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While corporate social responsibility by firms aims at improving welfare for different social groups, whether it achieves this is often difficult to measure. After Apr. 2018 protests, Starbucks enacted policies that anybody could sit in their stores and use the bathroom without making a purchase. Using anonymized cellphone location data, we estimate this led to a 7.0% decline in attendance relative to other nearby coffee shops. The effect is 84% larger near homeless shelters and larger for Starbucks' wealthier customers. The average time spent per visit declined by 4.1%. Public urination citations decreased near Starbucks locations, but other minor crimes were unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the issue of persistent unemployment, the UK Government implemented a conditional welfare scheme. Prompted by Mantouvalou's argument that the scheme forces people into exploitative work, this paper addresses the 'pressing' question of whether the scheme is compatible with the prohibition on 'forced or compulsory labour' under Article 4(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is argued that, whether the scheme imposes the menace of a penalty, is involuntary, seriously exploitative or a normal civic obligation, ultimately depends on different understandings of the demands of distributive justice. Given the politically contested nature of those demands, Article 4(2) is a poor weapon to use when challenging the UK's conditional welfare scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Criterio Libre is the property of Revista Criterio Libre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Situated within the literature on welfare regimes, this article investigates workers' contestation of pension arrangements in post-socialist, authoritarian China and Vietnam, and considers the effects of their actions. Scholars have highlighted economic, cultural, political regime type and political institutions as factors crucial to understanding the welfare regimes of China and Vietnam. However, the "labour factor" – that is, how worker resistance and mobilisation shape welfare provisions – has been under-explored. Focusing on pension provisions in China and Vietnam, this article contends that a labour perspective can deepen knowledge of pension systems and welfare regimes in these two countries. Based on case studies of two notable strikes, interviews and documentary research, this article illustrates that, against the background of transitioning from state socialism to market-Leninism, pension provisions and welfare regimes in China and Vietnam have been constantly contested by workers. It also shows that labour resistance has influenced welfare arrangements at various levels in both countries, and that the Vietnamese state was more accommodating to workers' pension demands than the Chinese state, because of its more strongly redistributive orientation and, relatively, a less controlling political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of antitrust and labor has gone through a profound change in orientation. For the great bulk of its history, labor was viewed by antitrust enforcers as a competitive threat. The debate over antitrust and labor was framed around whether there should be a labor "immunity" from the antitrust laws. In just the last decade, however, the orientation has flipped. Most new writing views labor as a target of anticompetitive restraints imposed by employers. Antitrust is increasingly concerned with protecting labor rather than challenging its conduct. Antitrust interest in labor markets is properly focused on two things. The smaller concern is the impact of anticompetitive restraints in the labor market, such as anti-poaching agreements and noncompete covenants. While antitrust enforcement in this area is critically important, these restraints cover only a portion of the employment market. The bigger labor interest is in output-reducing restraints in product markets, and here antitrust policy has unfortunately had little to contribute. The demand for labor is derivative of product-market demand. If firms do not produce goods, workers do not work. Because most labor is a variable cost, the demand for employment varies with product output. As a result, when antitrust pursues a goal of higher output in product markets, it benefits labor and consumers alike. Both antitrust's neoliberal Right and its progressive Left have advocated policies that are harmful to labor. The Right did so by developing a cynical vision of "consumer welfare" that incorporated producer profits into the definition and advocated for lower output in product markets. The Left has done the same thing with its hostility to large firms, even when firm size is dictated by scale economies or network effects, and its protection of small business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employers generally make social contributions in the form of Social Security schemes where major responsibility is taken by the government itself. Social Security protects not only the beneficiary, but also his or her entire family which is designed to provide long term sustenance to families, when the earning member retires, dies or suffers a disability. This study tries to focus upon the impact of social security schemes and their satisfaction on the employees of airport authority of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Followed by agriculture in India, construction industry stands as one of the biggest, fast growing unorganised sectors with huge labour force involved with skilled and semi-skilled standards. The work involved here are temporary and casual in nature with absence of basic amenities and inadequate social security and welfare facilities. In order to provide adequate and healthy working conditions and welfare facilities to the labour involved in construction field, the Government of India has constituted the legislation and extended other