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This article raises some of the issues for human resource development (HRD) arising from globalisation of the marketplace. Growth, diversification and technological development make business decision-making more complex and an increasingly large number of companies are now planning to meet these challenges. Aneja maintains that there is often conflict between the role of HRD and the role of industrial relations (IR) particularly as the employer-employee relationship in India is 'contractual, combative, political, legalistic and sometimes contradictory'. He presents some ideas to encourage HRD to become more proactive, discusses emerging techniques and suggests a new role as part of the total management system so that there is an integrated approach towards HRD and IR to form a cooperative work culture. Show less

The education-based [non-governmental organization] NGO sector in India is a large sector and it depends on activities of learning, training and motivation to sustain its underpaid and overworked workers. I articulate a theoretical perspective on the 'learning activity' in these workplaces using ideas of Engestrom and Freire, I focus and problematise the discourse of empowerment and analyse its impact on the learning activity in these organisations focusing on its implications for the worker. I argue that the notion of 'Permanent pedagogy' is an essential strategy of NGOs to position the worker in a deficit perspective and trade their services for low employment, low wages, precarious work and often intensive emotional labour. Permanent pedagogy manifests itself at the levels of cultural norms and ethos of a workplace, socio-historical perception and realities of the workplace and individual consciousness.

Using the lens of [Cultural Historical Activity Theory] CHAT and Freire's pedagogic model, I identify specific features of the learning activity that operates within the logic of the neoliberal order. I propose an alternative framework of workplace learning that focuses on resistance. The paper intends to stimulate critical reflection amongst NGO practitioners and scholars to question the broader notion of empowerment and, instead advance empirical focus on emancipatory learning structures.

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The objective of this study is to understand better the algorithmic management practices adopted by regular workplaces. We investigate the degree of penetration and impact of algorithmic management on work organisation, job quality and industrial relations focusing on the logistics and healthcare sectors. The report focuses in these two sectors because the logistics sector has been at the forefront of digital transformation and has been deploying algorithmic management practices in regular workspaces. Similarly, digital technologies are revolutionising the healthcare sector, and there has been a significant rise in investments in digital health in the aftermath of [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. The research has been conducted in two European countries (Italy and France) and two non-European countries (India and South Africa), allowing for a comparative analysis across countries with different levels of development.

We show that algorithmic management is widely present in traditional sectors, with benefits in terms of streamlining and simplification of work processes and efficiency gains. The implications of these new forms of work for work organisation and working conditions are also discussed. We show significant challenges in terms of potential deterioration of job quality as well as concerns regarding the strong potential for worker surveillance.

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The IRSDACE project - Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of Collaborative Economy - is funded by the Directorate-General for Employment (DG EMPL) of the European Commission and aims to identify how traditional players in the labour market, e.g. trade unions, employers' associations, member states and the EU, experience and respond to the collaborative economy. IRSDACE had five main tasks: (1) conceptualisation of platform work, its place in the labour market, employment policy and industrial relations; (2) analysis of discourse on platform economy among established industrial relations actors; (3) assessment of the implications of workers' experience with the platform economy for industrial relations and social dialogue; (4) comparative analysis of national experiences; and (5) analysis of how EU-level employment policy and the industrial relations agenda should respond to the emergence of work in the platform economy. In this study, 'platform economy' refers to the part of the economy composed of digital platforms enabling users to share, lend, rent, or purchase goods and services. Some examples of platforms connecting service providers to customers are Uber, Airbnb, Foodora, Mechanical Turk or TaskRabbit.

Seven country case studies have been produced in this project covering Belgium, France, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain. The reports show both the perspectives of industrial relations actors at the national level and the experiences of platform workers. This final project output brings the national case study results together in a comparative study along with the perspectives of European social partners, the results of a cross-country online survey of platform workers, and an assessment of how platform economy issues are being addressed globally, particularly in the US, China and India.

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This article explores the history of the labor movement in India and the parallel development of labor sociology. It assesses the influence of Western models of labor, stressing their weaknesses in diagnosing the peculiarity of the Indian situation. Because of these models, and also because of the narrow concerns of trade unions, until recently labor studies overlooked the overwhelming proportion of the work force - namely, the informal workers. Despite all the hype about business process outsourcing companies and call centers, it is this sector of the labor force that has increased most rapidly during the past 15 years since the beginning of market liberalization. Although sociological studies are catching up with the transformation of the labor force, there still remain very few contacts between scholars and labor unions or labor activists.

