Conference Agenda

Public procurement accounts for an annual global spend of $13 trillion USD, representing 12% of GDP (OCP, 2020). This significant spending power has driven international interest in public procurement as a strategic lever to support economic and social outcomes, including decent work, jobs creation and labour market inclusion (Jaehrling et al., 2018; Patrucco et al., 2017). The supporting literature is criticised for ignoring contextual influences and system complexity, alongside key perspectives such as procurement professionals (Grandia and Meehan 2017; Torres-Pruñonosa et al. 2021). Qualitive insights and studies beyond environmental or ‘green’ procurement are also limited (Eckersley et al., 2021).

This paper responds to gaps in the existing literature by asking, ‘What are the required conditions for public procurement to act as an effective strategic lever for decent work?’ It draws upon a qualitative, cross-sector examination of implementation of the UK Social Value Act 2012, which requires public bodies to consider economic, social and environmental wellbeing in public service contracts. Externally funded by Carnegie UK Trust, data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with decision-makers, procurement teams and suppliers during 2018-19 (n=32), with a post-COVID follow-up in 2022 (n=12). Documentary analysis of sample tenders and other key documents was also undertaken. Participants were drawn from 20 organisations in north east England, representing sectors including local government, education, social housing, construction and social care.

The analysis provides insight into how local actors are supporting decent work through regulatory innovation in public procurement, offering practice examples including labour clauses, jobs creation targets and creative ‘lotting’ techniques. Practical (system) barriers are then considered, including an overriding emphasis on price, measurement and monitoring of good work outcomes, and legal considerations. Wider influences including supply market factors and the political landscape are examined, alongside unintended outcomes such as ‘gaming’ of the system and reduced accessibility for smaller providers. The discussion outlines six ‘facilitating factors’ of socially sustainable procurement, including political leadership (national and local), early stakeholder engagement and enhanced contract management functions. The paper draws upon existing procurement theory (Kraljic, 1983; Schapper et al., 2006) and wider public management perspectives, to help explain observed tensions and opportunities. A cross-disciplinary research agenda is proposed, including comparison across political and socio-economic contexts and attempts to better understand the unintended impacts of ‘soft’ regulation on decent work.

The Covid 19 pandemic has exposed the multiple precariousness of migrant workers by manifesting and exacerbating latent risks. Poor housing conditions in group accommodations made social distancing difficult; national borders became barriers to entry to the transnational labour market, even within the EU; and the lack of protection against dismissal or access to short-time allowance resulted in abrupt job and income losses. This is despite the fact that, as a growing body of research on trade unions' engagement with migrant workers since the early 2000s shows, there has been a shift in union strategies across countries - from protectionist and exclusionary to more inclusive strategies of organising and interest representation. Moreover, a number of political developments have improved labour rights and social security entitlements, at least for labour migrants from EU countries – e.g. through the recent reform (2019) of the European Posting of Workers Directive, or through the re-regulation of national labour markets (e.g. introduction or increases of minimum wages). In light of the sobering results of the pandemic, do all these developments turn out to be mere superficial corrections of the “fragmented and flexible regime of European production” (Hürtgen 2021) that is, inter alia, strongly relying on a pool of transnationally mobile, precarious labour, which helps to externalise cost pressures on lead firms in an increasingly competitive global environment? Or did the pandemic only temporarily interrupt a longer-term trend towards reducing social inequality in the European labour market(s), including in its transnational segments? How, in particular, have trade unions adjusted their strategies with regard to migrant workers under the impact of the succession of crisis that hit the European labour markets?

Our paper seeks to explore these questions using the shipbuilding industry in Germany as an example. It is based on an ongoing qualitative study on staffing strategies and industrial relations in the shipbuilding sector in five European countries (Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania) . In line with segmentation theory, our findings underline the importance of company strategies, which, contrary to neoclassical supply-side explanations, play a central role in explaining segmentation processes. Their strategies of ‘institutional avoidance‘ (Jaehrling/Méhaut 2013) or ‚institutional toying‘ (Benassi/Kornelakis 2021) add to ambiguous attitudes of core workers in German yards when it comes to developing ways to combat exploitative working conditions for migrant workers. But the union can also use its available power resources (following Lévesque/Murray 2013) more effectively to support migrant workers.

