This DPhil thesis comprises three empirical essays that survey the evolution of gender differences in the labour market of urban Colombia since the 1980s. The first essay examines the evolution of gender segregation using occupational indices between 1986 and 2004, and presents a decomposition of their changes over time using a technique proposed by Deutsch et al. (2006). We find that a substantial proportion of the reduction in segregation indices is driven by changes in both the employment structure of occupations and the increasing participation of female labour observed over these years. The second essay assesses the effects of occupational segregation on the gender wage gap in urban Colombia between 1984 and 1999. The empirical strategy involves the estimation of a counterfactual distribution of female workers across occupations, as if they had been treated the same as their male counterparts. This provides a basis to formulate a decomposition of the gender wage gap in which the explained and unexplained portions of the gender distribution of jobs are explicitly incorporated. The results indicate that the unequal distribution of women and men across occupations actually helps, on average, to reduce gender pay differences in urban Colombia, particularly in the ‘informal' segment where the labour income differential between women and men is the largest. The third and final essay examines the effects of trade liberalisation on the gender composition of employment across manufacturing industries in urban Colombia from 1981 to 2000. The empirical strategy involves a comparison of estimates drawn from different panel data techniques. As a main finding, we verify that increasing trade flows are associated with higher proportions of female employment.

勞動市場彈性化導致企業開始採非典型僱用，公部門亦跟進彈性化趨勢，藉此舒解人事預算有限之壓力，我國公立就業服務機構許多核心業務亦為如此，而本研究重點於個案管理員勞動處境之探究。 個案管理員的服務對象為複雜性較高的弱勢族群，藉由案主所需，擬定長期性之服務計畫，協助其順利進入勞動市場。而個案管理從開辦此業務以來已有十多年之久，顯然並非公立就業服務機構的暫時性業務，但卻以非典型僱用方式，以政府的暫僱人力(自聘人力)與勞動派遣方式解套核心業務的人力需求。個案管理工作本為服務就業弱勢者，卻將提供服務者(個案管理員)同樣推入弱勢勞動處境，尤其身為勞動派遣身分，在工作場所之中面對政府的自聘人力或是正式公務員，更凸顯其勞動弱勢之狀態。 透過本研究的個案管理工作探討與勞動處境之檢視，本文提出以下之建議： 一、個案管理模式：(一)需改善程序模式的缺點(二)簡化個案管理員之工作(三)追求績效的同時，亦重視服務品質(四)擴充可利用之資源(五)個案管理仍有成為獨立業務之必要 二、個案管理員之勞動處境而言：(一)政府全面直接僱用個案管理員(二)杜絕勞動派遣人力(三)自僱人力全面簽訂不定期契約，人事預算編列上由單位內部所聘僱 (四)擁有合理的薪資調幅以及升遷制度，至少縮小與公務人員之間的差距。如此個案管理工作能夠被視為長久且有具發展性之工作，自然願意長時間駐守此一工作崗位並且全力以赴地協助弱勢者，對於我國公立就業服務機構而言定能有積極正面之助益。 / Labor market flexibility leads the private companies to adopt atypical employment. However, the government institutions also follow this rule to solve the problem of limited personnel budget so that public employment agencies start to adopt atypical employment. Case management was adopted by public employment agencies in 2002 to enhance the performance of public employment service. However, case managers are hired either on fixed-term basis or as dispatched workers. As a result, their working conditions, labor rights and service quality become a great concern. This study would like to discuss the concerned issue and attempt to offer policy recommendations. Case managers help the disadvantaged groups to enter the labor market and they usually need to face the highly complex problem. They should understand the needs of vulnerable clients and make long-term plans to assist them to successfully enter the labor market. The work of case managers has been existed at least for ten years, suggesting that it is not a temporary work. But public employment agencies do not treat them as regular employees to meet their manpower needs. Case managers are supposed to serve those disadvantaged groups, but now their plight is the same as that of their vulnerable clients, which makes their service in jeopardy. Based on the investigation of the working conditions of case managers, policy recommendations are as follows: 1.For the model of case management: (1) Improving assessment model (2) Simplifying the work of the case manager (3) Pursuing quantitative goals while not neglecting qualitative ends as its performance indicators (4) Expanding available resources (5) The job of case management is necessary and needs to be treated as an independent task. 2.For the working condition of case manager: (1) Case managers are to be employed on a permanent basis (2) Eliminating the dispatched employment (3) working conditions should be reasonable. Thus, case management should be considered as a long-term work that has a career prospect in order to provide better service for the disadvantaged groups and help enhance the performance of public employment agencies.

