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During the last two decades public administration and public services have undergone profound changes with far-reaching impacts on employment relations and working conditions. The paper presents the perceptions and lived experiences of workers affected by liberalization and privatization of public services. In doing so it focuses on workers' ideas of fairness and dignity at work using the concepts of distribution, recognition and the public ethos of the common good and linking them to fundamental principles of justice. It is argued that the perception of inequalities as fair, while it is shaped by custom, is also being socially constructed during far-reaching changes. The analysis is based on a series of qualitative interviews conducted in Austria, Germany and Switzerland with postal-service workers, a sector well suited for the analysis because of the far-reaching changes in terms of market regulation, ownership of organizations, labour regulation, employment and working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature seeks to establish a relationship between India's supposedly "restrictive" labour laws and its poor performance on a range of industrial and social indicators. After providing an overview of this literature, this article shows that multiple errors were made in the foundational papers that constructed indices measuring interstate differences in labour regulation. These indices were then misinterpreted as measures of labour market flexibility. The literature is also marred by econometric problems and by difficulties involved in replicating the analysis with corrected and updated indices. The author concludes by summarizing evidence of deteriorating labour market outcomes for workers in Indian manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her introductory paper, the coordinator of this Special Issue puts the selection of subsequent contributions into context. Traditional industrial relations institutions, born of labour law's premise of unbalanced power relations between the worker and the employer, are being undermined by unprecedented global changes in patterns of work and forms of employment. This trend, compounded by the emergence of alternative forms of worker representation, poses a major challenge not only to conventional tradeunionism but also to policy and to industrial relations scholarship. This Special Issue is intended as a contribution to the ensuing, ongoing debate about the direction of future change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: La perspectiva insider‐outsider, dominante en el discurso sobre la regulación laboral, sostiene que las disposiciones protectoras se mantienen vigentes en interés de sus beneficiarios (insiders), aunque perjudican a otros trabajadores menos acomodados (outsiders). Si la contraposición entre ambas categorías fuera tal como se formula en el modelo, los outsiders se opondrían rotundamente a la regulación. Sin embargo, nuestras evidencias de que los outsiders en los países en desarrollo están mayoritariamente a favor de las medidas regulatorias obligan a replantear la tajante dicotomía insider‐outsider. Sugerimos distintas líneas de investigación, como los procesos redistributivos, las transiciones, la equidad y el poder del empleador en los mercados de trabajo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue aims to enrich the discussion on individual employment re‐regulation by introducing the concept of legal segmentation from a global perspective and distinguishing between the standard‐setting, privileging and equalizing functions of employment law. This introductory article draws on a new database created by the authors that allows countries worldwide to be clustered into types of legal segmentation. It presents the authors' methodology and initial findings, which are contrasted with the regional and thematic studies in this Special Issue. Together, these contributions provide policy proposals to support the creation and enforcement of inclusive rules protecting all working people worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article captures the shared understanding in the literature of labour law's interaction with gender, distinguishing between law's different functions – constituting labour market institutions, sustaining them, addressing unwarranted outcomes and transforming the institutions. Constituted, in part, by law, the standard employment relationship and the institutions of formal employment have segmenting gendered effects. While legal norms designed to correct these effects are important, they also sustain them. The authors argue for a transformative alternative that would follow two general principles in designing new labour standards, namely, universalization of scope and adaptive content in the interests of differently situated women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: El objetivo de este número monográfico es enriquecer el debate sobre la nueva regulación («rerregulación») del derecho individual del trabajo, aplicando el concepto de segmentación legal desde una perspectiva mundial y distinguiendo tres funciones de la legislación laboral: estandarización, constitución de privilegios e igualación. En este artículo introductorio se utiliza una nueva base de datos creada por los autores, que permite agrupar los países según una tipología de segmentación legal. Además de abordar las cuestiones metodológicas, se exponen las conclusiones preliminares, contrastándolas con los estudios regionales y temáticos de este monográfico, que proponen políticas destinadas a crear y aplicar normas protectoras inclusivas para todos los trabajadores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: El derrumbe del Rana Plaza en 2013 puso de relieve la deficiente regulación laboral en las cadenas mundiales de valor del sector de la confección. Ocho años después, en plena pandemia por COVID‐19, los autores se plantean, utilizando el concepto de sistema de gobernanza del trabajo (SGT), qué ha cambiado y con qué consecuencias para los trabajadores. Con datos de entrevistas, observan mejoras en la seguridad de los edificios, pero no en salarios, horas de trabajo y derechos procedimentales. La pandemia ha exacerbado las deficiencias, pero podría convertirse en un nuevo evento focalizador para mejorar el sistema, para lo cual se formulan propuestas de políticas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Revista Internacional del Trabajo is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Internacional del Trabajo is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, it is argued that Bill McCarthy's work in the field of industrial relations brought him into a profound engagement with labour law, despite his initial commitment to the credo of 'collective laissez-faire' with its assertion of a minimal role for labour law in that field. His approach to the post-1970 developments in labour law was an essentially pragmatic and empirical one, but he maintained the ideals of social justice and collective solidarity and continued to suggest ways in which labour law could best be harnessed to the service of those ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Internacional del Trabajo is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)