‘Employment across Markets or Nations’: A Review Paper on International and Comparative Employment Relations

On the convergence of industrial societies towards ‘istitutional’ universalism, see (Kerr et al. 1973). Parsonian system and pattern variables, see (Parsons 1951; Cohen 1968).

For a lucid critique on the adverse repercussions of ‘Thatcherism’ and ‘Reagan economics’, which epitomized the rise of neo-liberalism, for labor freedom and workers’ rights, see, for example, Lord Wedderburn 1985. Also see Lord Wedderburn 1991.

Examples of the latest literature discussig the rise of the ‘gig economy’ and its building of ‘platform employment’, made possible by the avances in electronic network communication are (Degrysee 2016) and (Zysman 2015).

On the notion of ‘paradigm shift’ attributed to the advents of ‘post-industrialism, see (Handy 1999).

For a lucid treatment of factionalism and nepotism in the political arena of the People’s Republic, see, for example, (Ping 2003). Also see (McGregor 2010; Fenby 2014; Nolan 2012).

Historically, in the domain of international labor movement, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions was constituted in 1949 by the national trade unions centerss of Western Europe and the United States when they broke away from the World Federation of Trade Unions as the latter was dominated by Soviet Union influence. Concomitantly, the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions was founded in 1920. It was the standard-bearer of the Catholic denomination in the field of labor and employment, with clear sympathy towards the Christian Democratic parties in Europe. During the 1950’s to 1970’s, it focused much of its work in sponsoring trade unionism in Asia and Africa. Its Asian branch was known as the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unions (BATU). Later, secularization of the Federation eventually led to a resolution of its member union centers in 1968 to rescind its Christian label and re-name as the World Congress of Labour, otherwise also later known as the World Confederation of Labour. In furtherance of its secularization process and to consolidate the solidarity of the international labor movement, the World Confederation of Labour waived its own identity and merged, in 2006, with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to form the International Trade Union Confederation. For reference, see, for example, Blackburn and Cross 2016; World Confederation of Labour Archives, retrieved by the International Institute of Social History in August 2007.

On the rise of new white-collar unionism organized by the technicians and their militancy, see, for example, (Gorz 1983; Poulantaz 1975; Carchedi 1975).

A succinct account on the background and rationale of the ‘qualification framework’ system, as it was first developed for vocational training by the European Union for its member nations, can be found in a report published by the Joint Technical Study Group formed by the Education Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the European Qualification Framework Advisory Group of the European Commission. See Joint Study Group 2014. For a comparative review of the European Qualification Framework system and that of Hong Kong, see ibid. Qualification framework, which enumerates and lists the key competencies required for job performance within a hierarchy of levels constituting an occupational or professional structure, yields a systematic and universalistic scheme of skill accreditation procedures which facilitates both vocational/professional training and recruitment and job placement. In a sense, while job evaluation is viewed as the instrument for achieving internal labor market comparability, qualification framework can be considered as the apparatus which leads and promotes external labor market comparability. Hence, qualification framework has the effects of integrating the labor markets of member states of the European Union. Perhaps such a convergence function can work as well in the Hong Kong-China situation if China, like Hong Kong, will adopt eventually the qualification framework system for national skill accreditation. See, for example, (Gospel 2013).

Social auditing pertains essentially to the social domain of quality control which is either administered by an external buyer on its brand producer or performed by the supplier in order to apply for inspection by an external auditing agency for certification of social standards accomplishment. Social auditing can be attributed to the notion of Social Accountability (SA) 8000, which is reminiscent of other international quality control standards. Basically, SA 8000 lists out an inventory of socially acceptable workplace practices and identifies the corresponding criteria for gauging the social performance of the workplace (mostly factories engaging production workers on the shop-floor). Common on the list are child labor, forced labor, health and safety, enumeration, work hours and environment, fair treatment and non-discrimination, disciplinary practices and freedom of association and collective bargaining. The intention of such an exercise is to ensure the eradication of any labor abuses and sweat shop conditions. The Social Accountability standards were written in 1997 by the Social Accountability Accreditation Services of Social Accountability International which belongs to the Council on Economic Priorities. Such an initiative owes its inspiration to the gospel disseminated by the Fair Labor Association, itself a pressure group which was created in 1996 in the United States from the collaborative efforts of universities, civil society bodies and stake-holder capitalism. With an agenda to promote and protect labor’s working conditions 1996, the Association has been articulate in exposing hidden pathos of labor abuses and exploitation in Asian workplaces which served American multi-national companies. At present, there are 23 independent certification agencies world-wide. In China, for example, ‘Guangdong Inspection’ is an agency of such kind which carried out social auditing work for factories in almost all major coastal cities of the country.

In this connection, strikes as a weapon of industrial warfare can be double-edged, to the extent that the eruption of a strike may halt the normal supply of needed goods, hence perverting the interest of the working mass at large. See, for example, Hyman 1972.