welfare measures through State Welfare Board and planned the welfare scheme in 2006. Keeping these intervention in mind, the present study focused on determining the awareness levels of the labourers towards welfare measures and schemes extended. To understand the same, the researcher has done literature survey and review. Further, has adopted exploratory research design and through self-developed interview schedule 300 respondents were interviewed based on random selection technique among 65 wards of the Mysore city corporation. Later respondent data was grouped and analysed using SPSS statistical 16.0 software to determine the awareness of welfare measures and Scheme. The study reveals that majority of construction workers who were men aged between 18-30 years has low level of awareness on available welfare services because of poor quality of implementation at the site. Infact, both labourer and contractor found been not aware of the welfare measures. Thus there is a need for intervention in creating awareness as well as improving the quality of implementation of policies and programmes related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiating regulations about fair wages for home-based workers is crucial in the effort of recognizing the legal status of their existence. Uniformity in wage payment system is expected to bring welfare for the workers and to maintain socioeconomic stability for the sustainable development in Indonesia. Fair wage is defined as wage that is justly received by workers as a guideline to be used as a parameter for decent wage for Indonesian home-based workers. The initiation is expected to affect waging policies that favor home-based workers, so the payment they have received can be considered decent. The appealing issues regarding decent wages for humanity are mechanisms and principles used in making decisions about decent wage for home-based workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The penetrating debate on Indian labour laws obstructing the flexibility of the labour market has taken centre stage in the last two decades, post the period of liberalisation of the economy. With the purpose of rationalizing and simplifying labour laws to facilitate 'ease of doing business', the Indian government has formulated new labour codes, which is considered the most important step towards reforming labour laws in the past three decades. On the other hand, it is emphatically stressed by the labour unions that the Indian labour market continues to be 'flexible' to the advantage of employers, despite the presence of allegedly 'constricting labour laws' and any further dilution of extant labour law framework will adversely affect the working class. In this context, this paper discusses the implications of the current shift in the labour-law paradigm in India, brought out by the new labour codes. The paper also highlights the need for duly addressing the most recent insecurities in the labour market, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, while moving towards a new framework of labour governance, as envisaged by the labour codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development- and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A research project was undertaken to explore the differences and similarities between employee assistance programmes (EAPs) and occupational social work (OSW). This was done in order to provide clear and distinct guidelines to potential employers/corporate clients regarding a choice between occupational social work (OSW) and employee assistance programmes (EAP) when they are considering the introduction of programmes and services to promote the psycho-social functioning and productivity of employees and the successful operation of the workplace at large. In addition to the literature study on these two concepts, occupational social work and employee assistance programmes, an empirical study was conducted, consisting of a qualitative and a quantitative component. The qualitative study was performed by a number of researchers who used the same data-collection instrument, developed by the group of researchers under the supervision of the main author of this article. Data were, however, collected in different ways, i.e. one-on-one personal interviews, interviews via e-mail, and focus group interviews. The quantitative part was performed through an on-line survey with a self-developed questionnaire, also under the supervision of the main author. Findings confirmed that both the EAPs and OSW deal with work-related, personal, interpersonal and productivity issues. The findings further confirmed that the kind of employee issues addressed dealt with a range of concerns, including substance abuse, stress, trauma, financial difficulties, conflict, absenteeism, employee development and bereavement. Despite a number of similarities between OSW and EAPs, very few differences have been confirmed other than the variables impacting on structure and legalisation, which also confirms why the EAP and the OSW cannot be used as interchangeable concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first article to study the interaction between labour markets and endogenous referral networks in the context of worker heterogeneity. In equilibrium the structure of the referral network is hierarchical, which is different from the usual assumption of homophily but is consistent with the evidence. Hierarchy exacerbates inequality. The welfare effects of the use of referrals are subtle and depend on the nature of heterogeneity. If heterogeneity is due to productivity differences, referrals improve welfare. If workers face the different probability of forming a match despite having the same productivity, as in the case of discrimination, referrals reduce welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the drivers of job quality, the stagnation of wages in the job market in the United States, and the effect variations in job quality has for employee welfare.

