchasers and suppliers that make up the supply chains which contribute to the provision of their own goods and services to ensure that the provision of certain minimum employment conditions within them (Johnstone et al, 2001;Weil, 2009). This approach has been advocated despite the fact that these same actors often have precisely the opposite effect as a result of the cost and delivery pressures they impose on their suppliers and hence the way in which they contribute to the driving down of terms and conditions in such organisations (Cunningham et al, 2013;Wright and Lund, 2003;James and Lloyd, 2008;Walters and James, 2011;Rubery et al, 2003).…”

What motivates employers to establish preventive management arrangements within supply chains?

“…The first of these is that, given the fragmented and dispersed nature of the work undertaken within supply chains, both domestically and internationally, it would seem unlikely that existing state regulatory agencies will possess the capacity to meaningfully monitor of compliance with these new frameworks on their own. The second is that there would consequently seem a strong case in developing such regulatory strategies to explore how the work of such agencies can be supplemented, as has recently been suggested by Weill in a series of papers, by the creation of obligations (and incentives) relating to the establishment of private monitoring systems by those occupying influential positions within supply chains and the opportunity for their further scrutiny by those outside them (Weil, 2008(Weil, , 2009Weil and Mallo, 2007).…”

Systematic review of qualitative literature on occupational health and safety legislation and regulatory enforcement planning and implementation

“…Moreover, policy-makers need to consider how inspectors can become aware of and act on the juncture between labor relations and occupational health (46,47). Proposals for renewed OHS regulation design, which include reducing reliance on complaints-based approaches, strategic targeting of OHS regulative resources, and legislation aimed at OHS management (2,40,(48)(49)(50)(51), have been put forward but have not been a focus for qualitative research. Qualitative OHS researchers could focus more on how OHS authorities adapt to complex conditions including "upstream" accountabilities in relation to problems such as design of imported equipment as well as those related to outsourcing risk, for instance, advanced economy jurisdictions contracting clothing manufacturing in Bangladesh.…”