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This report provides a snapshot of the policy actions being taken by OECD, EU and G20 countries in response to growing diversity in forms of employment, with the aim of encouraging peer learning where countries are facing similar issues. It shows that many countries are reflecting on whether existing policies and institutions are capable of addressing effectively the current (and future) challenges of a rapidly changing world of work. In recent years, many countries have seen the emergence of, and/or growth in, particular labour contract types that diverge from the standard employment relationship (i.e. full-time dependent employment of indefinite duration). These include temporary and casual contracts, as well as own-account work and platform work. Several countries have also seen growth in false self-employment, where employers seek to evade tax and regulatory dues and obligations. These changes are driving policy makers worldwide to review how policies in different areas - labour market, skills development, social protection - can best respond. How can policymakers balance the flexibility offered by a diversity of employment contracts, on the one hand, with protection for workers and businesses, on the other?

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This paper discusses the introduction of schemes aimed at employee empowerment within a context of strong industrial relations in India. The pressure put on profit margins by a competitive business environment is forcing an increasing number of Indian enterprises to take responsibility for shop floor decisions over quality, safety, productivity and material use. This appears, at first sight, to be an alluring prospect, as men and women at the bottom of the pyramid would be expected to be warmly appreciative of power sharing arrangements from which they have something to gain. However, there are forces at work which can actively obstruct or quietly subvert attempts at redistributing power. In this paper, the focus is on some of the motives a trade union might have to do so.

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This special issue showcases the activities of the the 2nd JILPT Tokyo Comparative Labor Policy Seminar held on 28-29 March 2018. Under the theme of 'Looking back at the policy responses to changes in employment structure and forms: the future as seen from here', the discussions sought to clarify how labor policy in various countries has responded so far to changes in the employment structure and forms. Comparing the responses to date in these countries, their shared problems could provide new knowledge or hints for future policy responses in each country. This issue carries 14 reports submitted by promising researchers from Asian countries and regions. They introduce their findings on the latest labor policy issues in each country and region addressing the theme of the seminar.

Along with a seminar outline on pages 120-121, the country reports are as follows: Japan's married stay-at-home mothers in poverty / Yanfei Zhou (pages 4-9); The dynamics of minimum wage in Indonesia's manpower system / Ikomatussuniah (pages 10-17); Wages policy in the current context of industrial relation in Vietnam / Phuong Hien Nguyen (pages 18-23); A brief analysis on the influence of ICT change on China's labor market / Xiaomeng Zhou (pages 24-33); Employment contract in Cambodia: a focus on rules transforming fixed-duration to undetermined duration contract / Kanharith Nop (pages 34-40); The policy responses to changes in employment structure and forms in Myanmar / Thatoe Nay Naing (pages 41-49); Are long working hours in Japan becoming invisible?: examining the effects of ICT-based 'spatial flexibility' on workloads / Tomohiro Takami (pages 50-65); Thailand policies for the age of rapid technology change / Praewa Manponsri (pages 66-70); Technological innovation and its challenges to Taiwan's employment law: telework as an example / Bo-Shone Fu (pages 71-76); Changes in employment structure in Malaysia: the way forward / Beatrice Fui Yee Lim (pages 77-84); Narrowing the gaps among workers: changes in Korea / Sukhwan Choi (pages 85-91); The destiny of Web platform workers in China: employees, nothing or a 'third option'? / Hui Yu (pages 92-100); Trade union strategy and responses to changes in employment structure and forms in India / Manoranjan Dhal (pages 101-108); A system 'on life support'?: the changing employment landscape and collective bargaining in Australia / Ingrid Landau (pages 109-119).