This paper reconsiders the classic issue of whether provision of a public good should be undertaken directly by the government or through private contracting (Hart, Andrei, & Robert, 1997). We consider a third alternative of provision by a mixed ownership firm. We assume that this mixed ownership firm provides the government principal with a combination of the contracting problems it faces in the two more extreme alternatives. We show that full government ownership and provision is never optimal and that frequently the mixed firm undertakes intermediate investments that also prove welfare superior to fully private contracting. These results carry over to an extension in which the agent is presumed to be a foreigner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2004/2007 EU enlargements rendered CEE citizens legally equal to EU labour market participants. However, CEE migrants still face 'racialisation' and segmentation in North-Western European labour markets. Similar processes might extend to EU-South migrants, giving rise to a division of labour, whereby CEE and EU-South migrants end up in poor-quality, low-pay jobs. We compare the labour market integration of recent intra-EU migrants (EU8, EU2, EU-South, EU-West/EEA) in the UK, Germany and Denmark. Using labour force, microcensus and register data, we model quantitative and qualitative integration through labour force participation and wages. We find no significant differences in labour force participation between nationals and migrants in the UK. Whilst in both Denmark and Germany, the labour force participation of EU-migrants is significantly lower. Notwithstanding differences in migration trends, labour markets and welfare regimes, we find evidence of a division of labour along occupational and industry lines − that translates into wage differences. EU-West/EEA migrants occupy better jobs (even outperforming nationals), followed by EU-South and CEE migrants. In Denmark and Germany, EU8 and EU2 migrants' wages are lower than those of nationals even after controlling for differences in occupations. These findings suggest that inequalities across the EU are reproduced rather than converging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of welfare-to-work programs evaluated by random assignment, two stand out as having exceptionally large estimated effects: one in Riverside, California, and the other in Portland, Oregon. The authors use data from 24 evaluations and the tools of meta-analysis to examine why. The findings indicate that the apparently superior performance of these two programs in increasing the earnings of participants is only partly attributable to program design (for example, the type of services provided, the use of sanctions, and the quality of program administration). Differences in caseload characteristics and site characteristics are probably more important. However, Riverside and Portland's relatively large effects in reducing the percentage of participants on the AFDC rolls appear mainly attributable to the design of the programs run in these sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do German employers in metal and electrical (M+E) sector still want to support core institutions of a coordinated market economy, and are capable of doing so? Based on evidence collected in a series of expert interviews conducted in 2017 and 2018 with employers' associations, we argue that social partnership, collective bargaining, and strategic coordination via organizations are still part of the preferred modus operandi of these employers. Moreover, we argue that new forms of associational membership that enable firm-based, yet often collective, solutions, which have stabilized rather than eroded the organizational capacity of employers' associations. As such, we provide supportive evidence for several core premises associated with the Varieties of Capitalism approach. Yet we also identify trends toward more flexibilization, decentralization, and systemic volatility in this system, as many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in East Germany, remain without any associational membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including occupational welfare, the role of companies in providing social services in the welfare market, and the different types of capitalism.

