Improving worker rights in globalizing economies

The project aims to analyse the effects of labour provisions in trade and investment arrangements, which have been proliferating significantly in the last two decades. The purpose of this analysis is to contribute to strengthening the knowledge base on the effectiveness on international economic governance arrangements dealing with labour standards in terms of improving workers’ rights in the countries concerned. This analysis is carried out in three steps: First, a legal mapping of labour provisions in the available arrangements, notably their normative content and legal implications, will be carried out. Based on this review, the project will, second, analyse to which extent these labour provisions have had an impact on the implementation of labour standards at the domestic level. This analysis will involve an overall review of the available literature and four in-depth case studies of selected countries. This will allow us to identify the effects on labour standards the labour provisions may have had as well as the underlying factors of these effects. In the third part of the project, policy conclusions will be drawn from the empirical research on how to use existing labour provisions more effectively, how to enhance their design and how to ensure coherence with other international arrangements, including the mechanisms of the ILO. The project contributes to meeting the objectives of the Labour Funding Programme by increasing the capacity of policy makers, social partners, and civil society actors regarding the effects of these labour provisions for implementing labour standards in the relevant countries. This would help policy makers to enhance the application of the labour provisions and could assist the social partners to rely on these provisions more effectively. Furthermore, the project and the accompanying tripartite activities are expected to increase social dialogue on the labour provisions and to lead to a better understanding of the relevance of these provisions for social dialogue. The project also identifies various policy options for enhancing the design of existing labour provisions, which would help to further align trade and investment arrangements with social justice concerns.

Project symbol

GLO/12/31/CAN

Admin unit

INST

Start date

25/03/2013

End date

30/09/2017

Total allocation

458136

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

458136

Development Partners

Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

Promoting sustainable enterprises