L’expansion de l’organisation de la production des biens et services sous forme de réseau, découlant de la recherche de flexibilité face à une concurrence économique accrue, soulève des enjeux importants pour les relations industrielles. Notre thèse s’intéresse au processus de précarisation des emplois dans les segments externalisés des réseaux de production. Elle se base sur trois études de cas portant sur les réseaux de services publics et privés d’aide à domicile au Québec. Les études en droit critique ont montré que le droit du travail, fondé sur le modèle de l’entreprise intégrée et de la relation d’emploi bipartite, ne parvient pas à identifier comme employeurs certaines organisations dont l’action a pourtant un effet déterminant sur les conditions de travail dans les réseaux. Notre thèse visait donc à mettre en lumière la réalité empirique des relations de pouvoir qui traversent les réseaux et leurs effets et ce à partir d’un modèle analytique transdisciplinaire intégrant les dimensions juridiques et sociologiques. Les résultats nous amènent d’abord à constater que l’employeur juridique des travailleuses employées par les prestataires privés intégrés aux réseaux – une majorité de femmes – est le plus souvent une agence de location de personnel, une entreprise d’économie sociale ou même l’usager-ère des services d’aide à domicile. Cet employeur est rarement identifié aux organismes publics, donc sous l’égide de l’État, qui exercent un pouvoir prépondérant dans ces réseaux. Le décalage entre la régulation juridique du travail et la réalité empirique du pouvoir intra-réseau entraîne une précarisation de la protection sociale et des conditions de travail de ces travailleuses. Ainsi, la faible protection de leurs droits de représentation et de négociation collectives facilite l’imposition de la « disponibilité permanente juste-à-temps », combinant les logiques du lean et du travail domestique, ainsi qu’une déqualification sexuée et racialisée de leurs emplois par rapport à la situation dans le secteur public. Notre étude montre néanmoins que certaines pratiques innovatrices d’action collective réticulaire ont pu influencer la dynamique de pouvoir, en particulier celles portées par des associations locales de personnes handicapées recourant aux services et par un syndicat de travailleuses d’agence. / The increasing trend towards organizing the production of goods and services into networks as a result of the quest for flexibility in the face of fierce economic competition raises critical issues for industrial relations. Our thesis examines the precarization of jobs in the externalized segments of production networks. It is based on three case studies focusing on the networks of public and private homecare services in Quebec. Critical law studies have shown that labour law, based on the model of the integrated firm and the binary employment relationship, fails to identify as employers some organizations whose action nevertheless has a decisive impact on working conditions in these networks. Our thesis thus aimed to shed light on the empirical reality of the power relations prevailing throughout the networks and their effects, using an interdisciplinary analytical model that integrates the legal and sociological dimensions. Results indicate that the legal employer of workers – most of them women – employed by private service providers integrated into the networks is most often an employment agency, a social economy enterprise or the individual using the homecare services. This employer is rarely identified as being among the public organizations which, under the aegis of state, exercise predominant power over these networks. The gap between the legal regulation of labour and the empirical reality of intra-network power leads to a precarization of the social protection and working conditions of these women workers. Thus, the weak protection of their rights to collective representation and collective bargaining facilitates the imposition of “just-in-time permanent availability”, combining lean management logic with domestic work logic, and leads to a gendered and racialized deskilling of their jobs compared to the situation prevailing in the public sector. Our study nevertheless shows that some innovative practices involving reticular collective action – in particular practices implemented by local associations of disabled persons using the services and by a union of female agency workers – have had an influence on these power dynamics.