In an era of globalisation, the international production and offshoring of activities through organised global value chains (GVCs), while optimising production processes for transnational corporations (TNCs), leave workers more vulnerable to violations of their fundamental rights at work. Workers are often left without a viable grievance machinery that could allow them to protect their fundamental labour rights due to the complexity and indirect nature of employer-worker relationships in multiple business organisations involved in these cross-border transactions. Concurrently, when borders are crossed, the jurisdiction of national labour inspectors and judicial systems cease to allow for proper redress for violations of the most fundamental rights of workers.

This study proposes the creation of a multi-Stakeholder, transjurisdictional arbitration tribunal dedicated to address violations of fundamental rights of workers in GVCs, as enumerated in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and related ILO conventions. The establishment of this GVC Workers Arbitration Tribunal (GWAT), under an overarching non-litigious policy in alternative dispute resolution, was developed through a comparative analysis of existing dispute resolution systems, judicial or alternative, including adopting effective procedures from prevailing international arbitration bodies, while developing new ones that would specifically serve the interest of GVC workers. The multi-Stakeholder composition of the GWAT follows the successful model of multi-stakeholder partnerships for development, using an inclusive process where stakeholders are consulted and given the opportunity to be heard. The transjurisdictional nature of the GWAT solves the practical issues of choice of law and acquisition of jurisdiction since conventional remedies are often confined to the country where the violation arose or the injury was incurred, and likewise provides for easier execution of the arbitral award. The proposed tribunal seeks to be a “green” tribunal which promotes virtual sessions for arbitration hearings to solve the limitations of costly legal procedures and to promote an efficient, inclusive, and speedy dispute resolution process. Tribunal decisions (awards) may be reported motu proprio to existing ILO regulatory supervisory systems, as recommendations and case examples to aid the work on the application of fundamental conventions by member states. Finally, the study discusses the feasibility of establishing the GWAT through an international convention with the political support from member states, workers, employers, and other sectors that will benefit from the proposed dispute resolution process.

INTRODUCTION

Asbestos is carcinogenic to humans and poses a hazardous occupational exposure, as it is estimated to cause approximately half of the deaths from occupational cancer. Eliminating asbestos related diseases depends on stopping the use of asbestos.

In November 2017, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court set forth that the second article of Law no. 9055/1995, which allowed the economic exploitation of chrysotile asbestos, was unconstitutional. Brazil was the first country in the world where asbestos was banned by a court decision, which would have had the potential to show the power of environmental litigation and a successful joint work between Brazilian institutions and associations.

However, the integrity of the decision was not respected. State of Goiás, in September 2019, established a law that allows asbestos mining for export. Provoked in another lawsuit - according to the Brazilian Constitution, States do not have the right to create mining laws, which is a federal matter - the Supreme Court did not grant the required injunction to suspend this law and mining in Goiás continues.

RESEARCH QUESTION

We raise a hypothesis in this case study, which lies in the fact that the lack of just transition policies related to the stoppage of the exploitation of pollutants, especially those related to global warming or useless, could explain the ineffectiveness of the judicial decision to end mining asbestos in Brazil. The case poses a difficult decision to be taken: choosing between the environment or the worker's salary, which guarantees the livelihood of many families. Litigation is important, but it cannot be the only alternative.

Generally, mining is linked to taxes called royalties. The question is whether royalties should finance alternative activities to mining and also the training of workers for activities related to the remediation of the area degraded by mining or those related to the decommissioning? Workers and unions could be encouraged to monitor the allocation of this money, demanding that part of it be used to incentivize activities other than mining, financing the diversification of the local economy. On a planet of finite resources, finitude is an element that deserves to be considered more carefully in any policy, including labor.

Methodology

The research uses deductive method based on the assumption of the environment of the balanced work as a fundamental right, resorting to the doctrinal revision and documentary on the subject, from the perspective of the just transition guidelines of the ILO.