Building Social Protection Systems: International Standards and Human Rights Instruments: Compendium
This compendium contains a selection of the most relevant international instruments that establish the human right to social security and provide guidance for comprehensive social security systems at national level. These include the standards and conclusions adopted by the International Labour Organization in the field of social security and...
Read MoreJoint statement: Towards inclusive social protection systems supporting the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities
This joint statement reflects our shared commitment to inclusive social protection systems for persons with disabilities. The statement emerged from meetings and discussions between international partners working on the issues of disability and social protection. These meetings also contributed to the first report of the United Nations (UN) Special...
Read MoreThe Global Rise of Social Cash Transfers
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) proclaimed the equality of all human beings in dignity and rights. The right to social security, however, has been taken more seriously only since the 2000s, through calls for ‘Social Security for All’ and ‘Leaving no-one behind’. The book investigates a major...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatizations: Rebuilding public pension systems in Eastern Europe and Latin America
From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries privatized fully or partially their public mandatory pensions. Fourteen countries were in Latin America (by chronological order, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Panama), another fourteen countries in Eastern Europe and the...
Read MoreAn Employment Right- Standard Provisions for Working Women Experiencing Domestic Violence
In many countries the majority of those experiencing domestic violence are in paid employment. Maintaining employment and economic independence is a critical pathway to reducing the impacts of domestic violence of homelessness and unemployment. Yet, the workplace is not firmly part of an integrated global response to reducing the...
Read MoreCAC 40: Des Profits Sans Partage — Comment les grandes entreprises française alimentent le spirales d’inégalités
En 2017, 82 % des richesses créées dans le monde ont bénéficié aux 1 % les plus riches, alors que les 50 % les plus pauvres n’en ont reçu que des miettes. La France n’échappe pas à cette tendance : les 10 % les plus riches détiennent plus de...
Read MoreBeyond Misclassification: The Digital Transformation of Work
The first part of this article provides a brief litigation update on various worker lawsuits within the gig economy. While the O’Connor v. Uber case has received the lion’s share of attention and analysis, similar lawsuits on labor standards have been filed against other on-demand platforms. Analysis of the...
Read MoreBeclouded Work in Historical Perspective
The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal is publishing a collection of papers on the “gig” economy and labor law, edited by Valerio De Stefano of the International Labor Organization. This paper places what is seen as an innovation in a larger historical context. It compares “gig” work to the putting-out...
Read MoreUber, Taskrabbit, & Co: Platforms as Employers? Rethinking the Legal Analysis of Crowdwork
One of the key assumptions underpinning the rise of ‘crowdsourced work’ – from transport apps including Uber to online platforms such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – is the assertion put forward by most platforms that crowdworkers are self-employed, independent contractors. As a result, individuals might find themselves without recourse to worker-protective...
Read MoreCommoditized Workers. Case Study Research on Labour Law Issues Arising from a Set of ‘On-Demand/Gig Economy’ Platforms
In the framework of the so-called “sharing economy”, the number of on-demand companies matching labour supply and demand is on the rise. These schemes may enlarge opportunities for people willing to find a job or to top up their salaries. Despite the upsides of creating new peer marketplaces, these...
Read MoreOperating an Employer Reputation System: Lessons from Turkopticon, 2008-2015
In November 2005, Amazon launched Mechanical Turk (AMT), a website where “requesters” can post tasks, called “Human Intelligence Tasks” or “HITs”, for workers to complete for pay. Workers are required to agree that they are independent contractors, not employees, and that they are therefore not entitled to minimum wage...
Read MoreThe Rise of the ‘Just-in-Time Workforce’: On-Demand Work, Crowd Work and Labour Protection in the ‘Gig-Economy’
The so-called “gig-economy” has been growing exponentially in numbers and importance in recent years but its impact on labour rights has been largely overlooked. Forms of work in the “gig-economy” include “crowd work”, and “work-on-demand via apps”, under which the demand and supply of working activities is matched online...
Read MoreIntroduction: Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law
The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal is publishing a collection of papers on the gig-economy and labor law, edited by Valerio De Stefano (International Labour Office and Bocconi University). This collection, entitled “Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law”, gathers contributions from several labour lawyers and social scientists to...
Read MoreDigital Labour and Development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods
As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital...
Read MoreNeglecting human rights: accountability, data and Sustainable Development Goal 3
In this paper we examine the Sustainable Development Goal 3 through the lens of state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil people’s human rights entitlements. We critique some of the Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “follow-up and review” arrangements for the health goal, SDG3. To assist in...
Read MoreImpact of the economic crisis on the health of older persons in Spain: research clues based on an analysis of mortality. SESPAS report 2014
Older adults are seldom considered in studies on the health impact of economic recessions or crises. However, they constitute a population group that is highly vulnerable to decreases in investment in health and social services and social security. Our aim is to examine the relationship between the economic crisis...
Read MoreThe Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations
This paper presents the case for tax progressivity based on recent results in optimal tax theory. We consider the optimal progressivity of earnings taxation and whether capital income should be taxed. We critically discuss the academic research on these topics and when and how the results can be used...
Read MoreAre active labour market policies effectivein activating and integrating low-skilledindividuals? An international comparison
This paper examines the effectiveness of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in improving labour market outcomes, especially of low-skilled individuals, by means of a pooled cross-country and time series database for 31 advanced countries during the period 1985 – 2010. The analysis includes aspects of the delivery system to see how the performance of ALMPs...
Read MoreWomen’s ILO: Transnational networks, global labour standards and gender equity, 1919 to Present
This edited volume asks: what was the role of women’s networks in shaping ILO policies and what were the gendered meanings of international labour law in a world of uneven and unequal development? Women’s ILO explores issues like equal remuneration, home-based labour and social welfare internationally and in places...
Read MoreExporters, Importers and Employment: Firm-Level Evidence from Africa
This article studies the relationship between firms’export and import status and the quantity and types of employment they offer, using firm-level data from 47 African countries for the period 2006–14. The article also analyses how the quality of policies at the country-level can relate to the difference between exporters...
Read MoreRecommendation on Social Protection Floors: Basic Principles for Innovative Solutions
This book assesses the catalogue of principles included in the ILO Recommendation on Social Protection Floors from a legal perspective. Despite the international community’s recognition of social protection as a human right, the vast majority of the world’s population still has no access to social protection. In a major effort...
Read MoreReflecting on the Human Right to Social Security
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 asserts that social security is an inalienable human right. Realizing this human right is often considered, simply, as a matter of political will and of administrative aptitude. In these terms, the progressive realization of the human right to social...
Read MoreThe Rights-Based Approach to Care Policies: Latin American experience
Care policies are high on the public policy agenda in Latin America. This is partly explained by the region’s structural conditions, typical of middle-income countries, such as increasing life expectancy and women’s relatively high participation in the labour market, but also by the politicization of care, derived from the...
Read MoreSocial Protection and Persons with Disabilities
Social protection is an essential condition for social and economic development for all, but particularly for those who experience poverty and social exclusion. Social protection programmes can play a crucial role in alleviating and preventing poverty and vulnerability to secure people’s well-being. They can also enhance the productivity, employability...
Read MoreEnsuring Inclusion and Combatting Discrimination in Social Protection Programmes: The role of human rights standards
Recent years have witnessed the significant expansion of social protection programmes around the world. Yet, a vast number of poor and vulnerable people, including children, women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, remain uncovered, especially in lower-income countries. This article argues that a better understanding of the principle of...
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