L’expansion de l’organisation de la production des biens et services sous forme de réseau, découlant de la recherche de flexibilité face à une concurrence économique accrue, soulève des enjeux importants pour les relations industrielles. Notre thèse s’intéresse au processus de précarisation des emplois dans les segments externalisés des réseaux de production. Elle se base sur trois études de cas portant sur les réseaux de services publics et privés d’aide à domicile au Québec. Les études en droit critique ont montré que le droit du travail, fondé sur le modèle de l’entreprise intégrée et de la relation d’emploi bipartite, ne parvient pas à identifier comme employeurs certaines organisations dont l’action a pourtant un effet déterminant sur les conditions de travail dans les réseaux. Notre thèse visait donc à mettre en lumière la réalité empirique des relations de pouvoir qui traversent les réseaux et leurs effets et ce à partir d’un modèle analytique transdisciplinaire intégrant les dimensions juridiques et sociologiques. Les résultats nous amènent d’abord à constater que l’employeur juridique des travailleuses employées par les prestataires privés intégrés aux réseaux – une majorité de femmes – est le plus souvent une agence de location de personnel, une entreprise d’économie sociale ou même l’usager-ère des services d’aide à domicile. Cet employeur est rarement identifié aux organismes publics, donc sous l’égide de l’État, qui exercent un pouvoir prépondérant dans ces réseaux. Le décalage entre la régulation juridique du travail et la réalité empirique du pouvoir intra-réseau entraîne une précarisation de la protection sociale et des conditions de travail de ces travailleuses. Ainsi, la faible protection de leurs droits de représentation et de négociation collectives facilite l’imposition de la « disponibilité permanente juste-à-temps », combinant les logiques du lean et du travail domestique, ainsi qu’une déqualification sexuée et racialisée de leurs emplois par rapport à la situation dans le secteur public. Notre étude montre néanmoins que certaines pratiques innovatrices d’action collective réticulaire ont pu influencer la dynamique de pouvoir, en particulier celles portées par des associations locales de personnes handicapées recourant aux services et par un syndicat de travailleuses d’agence. / The increasing trend towards organizing the production of goods and services into networks as a result of the quest for flexibility in the face of fierce economic competition raises critical issues for industrial relations. Our thesis examines the precarization of jobs in the externalized segments of production networks. It is based on three case studies focusing on the networks of public and private homecare services in Quebec. Critical law studies have shown that labour law, based on the model of the integrated firm and the binary employment relationship, fails to identify as employers some organizations whose action nevertheless has a decisive impact on working conditions in these networks. Our thesis thus aimed to shed light on the empirical reality of the power relations prevailing throughout the networks and their effects, using an interdisciplinary analytical model that integrates the legal and sociological dimensions. Results indicate that the legal employer of workers – most of them women – employed by private service providers integrated into the networks is most often an employment agency, a social economy enterprise or the individual using the homecare services. This employer is rarely identified as being among the public organizations which, under the aegis of state, exercise predominant power over these networks. The gap between the legal regulation of labour and the empirical reality of intra-network power leads to a precarization of the social protection and working conditions of these women workers. Thus, the weak protection of their rights to collective representation and collective bargaining facilitates the imposition of “just-in-time permanent availability”, combining lean management logic with domestic work logic, and leads to a gendered and racialized deskilling of their jobs compared to the situation prevailing in the public sector. Our study nevertheless shows that some innovative practices involving reticular collective action – in particular practices implemented by local associations of disabled persons using the services and by a union of female agency workers – have had an influence on these power dynamics.

