A New Slavery

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
Debasish Roy Chowdhury ◽  
John Keane
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Debt Bondage ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
New Form ◽  
Forced Labour

This chapter addresses the harsh realities of work in India. The reality, brutally exposed by the migrant worker crisis in the 2020 lockdown, is that there is an acute shortage of paid work that is safe, meaningful, and offers remuneration sufficient for citizens and their dependents to live a decent social life. Forced child labour is common, as is bonded labour. Huge numbers of women have either been pushed out of the labour market or still cling in desperation to paid menial work. There is a vast pool of poorly paid unskilled workers who suffer debt bondage and casual work. Joblessness is also pervasive. If the lack of minimum or decent wages amounts to ‘forced labour’, or slavery, then Indian slaves are everywhere. The chapter also looks at the vexed relationship between democracy and this new form of slavery.

Socio economic determinants of child labour in selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Nabeela Begum ◽  
Javed Iqbal ◽  
Hina
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ◽  
Socioeconomic Characteristics ◽  
Education Organization ◽  
Children Education

This study examines the determinants of child labour in Mardan and Nowshera districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Primary data on socioeconomic characteristics of children engaged and did not engage in child labour were obtained from Labour Education Organization Mardan. Age of the children and family size are positively and education is negatively and significantly associated with the probability of children participation in labour market. The probability of child labour is more with the household income although with a very low coefficient value which is contrary to our expectations and may ne indicative that child labour could be a major source of household income. This study suggests that subsidies may be provided to families for their children education. Family size is also positively related to the child labour, therefore steps may be taken towards encouraging small family sizes and thereby reducing the child labour.

‘A man’s work was a man’s life’

Bread Winner ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 62-85
Author(s):  
Emma Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Young Age ◽  
Male Identity ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
Over Time

This chapter reveals the significance for work to male identity. Here, it shows how the centrality of work dominates men's autobiographies. Work was the key feature of a man's life and it was very often the motif by which male writers structured the story of their life. For most working-class men, work was equated with manhood — ‘I was a man and I knew it’. The chapter goes on to discuss how many Victorian children commenced their working lives at a considerably young age, particularly early in the reign when the place of children in the labour market was much more loosely regulated. Furthermore, to a far greater extent than girls, boys' experiences of work were shaped by the legislative framework as child labour laws became increasingly restrictive over time. This changing legal framework for child labour is clearly visible in the male autobiographies.

scholarly journals In Support of a 'Living Wage': Research on International and Danish Trends and Issues of 'Working Poor'.

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erling Rasmussen ◽  
Jens Lind
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Limit State ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Working Poor ◽  
Living Wage ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Starting Point

In May 2012, a campaign started in support of a New Zealand ‘living wage’. This happened in light of many New Zealand workers receiving wages at or just above the statutory minimum wage and that several fast-growing sectors continue to establish many low paid jobs. While the paper’s starting point is the New Zealand ‘living wage’ debate, the issues discussed have been part of international debates about the existence and consequences of low paid work. These debates have highlighted that some countries have been better at containing low paid work. On this background, this paper focuses on the trends and issues surrounding ‘working poor’ in Denmark. As detailed, the Danish labour market has succeeded in having a relatively low level of ‘working poor’. This has even happened in several service sector industries renowned for their propensity to create low paying jobs. However, the paper also questions the stability of the so-called Danish Model based on an open labour market with large in- and outflows of migrants and with a reliance on collective bargaining/agreements, with limit state regulation and, in particular, no statutory minimum wage.

Volunteer Work, Inclusivity, and Social Equality

2018 ◽  
pp. 306-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Tsuruda
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Employment Law ◽  
Volunteer Work ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Law

This chapter argues that current attempts in employment law to distinguish volunteers from employees on the basis of volunteer work’s civic, humanitarian, or charitable character are premised on overly narrow views of the moral significance of work. The chapter proposes that the law distinguish volunteer work from employment on the basis of the work’s merit inclusivity—inclusivity with respect to skill and ability. By offering people access to a broader range of social projects than their skills might offer in the labour market, merit inclusive volunteering opportunities can lessen the risk that skill and ability will confine people to particular social roles. Distinguishing volunteers from employees on the basis of merit inclusivity can thus create a more principled volunteer–employee legal boundary and can preserve legal space for work that lessens inegalitarian effects of the labour market on opportunities to participate in social life.

