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The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

The concept of Lean office design has emerged, claiming to support an efficient labour process. This article aims to investigate how the two main perspectives identified in the Lean office: the neo-Tayloristic approach and the team-based approach, based in different historical backgrounds, use the office design to shorten lead time and free up time.

An extensive review is done in the article of what the Lean office concept means for different research areas and to practitioners.

The study presents the two Lean office perspectives in relation to each other, something that has not been done before since it is only recently the team-based Lean office was introduced. The study also presents possible risk and benefits of two perspectives from an employee and organizational perspective.

Since this is a first exploratory review of the Lean office concept based on theories and examples from design practice, further empirical studies are needed to determine risks and benefits of the concept.

The clarifying examples in the article make it useful for people involved in the design and building process of offices.

The article brings together the fields of labour process, office research and facility management with the design practice and presents the two perspectives Lean office design in relation to each other, which has not been done before since the team-based Lean office has only recently been introduced.

For over thirty years, one of the most overt forms of employer opposition to unionization has been anti-union campaigns conducted by union avoidance consultants. As a result, both union and employer associations have attempted to influence the provisions of the LMRDA that cover consultant activities. This article provides the first comprehensive historical analysis of the LMRDA's reporting and disclosure requirements covering employers and consultants. The first section examines consultant reporting policy from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, a period when unions filed relatively few complaints and the DOL initiated few investigations, but the consultant industry expanded significantly. Section two examines developments in the 1980s – the period of greatest congressional and judicial activity on consultant reporting since the 1950s. The final section looks at post-1980s events and examines why organized labor has persisted with its campaign to reform government policy on consultant reporting, despite its inability to make progress on the issue over the past four decades.

Since the late 1970s, US employers have increasingly drawn upon legal temporary labor under the H-2 visa to address their labor needs in low-waged sectors. Ever since, what Clark calls migrant labor activism and conflict in the courts has similarly erupted. However, as she argues in this chapter, making “adversarial legalism” the H-2 way of law has also been a story of comparative state formation. For, the litigation largely reflects the structure of labor migration created after the demise of government-run migration. In this regard, activists wrestle with the problems created by the new role of global labor intermediaries in the recruitment process, absolute employer control over hiring and firing, and the coercion produced in the shadow of a now minimally interventionist state. Drawing upon archival research, interviews with legal professionals, and the entire case law docket in this area, this chapter puts “adversarial legalism” under the H-2 visa in its historical and political context.

The ‘hostile environment’ agenda of Government has effectively endorsed the deliberate exploitation of irregular migrants in the agricultural industry. This minor project of jurisprudence will provide two arguments in support of this hypothesis. Firstly, the vulnerabilities faced by irregular migrants are reinforced through the xenophobic narrative embodied within the law and the courts. The lack of priority afforded to modern slavery on the UK Policy Agenda has allowed a ‘grey labour market’ (1) to develop. Irregular migrants face a ‘precarity paradox’ and (2) they must avoid the carceral regime of immigration control by entering into unprotected and deliberately exploitative work. Secondly, a lacklustre attempt to remedy the corruption in the horticultural industry proves that the state is preoccupied, capitalising on irregular labour practice in the interests of state capital. Thus, the Government allows the commodification of workers within the supply chain to profit British businesses.

In this chapter, we examine the multifaceted challenges that feminist labor organizations face in decommodifying the lives and labor of poor and working-class women. Using an in-depth case study of domestic worker organizing in South Korea, we find that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the National House Managers Cooperative and the Korean Women Workers Association became entangled in hegemonic state projects that linked support for women’s basic livelihoods to the proliferation of part-time, informal domestic work in the context of widespread crises. To challenge the discriminatory and market-driven logics of state-driven social protection efforts, these NGOs have advanced an emancipatory agenda to improve the working conditions, labor rights, and social dignity of domestic workers through consciousness-raising grassroots organizing methods and contentious policy advocacy campaigns. Their social movement transformation goals, however, have been constrained by the relative organizational isolation and limited organizational capacity of feminist labor NGOs in a broader context of neoliberal precaritization and gender-stratified labor markets. The myriad dilemmas facing domestic worker organizing in an era of global hegemonic market rule highlight the need to develop new political imaginaries to contest gender and economic injustice.

Lack of progress advancing labour provisions in multilateral trade instruments has led some countries to develop their own labour chapters in bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements. This study aims to track the evolution of 25 years of labour chapters in Canadian trade agreements.

Modelled on Hoekman (1995), the authors present a novel index using the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) core labour standards to compare and evaluate ambition and enforcement in Canada’s labour chapters.

The quality of Canada’s labour chapters has steadily improved from 1994 to 2020, with scores rising from 46 to 91 out of 100. In addition, Canada has used its negotiating leverage to encourage partners with weak labour regimes to make improvements. Yet, the highest quality chapters were achieved with trade partners similar to Canada, and those chapters have not pushed either party to improve their own domestic labour regimes. The authors discuss the limits of the ILO standards for addressing contemporary debates about labour and trade.

The authors’ assessment provides the first empirical evidence to demonstrate that Canada’s labour chapters have evolved over time, and that the origins of this evolution predate the Liberal government’s progressive trade agenda by several decades. The authors also suggest that Canada’s “middle road” compromise on ambition versus enforceability may increase the relevance of the index for research on other middle powers and potentially countries in the global south.

National population census data were used to analyse patterns of labour absorption by occupation at the national level: by sex and five‐year group, and by urban and rural zones. The technique used is the Absorption Ratio relating percentage change in a structural variable to percentage change as a demographic variable.

In the aftermath of the Communist Era, Czechs and Slovaks sought to enter the European Union (EU) in order to participate in Western European markets and polities. To gain entry, they had to reform their labor laws based on EU protocols. This study analyzes changes in labor law in the Czech Republic by focusing on differences between statutes and regulations in the Communist and Post-Communist Eras. The study is framed by international approaches to law that locate sources of legal change in international organizations and protocols. In reforming Czech labor law, EU labor law standards were established through internal political processes that were themselves shaped by EU requirements rooted in pluralism and the rule of law.

Neurodiverse conditions, or developmental disorders, are neither well-known nor understood by the general population in Trinidad and Tobago. Awareness of, or sensitivity toward, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in particular, is lacking in Trinidad and Tobago. Generation A is those persons who will reach adulthood in the next decade or so and be seeking employment opportunities. Given the current challenges faced by persons with ASD in securing and maintaining employment and the fact that this is a generally underexplored area of research, focusing on Generation A provides an opportunity to explore what provisions are in place for individuals with ASD to assist with future transitions into the workplace in Trinidad and Tobago. This chapter focuses on the existing policy, legal, and institutional framework in Trinidad and Tobago for ASD in the workplace, with particular reference to Generation A, to determine how it is currently addressed and what accommodations are being made to facilitate this demographic. A review of ASD-related data and select, relevant policy, law and institutions in Trinidad and Tobago has revealed that very few preparations, if any, are being made to facilitate Generation A individuals' entry into the workplace. The most relevant sector for addressing ASD needs falls to the NGO movement, but these organizations do not focus on employment preparation. Several recommendations for the key stakeholders in this process have been made that can assist in this regard.