The thesis "Evaluation of providing information to third-countries foreigners by public sector in the labor market in the Czech Republic" is primarily engaged in finding the level of information provided to third-countries foreigners in the Czech labor market, their content, distribution, institutional framework, availability, etc.. Despite the fact that the dynamics of inflow of foreign labor is greatly reduced, this process has still many problems and issues, especially in their conditions of employment. For foreigners who came to our area to find a job, they could be legitimately employed to meet the many obligations of the law. Do they receive information about these rules and responsibilities? This paper seeks to answer, which took aim is to determine what information to foreigners from third countries, the Czech labor market in the context of migration and integration policies, propose possible solutions in this area and analyze current state of economic activities of foreigners from third countries in the labor market in the CR (in the plane legislative, institutional). Furthermore, to determine the status and level of awareness and availability of information to third-country nationals in the labor market in a position to insure foreigners from third countries on the issue of awareness and...

The use of temporary employment services as a means to achieve flexibility in die labour market led to various complications due to a lack of proper regulation. The atypical formation of the triangular employment relationship, limited rights and less favourable employment conditions of the temporary employees, multiple authority figures and their liabilities under various circumstances and the impact thereof on such employee’ collective bargaining rights caused legal uncertainty in the absence of sufficient legislation to govern it. Temporary employment agencies developed certain methods in order to evade the restrictive labour legislation and employer duties imposed on them, namely by making use of automatic termination clauses (resolutive conditions) and by categorising the temporary employee as an independent contractor. Last mentioned would effectively exclude the temporary employee from labour legislation and the protection it provides. In reaction to abovementioned problems, trade unions have been objecting to the use of temporary employment agencies and went as far as demanding the total ban thereof. This raised the question in the South African Government whether said agencies should indeed be banned. The other option is a less restrictive approach and entails the attempt to regulate these agencies by amending the current labour legislation in order to accommodate temporary employment services. In light of the fact that various proposals to amend the current South African labour legislation (especially with regard to temporary employment services) have been published in the Government Gazette, it can be deduced that the social partners ultimately chose to regulate temporary employment agencies rather than ban them altogether. From an early stage the International Labour Organisation (ILO) provided rules and regulations for the management of employment agencies in general by way of conventions and recommendations. In 1997, in order to give effect to the labour standards identified by it, the ILO brought the Private Employment Agencies Convention into existence. This document could be applied to all temporary employment agencies on an international level. This document provides for administrative regulations, the duties of the agency and the client as well as the rights of the temporary employees concerned. The ILO recommends that all of its member states incorporate the principles contained within this document in their own legislation. Temporary employment services are also used in other legal systems. For purposes of this study, the English law (United Kingdom (UK)) and the Namibian law will be scrutinised. Similar issues to those recognised in the South African law have been identified in these countries. However, each has approached said problems in different ways. The Namibian Government banned the conducting and provision of these services by way of legislation in 2007. The constitutionality of the ban has however been questioned by the Supreme Court of Namibia, after which it had been found to infringe upon the fundamental freedom to carry on any business, trade or occupation. The ban was struck down as unconstitutional. The Namibian Government has since promulgated new legislation in which it removed the ban and replaced it with numerous amendments providing for the regulation of temporary employment services. Since 1973 the UK has been promulgating various instruments for the thorough regulation of temporary employment agencies. These instruments provide for the management of temporary employment agencies and the rights of the employees involved. The relevant legislative instruments have been updated regularly with the purpose of ensuring that the needs of all the parties concerned are met. The UK, as a member state of the European Union (EU), (which has also been providing for the regulation of temporary employment services in various directives), promulgated legislation specifically with the aim to give effect to the principles in the mentioned directives. By way of doctrines and the creation of a third category ―worker‖ the UK has been attempting to prevent any loopholes in their legal system with regard to temporary employment services and the rights of the employees involved. The aim of this study is to investigate all the important complications experienced with temporary employment agencies in order to indicate the impact the atypical circumstances have on the rights of the temporary employees. The degree to which, if at all, the South African law complies with the preferred labour standards identified by the ILO will be pointed out. A comparative study will be conducted, first by ascertaining in detail how the comparable issues in the UK and Namibian law are dealt with, and second by identifying which aspects in these legal systems could be