Low Wages and Lousy Jobs

2020 ◽  
pp. 106-129
Author(s):  
Daniel Halliday ◽  
John Thrasher
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Executive Pay ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Low Wages

This chapter addresses some principal questions about labor market justice. Some of these are old concerns about the persistence of poverty due to the forces that keep wages low among unskilled workers. This leads to worries about exploitation. It will also examine the concern, most often associated with Marx, that much paid work is of a character that is detrimental to human flourishing, or serves to “alienate” workers from their labor. The focus then moves to more recent trends, such as the rise in executive pay and other aspects of “labor market polarization.” These motivate some discussion of whether it’s unjust for a few people to earn so much more than everyone else.

Studying the Particular, Illuminating the General: Community Studies and Community in Wales

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 672-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickie Charles ◽  
Charlotte Aull Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
The Family ◽  
Community People ◽  
Work Affect ◽  
General Community

This article is inspired by Frankenberg's (1990) claim that the best way to understand general social processes is through the study of their manifestation in the details of social life. We look at how studies of community that have been carried out in Wales, particularly Village on the Border and The Family and Social Change ( Rosser and Harris, 1965 ), have accomplished this link between the particular and the general. We then consider the findings of our own research, which is a restudy of Rosser and Harris, showing how they provide a counterbalance to grand theoretical claims about the transformations that are affecting community and family life. We find that although factors such as increasing geographical mobility and women's greater participation in paid work affect people's experiences of community, people continue to place a high value on what they call communities. Such communities are spoken about and defined in different ways but all are based on local social networks of kin, neighbours and friends and/or locally-based associations. They are also gendered, with women playing a key role at both informal and formal levels of community. We suggest that the apparent resilience of local social relations evident in our research may help to explain the continued cultural and political resonance of community in Wales.

6. Problems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Real ◽  
Moral Hazards ◽  
The Welfare State

The welfare state is, at its core, a problem-solving apparatus, designed to manage dysfunctions that are endemic to the economic and social life of modern nations. But welfare states also generate problems of their own—such as moral hazards, excessive bureaucracy, soaring costs, and labour market rigidities—that sometimes threaten to bring the whole enterprise into disrepute. ‘Problems’ shows that these issues are troubling and consequential, but in weighing their significance we ought always to ask: ‘what can be done?’ and ‘what are the alternatives?’ That the welfare state has its problems is undeniable. The real question is whether these problems are manageable and how they compare to those of other arrangements.

scholarly journals Job demands & control among employees in Sweden aged 55-64 and labour market status 11 years later

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Farrants ◽  
K Alexanderson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Job Control ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Market Status ◽  
High Control ◽  
Labour Market Status

Abstract Background As discussions about extending working lives are ongoing, more knowledge is warranted on how psychosocial working conditions are associated with labour market status in older age. Aim Among employees aged 55-64 years, explore associations between job demands/control with their labour market status 11 years later, using a job exposure matrix (JEM). Methods A population-based prospective cohort study using nationwide register data. All 616,818 individuals in Sweden who in 2001 were in paid work and aged 55-64, were categorized using JEM into 9 groups, based on tertiles. They were followed up in 2012 regarding their labour market status (main income from: paid work, old-age pension, marginalised (no income/social assistance), sickness absence >183 net days, emigrated, dead) using multinomial logistic regression for odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), controlling for labour market status and sociodemographics in 2001. Analyses were stratified by sex. Results The majority (women: 84.9%, men: 80.3%) had main income from old-age pension at the 11-year follow-up; 4.7% from paid work (women: 3.9%, men: 5.6%). Those initially in jobs with high demands were less likely to be marginalised at follow-up (OR women high demands/medium control 0.51, CI 0.38-0.68, high demands/high control 0.68, CI 0.50-0.92; OR men high demands/medium control 0.55, CI 0.31-0.96, high demands/high control 0.47, CI 0.30-0.73). Those in occupations with low demands were less likely to be in paid work (OR women low demands/low control 0.56, CI 0.51-0.62, low demands/medium control 0.63, CI 0.58-0.69; OR men low demands/low control 0.56, CI 0.51-0.63, low demands/medium control 0.63, CI 0.58-0.69). Conclusions High job demands with high job control among people aged 55-64 in 2001 were associated with higher rate and OR of having main income from paid work in 2012, and high job demands regardless of level of job control were associated with less marginalisation. Key messages Levels of job demands when aged 55-64 were associated with labour market status 11 years later for women and men, while levels of job control were less so. High job demands were associated with a higher likelihood of being in paid work and lower likelihood of being marginalised at the end of follow-up.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document