Analysis and international comparison of selected labour standards

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 2,3 (B), University of Paderborn (International Economic Relations), language: English, abstract: We view workers as trying to find the best possible job and assume that most firms are tryingto make money. Workers and firms, therefore, enter the labour market with differentobjectives- workers are often trying to sell their labour at the highest price, whereas firms areoften trying to buy labour at the lowest cost.But this relationship between workers and firms involves much more than the exchange of aworker’s labour service for the payment of an hourly or monthly wage. Labour standards thatguarantee appropriate working conditions and various forms of insurances1 which protectworkers are also provided as part of the employment relationship in most countries.2As a result of this, the employment relationship, which is one of the most fundamentalrelationships in our lives, attracts a good deal of legislative attention.Wages and other terms of employment are not determined solely through market dealingsbetween workers and employers. The types of economic exchanges that can occur betweenworkers and firms are often limited by the set of basic rules that the government has enactedto regulate transactions in the labour market.Therefore, three leading actors are in the labour market: workers, represented by labourunions, firms and the government.Labour standards, which can be defined as “norms and rules that govern working conditionsand industrial relations”3, should cover most workers and workplaces, and represent theminimum labour rights to which employees are entitled—a ground floor below whichemployers cannot go. They include issues such as the minimum wage, maximum hours ofwork, overtime pay, maternity leave, statutory holidays—in essence, an array of labour lawsthat allow workers to better balance work and family, protect their personal time, and earn adecent living under reasonable conditions.In recognition of the fact that the relationship between a worker and an employer is notalways an equal one, labour standards represent a collective agreement society negotiates onbehalf of all workers.4 [...]1 These insurances include, for example, unemployment, health care, and retirement income insurances (pensions).2 According to Ronald G. Ehrenberg (1994), p. 53 According to the OECD (1996b), p. 254 “It is easier for an employer to replace recalcitrant workers than for employees to “replace” a recalcitrant employer,especially when unemployment is high” (Stiglitz, 2001).