Operationalising Labour Rights: Access to Remedy at the Workplace

落实劳工权利：在工作场所获得补救：随着经济增长和资本扩张，在世界各地的许多行业和地区，那些努力创造财富的人的就业条件仍然很差。在国际服装业等部门，情况尤其如此，劳动密集型生产沿着不透明的价值链分散，使工作场所的条件难以受到监督。正是在这一层面，结社和结构权力较低的工人难以行使代表权和捍卫自己的利益，而全球生产网络内部缺乏透明度则助长了虐待行为的长期存在，其中最严重的往往是悲剧和生命损失，而不是审计。正是在这一背景下，本研究项目试图阐明当地条件的背景下，国家和国际形式的私人和公共监管，失败的，在缺乏强有力的执行机制，该研究将涉及系统收集数据的工作场所的不满和他们的结果，在工厂雇用的服装工人在班加罗尔，印度南部。我们的研究合作伙伴是一个成熟的民间社会组织，Cividep印度（Cividep）。在2016年的一项短期试点研究中，已经整理了少量关于工作场所不满的数据。在本研究项目中，我们将进一步汇编一个关于工作场所不满的性质和结果的更全面的数据库。数据收集将在24个月内进行，包括与工厂工人（远离工作场所）建立沟通，组织工人论坛，并在当地实地工作人员的协助下，通过Cividep开展一系列参与活动，作为从受访者收集数据的前提。Cividep将管理和监督印度的实地工作和数据输入，并将参与和管理我们的实地工作人员小组，他们都是前服装工人，在该行业普遍存在的条件下经验丰富。实地考察团队的性别构成将反映当地工厂劳动力的性别特征，通常约80%为女性。有关工作场所不满的数据，其进展和结果将作为详细了解工作场所关系动态的基础。因此，数据将支持我们的理论：1。在工作场所一级，工人个人可以在多大程度上获得补救，以及通过何种手段获得补救。通过工作场所层面的争议解决，在多大程度上可以实现劳工权利，包括结社自由。除了对劳动力在全球价值链中的地位的理论和知识做出贡献，并在学术辩论中深入了解社会审计和法定监管的有效性外，该项目对系统数据收集和分析的要求为实地能力建设提供了潜力。它将进一步发展和磨练必要的研究技能，以便向学术界、从业人员和决策者等各种受众进行宣传并产生影响。它还将提供数据，使工作场所的关系更加透明，并提供证据，支持游说建立在工作场所获得补救的有意义的机制。因此，本研究的目标是提供一个更深入的理论理解的挑战，涉及在工作场所在女性化的劳动密集型供应链的基础上实施劳动权利，同时也发展当地民间社会的技能和能力，支持其倡导作用，从而加强其跨国关系和地位。

Operationalising Labour Rights: Access to Remedy at the Workplace.As economies grow and capital expands, conditions of employment for those who labour to create wealth remain poor in many industries and locations around the world. This is particularly the case in sectors such as the international garment sector, where the dispersion of labour intensive production along opaque value chains allows conditions at the workplace to be obscured from scrutiny. It is at this level that workers with low associational and structural power struggle to exert representational rights and defend their interests, while the lack of transparency within the global production network facilitates the perpetuation of abusive practices, the worst of which are all too often exposed by tragedy and loss of life, rather than audit. It is in this context that this research project seeks to illuminate local conditions against the backdrop of national and international forms of private and public regulation which fail in the absence of robust mechanisms of enforcement.The research will involve the systematic collection of data on workplace grievances and their outcomes from garment workers employed in factories in the city of Bangalore, south India. Our research partner is a well-established civil-society organisation, Cividep-India (Cividep). A small amount of data on workplace grievances has already been collated in a short pilot study in 2016. In the present research project, we will compile a further, far more comprehensive bank of data on the nature and outcomes of workplace grievances. The collection of data will take place over a period of twenty-four months and will involve establishing communication with factory workers (away from the workplace), organising worker forums, and establishing a range of engagement activities, facilitated by local field workers, through Cividep, as a precursor to data collection from respondents. Cividep will manage and monitor the fieldwork and data input in India and will also engage and manage our group of fieldworkers who will all be former garment workers and are experienced in the conditions that prevail in the sector. The gender composition of fieldwork teams will reflect the gendered nature of factory workforces locally, which is generally around 80% female.The data on workplace grievances, their progress and outcomes will act as a foundation for a detailed understanding of the dynamics of workplace relations. Accordingly, the data will support us in theorising:1. To what extent access to remedy is possible for the individual worker at the level of the workplace, and by what means.2. To what extent it is possible to operationalise labour rights, including freedom of association, through dispute resolution at the level of the workplace.In addition to contributing to theory and knowledge of labour's place in global value chains and affording insight into the efficacy of social auditing and statutory regulation in academic debate, the project's requirements of systematic data collection and analysis holds potential for capacity building in the field. It will further develop and hone research skills necessary to advocacy and the delivery of impact with diverse audiences of academia, practitioners and policy makers. It will also provide data affording greater transparency in workplace relations and evidence to support lobbying for meaningful mechanisms of access to remedy at the workplace. The objectives of this study are therefore to provide a deeper theoretical understanding of the challenges involved in operationalising labour rights at the workplace at the base of a feminised labour-intensive supply chain, while also developing skills and capacity in local civil society, supporting its advocacy role and thereby strengthening its transnational relationships and status.