Over the last decade, in most Western countries, welfare states have faced increasing challenges due to several socioeconomic and cultural transformations. The economic crisis and austerity measures adopted in the aftermath of these challenges have increased the number of vulnerable people. Against this backdrop, this article aims to shed light on the development of company-based welfare in Italy by focusing specifically on the gap between large and small-medium enterprises and on emerging solutions addressed to fill this gap through the constitution of locally rooted, multi-actor networks. How do they originate? What are their main features? What contribution can they make to defusing the dualization between large, medium and small companies and workers? After reviewing these research questions, a description of the development of company-based welfare in Italy is provided in the first part of the article. We then describe and compare four local welfare networks, including small and medium enterprises, by looking at both their genetic and constitutive elements and their outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores in what way solidarity relationships are made and unmade between waged and un-waged workers in the UK. It thereby feeds into the broader discussion on the decline and future of trade unionism and new ways of organizing struggle. In particular, it engages with the literature on community unionism. Methodologically it draws on Participatory Action Research undertaken between 2013 and 2017 with 12 unwaged workers' groups organizing outside of established trade unions. Conceptually the article challenges understandings of solidarity based on self-interest by emphasising its relational complexity. It argues for a concept of workers' solidarity that is based on a broadened understanding of work but which at the same time goes beyond a common identity by paying attention to power-discrepancies and current inequalities. Through such a lens, solidarity is created through affective bonds and is based on a shared anger about injustice and a common desire for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most macroeconomic models inflation tends to be harmful. In this article, we show that by simply changing the timing of production decisions by firms from "on demand" to "in advance," some inflation can boost welfare as long as goods are sufficiently perishable. The main conclusion from this research is that by effectively hiding the strategic interaction between supply and demand, assuming production on demand is not without loss of generality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore discourses on the possibilities and limitations identified by relevant actors in the sphere of paid work to set up a national agenda on labor-family policies that are compatible with gender equality in Chile. The study is based on in-depth interviews with managers of organizations in different productive sectors, workers' representatives, legislators and officers of the Chilean government. The interviews sought to establish their perceptions on the importance of labor-family balance and policies aimed to promote it, the place of such policies in the political agenda and the conditions necessary to successfully implement them. Two main obstacles to set a national gender-friendly agenda on work-family policies were identified: first, the persistent identification of carework as a female responsibility, thereby, a situation that only affects female workers. Second, the discursive tension between the ideas of productivity and worker's welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enormous expansion of employee benefit programs in the last decade and recent disclosures of varying kinds and degrees of careless or fraudulent management in their operation have aroused widespread public concern over the need for regulatory legislation. This article analyzes the findings of the several governmental investigations of welfare and pension programs and makes suggestions as to the needed elements in a system of federal regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to estimate consumer welfare created by informative messages via mobile instant messenger (MIM). In order to reach this goal, this paper attempted to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for a MIM’s service as a substitute for the existing texting-message service. Info-Talk, an informative message service provided by KakaoTalk, a major MIM in Korea, was employed as a research case, and conjoint analysis was used for a methodology for finding the WTP of informative messages via MIM. According to the result, an informative message via MIM provides 4.87 Korean Won’s (KRW) worth of service to users. When receiving an informative message via MIM using an LTE network, the maximum data charge generated by an informative message via MIM is KRW 2.864. This implies that the amount of the net welfare of informative messaging via MIM exceeds cost incurred by using it with the LTE network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of the activities of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the Indian labor scene. ILO has rendered exemplary service to all the three elements composing it--government, employers and workers. India has greatly benefitted from the ILO standards which helped in improving the lot of the working class. ILO standards have greatly influenced labor legislation, labor welfare, trade unionism and industrial relations. Following ILO tradition, the principle of tripartite consultation has been successfully adopted by the Government of India in the formulation of labor policy on the basis of consensus. In essence, there is a close resemblance between the ILO Philadelphia Charter of 1944 and the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy under the Indian Constitution. The paper also states that all these basic documents are based on the principles of freedom, individual dignity and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Security and labour welfare is a basic need of all people regardless of the sector of employment in which they work. Social Security is one of the most powerful institutional expressions of social solidarity and an important means by which an adequate standard of living for the people is ensured. Social security and labour welfare is being increasingly recognized as a dynamic concept which has widely influenced the social and economic policies of all the developed and developing countries. It is one of the pillars on which the structure of welfare State is rests. The concept of social security and labour welfare in modern welfare State is much too broad enough providing comprehensive social security from 'womb to tomb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour