TY - BOOK T1 - Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation Y1 - 2010 A1 - Fenwick, C. A1 - Novitz, T. KW - globalization KW - human rights KW - labor standards KW - workers’ rights AB -

Concerns associated with globalisation of markets, exacerbated by the 'credit crunch', have placed pressure on many nation states to make their labour markets more 'flexible'. In so doing, many states have sought to reduce labour standards and to diminish the influence of trade unions as the advocates of such standards. One response to this development, both nationally and internationally, has been to emphasise that workers' rights are fundamental human rights. This collection of essays examines whether this is an appropriate or effective strategy.

The book begins by considering the translation of human rights discourse into labour standards, namely how theory might be put into practice. The remainder of the book tests hypotheses posited in the first chapter and is divided into three parts. The first part investigates, through a number of national case studies, how, in practice, workers' rights are treated as human rights in the domestic legal context. These ten chapters cover African, American, Asian, European, and Pacific countries. The second part consists of essays which analyse the operation of regional or international systems for human rights promotion, and their particular relevance to the treatment of workers' rights as human rights. The final part consists of chapters which explore regulatory alternatives to the traditional use of human rights law. The book concludes by considering the merits of various regulatory approaches. (publisher's statement)

PB - Hart Publishing CY - Portland, OR L2 - eng ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Legal Protection of Workers’ Human Rights: Regulatory Changes and Challenges in the United States T2 - Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation Y1 - 2010 A1 - L. Compa ED - Fenwick, C. ED - Novitz, T. KW - human rights KW - labor law KW - labor movement KW - trade unions KW - union organizing KW - United States KW - worker rights AB -

[Excerpt] In a 2002 study, the US Government Accountability Office reported that more than 32 million workers in the United States lack protection of the right to organise and to bargain collectively. But since then, the situation has worsened. A series of decisions by the federal authorities under President George Bush has stripped many more workers of organising and bargaining rights. The administration took away bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of employees in the new Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department.18 In the years before the 2009 change of administration, a controlling majority of the five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), appointed by President Bush, denied protection to graduate student employees, disabled employees, temporary employees and other categories of workers.

An October 2006, a NLRB decision was especially alarming for labour advocates. The NLRB set out a new, expanded definition of 'supervisor' under the section of US labour law that excludes supervisors from protection of the right to organise and bargain collectively. This exclusion has enormous repercussions for millions of workers who might now become 'supervisors' and lose protection of their organising and bargaining rights.21 This case is discussed in more detail below in connection with a complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association.

JA - Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation PB - Hart Publishing CY - Portland, OR L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/391/ ER -