New frontiers for Labour Law: Collective Bargaining for Workers in Global Supply Chains and Informal Self-Employed Workers

Von Broembsen, Marlese

New frontiers for Labour Law: Collective Bargaining for Workers in Global Supply Chains and Informal Self-Employed Workers

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Commercial Law

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

Since the 1990s, labour law scholarship has been shaped by, and has responded to, what has been called the ‘existential crisis' of labour law. Scholars have questioned labour law's ‘constituting narrative' as ‘the law of collective relations' and the relevance to most of the workforce of its two core institutions — the contract of employment and collective bargaining. Focusing on two categories of worker in the global South — garment workers in global supply chains and street vendors — the thesis explores the shifts required of the institution of collective bargaining to realise collective bargaining rights for these workers. These sectors constitute a significant percentage of the workforce in developing countries and challenge the discipline of labour law, which is shaped by the political economy and the labour-market structure of the global North. Through case studies, and against a political-economy background that reflects a global South perspective, the thesis discusses transnational supply-chain bargaining for garment workers, and collective bargaining between street vendors and the local governments that control vendors' workplace (public space). The thesis argues that the theory of labour law as ‘personal work relations' can incorporate informal self-employed workers into its scope despite the absence of a contractual relationship with the entity that controls their workplace. Realising street vendors' rights to collective bargaining as subjects of labour law (rather than of other law) matters for vendors, but also for labour law. Garment workers in global supply chains challenge the institution of collective bargaining in various ways. ‘Lead' firms (in the global North) structure the terms and conditions for workers (in the global South). In order to achieve positive distributive consequences for garment workers, collective agreements must regulate relations across the (transnational) supply chain, rather than only the employment relationship; but in the absence of a contractual nexus, it is difficult to bring lead firms to the bargaining table. By challenging labour law scholars to take seriously the theoretical implications of incorporating such categories of (global South) worker, the thesis contributes to re-asserting labour law as ‘the law of collective relations'.

Keywords

Labour Law

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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