Employment Protection Legislation in Haiti

The merit of employment regulations in a market economy is often measured by their effectiveness in facilitating job creation without jeopardizing the notion of “decent work,” as defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Consequently, the recent literature on employment legislation has extensively focused on the flexibility of the labor market, as a fair middle ground is always necessary to avoid undue distortions that can negatively impact the economy and worker's wellbeing. This chapter analyzes the provisions of the labor law in Haiti and how it affects job security and flexibility to observe a flexible structure that rather benefits employers. Notably, labor law in Haiti may have in fact rendered workers more vulnerable because these labor legislations were enacted on the assumption that employers and workers are on the same footing when it comes to industrial relations, while historic facts do not support such an assumption.

Employment Protection Legislation and Unemployment in Botswana

Botswana has experienced phenomenon economic growth and structural transformation since independence. Despite the achievement in terms of economic growth, the country has had challenges with unemployment averaging 20% and being quite high for youth. The labour laws have changed over time to conform to international standards. The current changes have, however, not been positive in terms of labour relations with the transition from consultative system to collective bargaining almost forestalled. The labour movement has been quite weak. The labour laws have had mixed impact on employment and the labour market and employment creation. The chapter makes key recommendations on how Botswana's labour environment can be transformed based on international experience. Key recommendations are towards employment creation and improving the social dialogue space, especially for labour as the weaker party. This should go a long way in increasing labour productivity and dealing with the persistent problem of poor work ethic.

Brazil's Employment Regulation and Outsourcing

This chapter analyzes the evolution of employment regulation in Brazil in order to understand the current moment that it is experiencing. In the current political, economic, and social crisis scenario, the protection system, which is historically valid and justified by the intense social inequalities, is questioned as the country is trying to deal with the urgencies of a big economic downturn without trust of local and international investors in internal market. An intensely advanced legal and judicial system in terms of constitutional principles and guarantees faces a number of structural problems that affect its effectiveness, while at the same time, in the middle of the scenario, the effectiveness and immediacy of the legal and judicial solutions becomes urgent. This chapter finally aims to analyze, in a historical and systematic way, and through statistical data related to employability, GDP and litigation linked to the subject of labor relations, how this Latin “giant” stands and seeks the solution between proposals for legislative reform.

The Social Protection Agenda and the Burden of Responsibility and Sustainability

Social protection represents part of the global agenda of the International Labour Organization in its concerted attempt to improve and promote global labour standards, labour rights as human rights, and reduce poverty. The situation of African countries is precarious given the poor state of their economies, poor national incomes, and the widespread state of poverty. In addition, most African countries south of the Sahara have poor databases on vital statistics, security insecurity, mono-cultural economies, and the failure to effectively entrench governance and democratic institutions and reforms, amongst others. How could the problem of corruption, graft, theft of public funds, and the cumbersome bureaucratic bottlenecks that are so prevalent in Africa be minimized if not eliminated? The chapter, therefore, anchors its analysis on two African countries: Nigeria and Ghana. But how can social protection be funded in a sustainable way? These are the objectives that are being pursued in this chapter.

Regulating Occupational Health and Safety in EU and China

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is an important aspect of the labour protection field. This chapter compares OHS legal regimes of China and EU. Comprehensive workplace health and safety legislations of the two systems are described, and the different aspects, including for example, legislative aim, the legislation structure, general obligation, OHS insurance, moral harassment, law enforcement, etc., are detailed. Based on the analysis, conclusions are made and policy recommendations from both legislation aspect and enforcement aspect are provided.

Employment Protection Legislation in Emerging Economies

With emerging economies facing significant lags in the use of information technology to improve their productivity and compete with industrialized economies, the availability of relatively lower-cost labor in the emerging economies is considered a powerful asset that can compensate for their technological disadvantage. However, regulating the labor market often proves to be rather challenging as it is important that a balance be struck between protecting workers and stimulating economic growth. This chapter analyzes the literature on labor market regulations in the emerging economies to observe that the trade-off between employment protection legislation (EPL), job creation, productivity, and innovation often cited in the literature is not conclusive.

Employment Protection in South Africa

This chapter tests the existing (labour and social security-related) legislation against the South African constitutional framework, as well as international and regional standards. The issues to be addressed specifically include the following: 1) Is the existing legislation pertaining to employment protection, unemployment, and work constitutionally compliant? 2) Is it correct to expect legislation (and state policy) to regulate matters such as job-retention and work creation (for example, by activating the work force and through the creation of public works programmes), and if so, does the present statutory and policy framework address this expectation adequately? 3) To what extent is the legislation compliant with international standards and best practices, and are there fresh approaches to address the present malaise, perhaps emanating from regional standards and experiences? 4) Finally, are there any best practices or lessons learned through the South African experience that should influence developments in other emerging economies?

An Inventory of Employment Protection Legislation in France

This chapter presents an inventory of the employment protection legislation (EPL) in France. As shown by the OECD indicators, legal provisions have met with an overall stability since the 1980s, despite some reforms weighing in favor of flexibility. Simultaneously, France has been faced with a high rate of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, as well as with a phenomenon of dualization of its job market. Precariousness remains limited to a part of workers whose situation tends, however, to worsen. This twofold observation leads us to the conclusion that current employment protection is relatively powerless, with a bleak future. Therefore, an adaptation to current circumstances is required, such adaptation being coupled with an improvement of the training system. Flexicurity is the direction that seems unavoidable in order to guide future reforms in France.

Labor Protection in Mexico

If one looks for a representative emerging economy to examine the different effects of labor reforms, Mexico provides an important case study. In order to boost economic recovery, the government promoted infrastructure spending, transfers to development banks, support to small and medium-sized enterprises, and to the export sector. As usual labor-management relations are uneven in Mexico and union issues can be complex, to reduce the negative consequences related to the sharp increase of unemployment, the government tried to focus more on the generation of employment introducing several measures such as training and temporary jobs to facilitate the withdrawal of savings from the mandatory individual pension accounts, coverage of the medical insurance and maternity benefits for dismissed workers, among others. But, challenges such as the informal economy, minimum wage convenience, flexible labor contracts, entrepreneur vulnerability, and higher education labor market have to be faced.

Economic Variations and Their Impact on Labor Legislation Throughout History in Argentina

Throughout history, Argentina has undergone a series of profound economic variations, which, as such, have produced a strong impact on labor legislation and social security. The access key in Argentina to labour law protection is the existence of a relationship of dependence. This turns to be an inclusive and exclusive condition because it divides strictly the labour market and the labour force inherent in two different areas, namely, the subordinate workers (who are included in the labour protection system) and the rest of the employees, including among the latest, the ones involved in non-typical forms of employment contracts. For such purposes, it is important to analyze different periods of time, selecting the more significant ones to see the evolution of Argentinean labour legislation. It is also relevant to describe the consequences caused by economic and political variations on collective bargaining in order to understand the composition of the actual labour force in Argentina.