Abstracts
Abstract
This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of how the representation gap in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in nine countries can be closed through a mapping exercise (both horizontal and vertical). The study draws on peripheral workers in MSEs predominantly from countries on the periphery of the global economy. The assumption underlying the research is that the failure of traditional industrial relations actors, especially trade unions, to respond to the representation gap has created the space and the need for new actors to fill the gap. We identify a number of dimensions in trade union responses to non-standard employment relations and focus on their awareness of the specific nature of non-standard workers’ interests and their willingness to innovate with representation models.
The paper identifies four main responses by trade unions to non-standard employees. The first response is where trade unions are indifferent to workers in MSEs as they are seen as marginal and unorganizable. Secondly, there are trade unions that are very much aware of the need to revise and revitalize their representation strategies, but they respond by attempting to extend existing forms of representation. Thirdly there are those who believe that non-standard employment should be resisted. The fourth, and most interesting response, is where unions create specific kinds of representation and protection for the new forms of employment.
While there were positive outcomes both individually and organizationally from this mapping exercise, as an organizational tool designed to recruit members into the union, mapping is limited. In five of the nine case studies peripheral workers were recruited into a union or worker association. The paper confirms the existence of new actors in employment relations in developing countries. In particular the emergence of NGOs and community based worker associations and co-operatives have been identified as crucial intermediaries in developing new forms of workplace organization.
Keywords:
- trade unions,
- representation gap,
- mapping,
- micro and small enterprises,
- non-standard employment
Résumé
Cet article identifie quatre réponses principales fournies par les syndicats eu égard aux emplois atypiques. La première est l’indifférence des syndicats face aux travailleurs des MPE, les percevant comme marginaux et non susceptibles d’être organisés. La deuxième est la reconnaissance par les syndicats du besoin de réviser et de revitaliser leurs stratégies de représentation, tout en poursuivant les formes existantes de représentation. La troisième est la croyance qu’il faille résister à l’emploi atypique. Finalement, la réponse la plus intéressante est la création de formes spécifiques de représentation et de protection pour ces nouveaux types d’emploi.
Bien qu’il existe des résultats positifs, tant au plan individuel qu’organisationnel, à l’exercice de cartographie comme outil organisationnel destiné à recruter de nouveaux membres dans les syndicats, tel outil a des limites. Alors que dans cinq des neuf pays étudiés, des travailleurs périphériques ont été recrutés par un syndicat ou une association de travailleurs, le résultat de ces recrutements dépend de plusieurs variables. Cet article confirme cependant l’existence de nouveaux acteurs dans les relations d’emploi dans les pays en développement, notamment des ONG, des associations communautaires de travailleurs et des coopératives qui agissent comme intermédiaires importants dans le développement de nouvelles formes d’organisation du travail.
Mots-clés :
- syndicats,
- écart de représentation,
- cartographie,
- MPE,
- emploi atypique
Resumen
Este documento intenta contribuir a la comprensión de cómo se puede cerrar la brecha de representación en las micro y pequeñas empresas (MPEs) de nueve países y esto, mediante un ejercicio de mapeo (horizontal y vertical). Este estudio se basa en los trabajadores periféricos de las MPEs predominantemente de países de la periferia de la economía global. La hipótesis subyacente de esta investigación es que la incapacidad de los actores tradicionales de las relaciones laborales, especialmente de los sindicatos, para reaccionar ante la brecha de representación, ha creado el espacio y la necesidad para que nuevos actores cubran dicho vacío. Se identifican ciertas dimensiones en las respuestas sindicales frente a las relaciones de empleo atípicas y se pone énfasis en su percepción de la naturaleza específica de los intereses de los trabajadores atípicos y su voluntad para innovar los modelos de representación.
El documento identifica cuatro principales respuestas sindicales frente a los empleados atípicos. La primera respuesta es aquella donde los sindicatos son indiferentes a los trabajadores de las MPEs puesto que ellos son vistos como marginales y no organizables. En segundo lugar, se encuentran los sindicatos que son más conscientes de la necesidad de revisar y revitalizar sus estrategias de representación pero cuya respuesta es intentar de ampliar las formas existentes de representación. En tercer lugar están los sindicatos que creen que el empleo atípico debe ser contrarrestado. En cuarto lugar, y es la respuesta más interesante, es cuando los sindicatos crean tipos de representación y de protección específicos a las nuevas formas de empleo.