of value to the South African law. Finally the potential effectiveness of the proposed amendments to the South African labour legislation will be analysed, during which recommendations for the unresolved issues will be provided. The recommendations are mainly aimed at achieving sufficient rights and legal certainty for the temporary employees associated with temporary employment agencies. / Thesis (PhD (Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The use of temporary employment services as a means to achieve flexibility in die labour market led to various complications due to a lack of proper regulation. The atypical formation of the triangular employment relationship, limited rights and less favourable employment conditions of the temporary employees, multiple authority figures and their liabilities under various circumstances and the impact thereof on such employee’ collective bargaining rights caused legal uncertainty in the absence of sufficient legislation to govern it. Temporary employment agencies developed certain methods in order to evade the restrictive labour legislation and employer duties imposed on them, namely by making use of automatic termination clauses (resolutive conditions) and by categorising the temporary employee as an independent contractor. Last mentioned would effectively exclude the temporary employee from labour legislation and the protection it provides. In reaction to abovementioned problems, trade unions have been objecting to the use of temporary employment agencies and went as far as demanding the total ban thereof. This raised the question in the South African Government whether said agencies should indeed be banned. The other option is a less restrictive approach and entails the attempt to regulate these agencies by amending the current labour legislation in order to accommodate temporary employment services. In light of the fact that various proposals to amend the current South African labour legislation (especially with regard to temporary employment services) have been published in the Government Gazette, it can be deduced that the social partners ultimately chose to regulate temporary employment agencies rather than ban them altogether. From an early stage the International Labour Organisation (ILO) provided rules and regulations for the management of employment agencies in general by way of conventions and recommendations. In 1997, in order to give effect to the labour standards identified by it, the ILO brought the Private Employment Agencies Convention into existence. This document could be applied to all temporary employment agencies on an international level. This document provides for administrative regulations, the duties of the agency and the client as well as the rights of the temporary employees concerned. The ILO recommends that all of its member states incorporate the principles contained within this document in their own legislation. Temporary employment services are also used in other legal systems. For purposes of this study, the English law (United Kingdom (UK)) and the Namibian law will be scrutinised. Similar issues to those recognised in the South African law have been identified in these countries. However, each has approached said problems in different ways. The Namibian Government banned the conducting and provision of these services by way of legislation in 2007. The constitutionality of the ban has however been questioned by the Supreme Court of Namibia, after which it had been found to infringe upon the fundamental freedom to carry on any business, trade or occupation. The ban was struck down as unconstitutional. The Namibian Government has since promulgated new legislation in which it removed the ban and replaced it with numerous amendments providing for the regulation of temporary employment services. Since 1973 the UK has been promulgating various instruments for the thorough regulation of temporary employment agencies. These instruments provide for the management of temporary employment agencies and the rights of the employees involved. The relevant legislative instruments have been updated regularly with the purpose of ensuring that the needs of all the parties concerned are met. The UK, as a member state of the European Union (EU), (which has also been providing for the regulation of temporary employment services in various directives), promulgated legislation specifically with the aim to give effect to the principles in the mentioned directives. By way of doctrines and the creation of a third category ―worker‖ the UK has been attempting to prevent any loopholes in their legal system with regard to temporary employment services and the rights of the employees involved. The aim of this study is to investigate all the important complications experienced with temporary employment agencies in order to indicate the impact the atypical circumstances have on the rights of the temporary employees. The degree to which, if at all, the South African law complies with the preferred labour standards identified by the ILO will be pointed out. A comparative study will be conducted, first by ascertaining in detail how the comparable issues in the UK and Namibian law are dealt with, and second by identifying which aspects in these legal systems could be of value to the South African law. Finally the potential effectiveness of the proposed amendments to the South African labour legislation will be analysed, during which recommendations for the unresolved issues will be provided. The recommendations are mainly aimed at achieving sufficient rights and legal certainty for the temporary employees associated with temporary employment agencies. / Thesis (PhD (Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The labor market reform in Spain during the international financial crisisThe crisis emerged in 2008 has caused a marked degradation of employment in Spain and an emergency legislation in a very short time, which is analyzed in the study. / La crisis surgida en 2008 ha provocado una acusada degradación del empleo en España y una legislación de emergencia en muy poco tiempo, que se analiza en el estudio.