The Global Workplace

Abstract

With the forces of globalization as a backdrop, this casebook develops labor and employment law in the context of the national laws of nine countries important to the global economy - the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan and India. These national jurisdictions are highlighted by considering international labor standards promulgated by the International Labor Organization as well as the rulings and standards that emerge from two very different regional trade arrangements - the labor side accord to NAFTA and the European Union. Across all these different sources of law, this book considers the law of individual employment, collective labor law dealing with unionization as well as the laws against discrimination, the laws protecting privacy and the systems used to resolve labor and employment disputes. This is the first set of law school course materials in English covering international and comparative employment and labor law.

Union Strategies, National Institutions and the Use of Temporary Labour in Italian and US Plants

“…In the United States, an employer's advantage in using temporary workers is related not only to external numerical flexibility as a way to help the company adjust rapidly to external market fluctuations but also to cost considerations. This is because certain laws protecting permanent workers, such as antidiscrimination provisions (the Fair Labor Standards Act) and workers' health and safety (Occupational Safety and Health Act -OSHA), do not always apply to temporary labour (Blanpain et al 2008). Moreover, in the case of agency workers, the concept of 'co-employment' applied by US courts, under which temporary work agencies and client companies are co-employers of the agency worker, is often used by companies to hire agency workers to circumvent legal compliance obligations (Mitlacher 2007).…”

Workplace processes and employment opportunities for vulnerable social groups

“…In the USA, the backbone of anti-discrimination legislation is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is in general well enforced. The USA was the innovator in employment discrimination law, developing principles that were later adopted and adapted by European countries (Blanpain et al, 2008). Suk (2012) highlights an important difference from European systems: employment equality requires that individuals (including women) make free choices over their work, unconstrained by stereotypes or collective beliefs.…”

“…How is diversity managed within workplaces (Klarsfeld et al, 2012)? Certainly, vulnerable social groups – those who are marginalized for their social characteristics – can be subject to discrimination (Blanpain et al, 2008). For instance, in the EU-28, the average gender pay gap was 16 percent in 2017 (Eurostat, 2019).…”

“…I use the term ‘migrant’ to refer non-native workers who do not have citizenship, not to Black and minority ethnic workers who possess such rights. The latter group is present in substantial numbers in the USA and in Europe, although discrimination may still occur (Blanpain et al, 2008). My decision to focus on (documented) migrant workers reflects their specific needs in terms of legal support (citizenship, residency permits) and social integration (housing, tax systems), which are less relevant in the case of more established ethnic minorities or non-native people in general (Marino et al, 2017).…”

Cause, effect, and solution? The uneasy relationship between older age bias and age discrimination law

“…), must ensure legal conformance to E.U. directives, which are binding yet flexible supra-national legal measures that member states translate into national law (Blanpain et al, 2012). While equal treatment has been a concern in Europe since the 1970s, particularly regarding gender equality, during the last 15 years new antidiscrimination legislation has been produced at both the supra-national and the national level, including several important E.U.…”