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In this paper the authors present information on the content and educational structure of adult technical and vocational education in India. In the introduction, they outline the scope of the paper and describe the difficulties brought about by rapid rates of change in technology combined with slow rate of change in work culture. The second part examines the educational structure of India and its four educational programmes and looks at what a future policy would have to achieve. Vital issues and questions that affect future developments are raised in the third section where the authors discuss the participation rates in secondary schools, employment trends, people's participation in rural industries and women's participation. They conclude that the particular difficulties faced by India, with its long history of disparate and unintegrated systems of informal training, will have to be dealt with in a complex and individual way. They list eight core characteristics as the minimum structural features to achieve success. Show less

This volume contains a collection of 30 recent articles selected from the 'International labour review', offering the insights of economists, sociologists and lawyers into a wide range of gender issues and country settings. It provides an opportunity to reflect upon the connections between measured labour market outcomes and the real lives people lead, what work means to them, the care work continuum, and the very notion of 'gender equality'. A preface by Martha C. Nussbaum is followed by an introductory article, 'Social choices and inequalities' by Mark Lansky, Jayata Ghosh, Dominique Meda and Uma Rami.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website.

Part two, 'Concepts and conceptions', contains the following articles: Equality and empowerment for decent work / Bob Hepple; Discrimination and equality at work: a review of the concepts / Manuela Tomei; Inequality at work in the informal economy: key issues and illustrations / Barbara Harriss-White; Distribution of income and job opportunities: normative judgements from four continents / Deborah Levison, Joseph A. Ritter, Rosamund Stock and Richard Anker; Missing women?: the under-recording and under-reporting of women's work in Malaysia / Anja Karlsson Franck and Jerry Olsson; Life domain preferences among women and men in Israel: the effects of demographic variables / Moshe Sharabi. Part three, 'Female labour force participation: gender gaps and segregation', contains: Globalization, social exclusion and gender / Marilyn Carr and Martha Chen; Closing the gender gap in education: what is the state of gaps in labour force participation for women, wives and mothers / Ina Ganguli, Ricardo Hausmann and Martina Viarengo; Ethnic wage gaps in Peru: what drives the particular disadvantage of indigenous women / Alexandre Kolev and Pablo Suarez Robles; Unlimited unskilled labour and the sex segregation of occupations in Jamaica / Heather E. Ricketts and David V. Bernard; Falling female labour force participation in Kerala: empirical evidence of discouragement / Shalina Susan Mathew; Gender equality at work in sub-Saharan Africa: a case study of Mali's modern sector / Saliha Doumbia and Dominique Meurs; The socio-cultural dimension of women's labour force participation choices in Switzerland / Fabio B. Losa and Pau Origoni; Gender equality, part-time work and segregation in Europe / Theo Sparreboom; Gender and labour in times of austerity: Ireland, Italy and Portugal in comparative perspective / Tindara Addabbo, Amelia Bastos, Sara Falcao Casaca, Nata Duvvury and Aine Ni Leime.

Part four, 'From unpaid to underpaid: the care-work continuum', contains the following articles: Care workers in Argentina: at the crossroads of labour market institutions and care services / Valeria Esquivel; Underpaid and overworked: a cross-national perspective on care workers / Shahra Razavi and Silke Staab; How care-work employment shapes earnings in cross-national perspective / Michelle J. Budig and Joya Misra; Discounted labour?: disaggregating care work in comparative perspective / Naomi Lightman; Hierarchies of care work in South Africa: nurses, social workers and home-based care workers / Francie Lund; The expansion of social care and reform: implications for care workers in the Republic of Korea / Ito Peng; Care arrangements and bargains: anganwadi and paid domestic workers in India / Rajni Palriwala and N. Neetha; Childcare and geographical mobility in southern Europe / Ildefonso Mendez; The globalization of nurse migration: policy issues and responses / Nicola Yeates. Part five, 'Regulation of 'women's work': a mixed record', contains: Night work of women in industry: standards and sensibility / George Politakis; Women in the Japanese labour market, 1947-2003: a brief survey / Junko Kumamoto-Healey; Social security reform and gender equality: recent experience in central Europe / Elaine Fultz and Silke Steinhilber; The ILO's Domestic Workers Convention and Recommendation: a window of opportunity for social justice / Martin Oelz. Part six, 'Organization for empowerment and better work', contains the following articles: Collective bargaining and equality: making connections / Adelle Blackett and Colleen Sheppard; Challenges facing nurses' associations and unions: a global perspective / Paul F. Clark and Darlene A. Clark; Organizing migrant care workers in Israel: industrial citizenship and the trade union option / Guy Mundlak and Hila Shamir; Can more inclusive wage-setting institutions improve low-wage work?: pay trends in the United Kingdom's public-sector hospitals / Damian Grimshaw. Show less