welfare refers to the efforts taken by the employer to improve the conditions of employment in the workplace. It includes services, facilities and amenities which enables the employees to perform in a healthy and congenial environment. In the current era of globalisation of business, there is a dynamic change in the work environment, which has a major impact on job, health, safety and well-being of the employees. In India, there is a tremendous change in the labour market system, which has led to labour market flexibility. Due to this predicament, the employers exploit the workers unscrupulously where the workers are under the threat of losing their job security and their access to welfare measures is restricted. Retail Industry is one of the under researched area in terms of employment and welfare practices. Therefore, this study investigates the labour welfare practices in textile shops in Tiruchirappalli Corporation limit. The objective of the study was to study the statutory and non-statutory welfare practices in textile shops in Tiruchirappalli corporation limit. The researcher adopted probability random sampling technique and has collected data through structured questionnaire from 26 respondents from 9 big independent and chain stores textile shops which has more than 50 employees and in existence for more than five years in Tiruchirappalli corporation limit. The outcome of the study entails that the workers employed in textile shops work under exploitative conditions having no chance of adequate facilities like crèche, canteen, transport etc. reasonable working hours, allowances and workers education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to examine and compare the workers' perception towards various labour welfare facilities provided in the co-operative and private sugar mills of Punjab state of India. The study also examines the association of perception scores for welfare facilities with the personal characteristics of workers. Methodology: Data was collected from 490 workers (280 from co-operative sugar mills and 210 from private sugar mills) with the help of a structured questionnaire. The sample was drawn using referral sampling method. Findings: Results showed that out of 29 welfare facilities examined in this study, facilities like canteen, medical, sitting, drinking water, housing and cycle sheds are found satisfactory in both the types of sugar mills. The study also found that workers' perception scores on welfare facilities were associated with most of their personal characteristics. Implications: The study emphasizes on provision of need based valuable welfare facilities which can enhance the efficiency of workers that will ultimately lead to increased individual and organizational productivity. Limitations: The main limitation is the size of sample which restricts the generalization of results in Punjab state and secondly, the use of random sampling might have improved the results of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an attempt to put into perspective the extended role that private colonial enter - prises played during the late Portuguese colonialism. Examining two colonial companies operating in Angola, Companhia Geral dos Algodões de Angola (COTONANG) and Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (DIAMANG), the article establishes a comparison between different patterns and programs of control and welfare provided by those entrepreneurial companies. The focus is on the nature of their internal administration and coercive supervision of the African labour, but also on the existence of some degree of autonomy and infrastructural capacity vis-àvis the colonial state, mainly during the beginning of the colonial war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to incorporate welfare into sustainable development by arguing that sustainability should be scaled on rationality and safety premises. The paper describes the manner in which sustainable development principles have been distorted over time and the need for an enrichment of the concept with original ideas based on safety and rationality in development that would lead to an actual consideration of individual welfare. To this end, safety and rationality components are described, as they are regarded as requirements of sustainable development, and the rationality component is further analyzed. The methodology allows the building of an index of rationality for the 2007-2013 research interval, which attempts to capture the complexity of the rationality dimension of sustainability. The index of rationality is applied to specific circumstances from different countries and is used on a cross-country analysis to determine the progress of the member states of the European Union on the sustainability road. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic income has attracted the attention of academics, policy makers, and politicians around the globe. Basic income—a no-strings-attached cash transfer made to all citizens of a country, rich or poor—has been lauded as a plan to eliminate poverty, reduce income inequality, redress imbalances in the labor market, remedy the impending problem of mass technology-induced unemployment—the “robot apocalypse ”—and make possible meaningful lives for those otherwise dependent on menial work in the labor market. It has also been proposed as an efficient, nonpaternalistic, and stigma-free alternative to existing welfare state policies. This Article compares basic income to an alternative policy proposal: the regulation of maximum working hours in the labor market. This Article contends that on nearly all of these virtues, working-time regulation does better than, or at least as well as, basic income. In particular, working-time regulation makes “free time ” available to a broader array of individuals, also addresses technological unemployment, and is much more conducive to pro-environmental policies. Most importantly, it is more deeply egalitarian than basic income, not only addressing income inequality but social inequality, as well. Although basic income and working-time regulation are not necessarily incompatible—indeed some have advocated the adoption of both policies—there may be other factors that effectively render them policy substitutes. Specifically, not only is working-time regulation more complementary to existing welfare-state policy than is basic income, but—already in existence in the U.S. and most other developed countries—it also does not face the challenges of political and economic feasibility that confront basic income. Thus the choice and comparison is a compelling one, of which legal, policy, and tax scholars should take note. For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter—to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]