A pesar que con este ejercicio de mapeo, utilizado como un instrumento organizacional para reclutar miembros para el sindicato, se obtuvo resultados positives a nivel individual y organizacional, se observan también los límites del mapeo. En cinco de los nueve casos estudiados, trabajadores periféricos fueron reclutados en el sindicato o en la asociación laboral. El estudio confirma la existencia de nuevos actores en las relaciones laborales en los países en desarrollo. En particular, la emergencia de ONGs y de asociaciones laborales de base comunitaria y de cooperativas fue identificada como intermediarios cruciales en el desarrollo de nuevas formas de organización en el lugar de trabajo.
Palabras clave:
- sindicatos,
- brecha de representación,
- micro y pequeña empresas,
- empleo atípico
Appendices
References
- Andrae, Gunilla and Bjorn Beckman. 2010. “Alliances across the Formal-Informal Divide: South African Debates and Nigerian Experiences.” Africa’s Informal Workers: Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organizing in Urban Africa. I. Lindell, ed. London: Zed Books, 1-16.
- Bennett, Mark. 2002. “Organizing Workers in Small Enterprises: The Experience of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union.” SEED Working Paper No. 33. http://www.ilo.org/empent/Whatwedo/Publications/lang--en/docName--WCMS_117699/ index.html (accessed 2 December 2010).
- Bhowmik, Sharit, ed. 2010. Street Vendors in the Global Economy. New Delhi: Routledge.
- Budlender, Debbie. 2009. “Comparative Study on Industrial Relations and Collective Bargaining: South Africa Report.” Paper presented at the Negotiating Decent Work Conference. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
- Burchielli, Rosario, Donna Buttigieg and Annie Delaney. 2008. “Organising Home-Workers: The Use of Mapping as an Organizing Tool.” Work, Employment and Society, 22 (1), 167-180.
- Cooke, Fang Lee. 2010. “The Enactment of Three New Labour Laws in China: Unintended Consequences and Emergence of New Actors in Employment Relations.” Regulating for Decent Work: Innovative Regulation as a Response to Globalization, Conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network, 8-10 July. Geneva: International Labour Office.
- Chun, Jennifer. 2009. Organizing at the Margins: The Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Korea and the United States. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press
- Frege, Carola and John Kelly, eds. 2004. Varieties of Unionism: Comparative Studies for Union Renewal. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gereffi, Gary, John Humphrey and Timothy Sturgeon. 2005. “The Governance of Global Value Chain.” Review of International Political Economy, 12 (1), 78-104.
- Glovackas, Sergejus. 2005. “The Informal Economy in Central and Eastern Europe.” Paper prepared for ITUC 10.
- Heery, Ed. 2009. “Representation Gap and the Future of Worker Representation.” Industrial Relations Journal, 40 (4), 324-336.
- Heery, Ed and Carola Frege. 2006. “New Actors in Industrial Relations.” British Journal of Industrial Relations, 44 (4), 601-604.
- Illessy, Miklós, Vassil Kirov, Csaba Makó and Svetla Stoeva. 2007. “Labour Relations, Collective Bargaining and Employee Voice in SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe.” Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 13 (1), 95-113.
- Kelly, John. 1998. Re-thinking Industrial Relations: Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves. London and New York: Routledge.
- Mashilo, Alex. 2010. Changes in Work and Production Organization in the Automotive Industry Value Chain: An Evaluation of the Responses by Labor in South Africa. Masters research report, University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg.
- Moody, Kim. 1997. Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy. London: Verso.
- Regalia, Ida, ed. 2006. Regulating New Forms of Employment: Local Experiments and Social Innovation in Europe. New York: Routledge.
- Sawant, S. T. 2010. Interview, January, Ambedkar Institute for Labour Studies: Mumbai.
- Silver, Beverly. 2003. Forces of Labor: Worker’s Movements and Globalization since 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Standing, Guy. 2009. Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
- Thiessen, Ulrich. 2001. “Presumptive Taxation for Small Enterprises in Ukraine.” Mimeo.
- Webster, Edward, Andries Bezuidenhout and Robert Lambert. 2008. Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity. Blackwell: Oxford.
- Webster, Edward, Christine Bischoff, Edlira Xhafa, Jo Portilho, Doreen Deane, Dan Hawkins, D. Sharit Bhowmik, Nitin More, Naoko Otani, Sunghee Park, Eustace Imoyera James, Melisa Serrano, Mary Viajar, Ramon Certeza, Gaye Yilmaz, G. Bulend Karadag, Tolga Toren, Eva Sinirlioglu and Lyudmyla Volynets. 2008. “Closing the Representation Gap in Micro and Small Enterprises.” Global Labour University. Working Paper Number 3, GLU: Germany.
- Xhafa, Edlira. 2007. Obstacles and Positive Experiences in Achieving Better Protection and Representation for Workers in Micro and Small Enterprises: A Review of Literature. Geneva: International Labour Organization.