Operationalising Labour Rights: Access to Remedy at the Workplace

实施劳工权利：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，从事劳动创造财富的人的就业条件仍然很差。在国际服装行业等行业尤其如此，在这些行业，劳动密集型生产沿着不透明的价值链分散，使得工作场所的条件不受审查。正是在这个层面上，低关联和结构权力的工人努力行使代表权并捍卫自己的利益，而全球生产网络缺乏透明度，助长了滥用行为的延续，其中最糟糕的情况往往是悲剧和生命损失，而不是审计。正是在这种背景下，本研究项目力求在国家和国际形式的私人和公共管制的背景下阐明当地的情况，这些管制由于缺乏强有力的执行机制而失败。这项研究将包括系统地收集有关印度南部城市班加罗尔工厂的服装工人在工作场所的不满情绪及其结果的数据。我们的研究合作伙伴是一个成熟的民间社会组织——印度公民医疗援助计划（Cividep）。在2016年的一项短期试点研究中，已经整理了有关工作场所不满的少量数据。在目前的研究项目中，我们将编制一个更深入、更全面的数据库，研究工作场所不满的性质和结果。数据收集将在24个月的时间内进行，包括与工厂工人建立沟通（远离工作场所），组织工人论坛，并通过Cividep建立一系列参与活动，由当地现场工作人员提供便利，作为从受访者中收集数据的先驱。Cividep将管理和监控印度的现场工作和数据输入，并将参与和管理我们的现场工作人员团队，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。实地工作小组的性别组成将反映当地工厂劳动力的性别性质，一般约80%为女性。关于工作场所不满、进展和结果的数据将作为详细了解工作场所关系动态的基础。因此，这些数据将支持我们的理论：1 .工人个人在工作场所一级可在多大程度上获得补救，以及通过何种途径获得补救。通过在工作场所一级解决争端，在多大程度上可能实现包括结社自由在内的劳工权利。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，并在学术辩论中对社会审计和法定监管的有效性提供见解外，该项目对系统数据收集和分析的要求还具有该领域能力建设的潜力。它将进一步发展和磨练必要的研究技能，以便向学术界、实践者和决策者的不同受众进行宣传和产生影响。它还将提供数据，提高工作场所关系的透明度，并提供证据，支持游说建立有意义的工作场所补救机制。因此，本研究的目标是在女性化的劳动密集型供应链基础上，对工作场所劳工权利运作所涉及的挑战提供更深入的理论理解，同时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.