Final Assignment

Running Head: MULTIMEDIA LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Literature Review

International Labor Organization (ILO) generates principles and guidelines to govern

labor laws in its state members, but implementing them in some instances, have posed

challenges. One of the criticisms the body faces is the general absence of realism and a

substantial impact on national law and practice 1 majorly, implementing these procedures set by

ILO does not affect precarious forms of work, specifically the surging informal sector of the

impoverished countries. The notion is that the regulations do not contribute to any significance if

they are not effectively executed, as in most cases, they do not adhere to critical social

legislations2. Sometimes, it is difficult to impose these principles on workers as they may not be

a priority. Good.

The problems related to adopting the principles set by ILO are as discussed below; first is

the cost of the international labor standards. When measuring the value of a product in the

market, the manufacturer has to take into consideration the cost of raw materials, forces of

demand and supply, investment requirements, tax deductions, and workforce composition

(Servais, 2013). Therefore, quantifying the value of international labor laws would be risky,

considering the diversity the different member states present. The developing countries, in this

1 Andrees, Beate. “Human Trafficking: Issues Beyond Criminalization” The Pontifical Academy

of Social Sciences. April 2015. Accessed March 24, 2020.

http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/publications/acta_20/andrees.html

2 Servais, Jean-Michel.” The ILO law and the present crisis” international society for labor and

social security law. 2013. Accessed March 24, 2020. https://islssl.org/the-ilo-law-and-the-present-

crisis/#_ftn6

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case, are the most affected as they would rather forego the cost of implementing these laws

because their working conditions are deplorable from the onset.

Secondly, the socio-economic dimension; the implementation of international law

depends on the development status of an individual country, where countries with week

economic status, would have difficulties. This is because the level of development determines

how local institutions are ready to embrace and enforce the stated laws on their citizens. In most

cases, international law inclines to organizations that engage in large scale operations3. This

means, the larger the systems, the better the approach of implementing these laws. Should be

supported with examples.

Thirdly, the difficulties associated with the control of the standards. For the successful

adoption of the ILO regulations, all the relevant stakeholders should be on board. For instance, it

requires that all the participating countries should have a robust network of adequately trained

personnel and with enough staffing levels that would work as supervisors4. On some occasions,

there are sectors with clandestine or illegal operations, where it would be difficult to monitor

such activities because of the inadequacy of information. In such cases, even if there is an

infringement of one’s rights, it would be difficult to enact the ILO laws.

Besides, the nature of the work presents its challenges towards the ILO laws. Whereby it

would be difficult to execute these regulations in a situation where the employment is atypical

3 Gurung, Om. “Major Challenges for Implementing ILO Convention 169 in Nepal” Organized by the

Center of Advanced Studies, Oslo, Norway. 2009.

4 Servais, Jean-Michel.” The ILO law and the present crisis” international society for labor and social

security law. 2013. Accessed March 24, 2020. https://islssl.org/the-ilo-law-and-the-present-crisis/#_ftn6

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(Bronstein, 2009); examples in these scenarios include engagement terms that are; part-time,

fixed-term job, extended probation terms, on-call work, and temporary work. Workers in these

categories from the broader employment market that has a limited relationship with the parent

employee, in most cases, have no duty of implementing the set rules of contracts obligated by

ILO.

Another characteristic that restricts ILO regulations is decentralization. Most companies

around the world are outsourcing their non-core activities to external producers. Such as? Real

life examples? In this setting, the parent company is exempted from the responsibilities of

ensuring adherence to the set regulations as the risks of employment are transferred to the sub-

contracted supplies, which may not be a direct beneficiary of the ratified laws5. Therefore,

attaching any necessary measures in such situations becomes a challenge that even the local

authorities find difficult to enforce.

Similarly, the emergence of globalization has opened numerous market opportunities

without boundaries; it diminishes the effectiveness of international law as the jurisdiction of

most acts would be restricted to the state borders. Likewise, the opening of multiple borders as a

result of international trade would mean that counties could be doing business with non-member

states that would not permit the regulations to be of use. With the recent development of

technology and know-how, the movement of skilled and unskilled labor is not confined to the

5 Diller, Janelle M. “Three Challenges Facing International Labor Law”. American Society of International Law.

MARCH 28-31, 2007, Vol 101, pp. 398-402

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geographical and political boundaries inferring that the inflow and outflow of workers prevent

the application of ILO laws6.

Another challenge that faces the implementation of ILO regulations is the conceptual

approach. This method advocates for self-reliance in regulating market dynamics and suggests

that labor laws should be limited to introducing thresholds for underlying rules. Following this

description, the state protection through labor laws is insufficient as conventional perceptions see

labor rights as labor costs, workers as a human resource rather than human beings, and labor law

is called labor market regulation, nevertheless the circumstance that labor is not a product.

According to Diller (2007), one of the difficulties ILO faces is building coherence

between international labor laws and other international laws. As a result of globalization, both

normative and formative rationality is problematic to achieve as the multiple platforms that

should unite all the international laws present disparity in terms of doctrines and practice. For

example, the laws that govern migration are founded in international law. Still, when it comes to

migrating workforce, international labor laws should come into play to protect the rights of the

migrating labor force. In some instances, it is difficult to provide a consistent measure that would

ensure that labor laws are protected as the regime coordinating these activities lack the capacity.

Strengthening the capacity to deliver is another challenge, ensuring that tools, knowledge,

and mechanisms for implementation of international laws are complicated, considering the

diversity and vastness of global boundaries. Besides, having administrators in each state presents

cost implications that might diminish local and international budgets. Other than meeting its

6 Gurung, Om. “Major Challenges for Implementing ILO Convention 169 in Nepal” Organized by the Center of

Advanced Studies, Oslo, Norway. 2009.

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objectives, international laws are required to fulfill the following functions; set standards of

supervisory information, provide advisory services, technical cooperation, and coordination with

other organizations7. Therefore, ILO is in intense scrutiny to perform under these functions,

which might be challenging to execute, leading to a lack of confidence in the organization.

Thirdly, it is challenging to enable more participatory and accountability of governance

systems. Having people work towards a common goal is tough; making sure that the essential

actors towards international law are working in the same setting rather than apart can be

problematic8. Besides, the dynamicity of the work environment requires that employers work

tirelessly in ensuring consistent workplace relationship that complies with set regulations. Since

there are new trends each day, coping up with them poses an uphill task that would derail any

efforts previously achieved.

Furthermore, many European Union (EU) member states argue that the convention does

not elaborate clearly on the rights of regular and irregular migrants. Where the claim is that they

are obligated to offer too many reasons to migrants who lack legal status in their countries.

Therefore, influencing such political influences to change their minds to the ILO’s agreement of

7 Diller, Janelle M. “Three Challenges Facing International Labor Law”. American Society of International

Law. MARCH 28-31, 2007, Vol 101, pp. 398-402

8 Jakovleski, Velibor, Scott Jerbi and Thomas Biersteker. “The ILO’s Role in Global Governance: Limits

and Potential” International Development Policy. 2019 Vol 11

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economic immigrants would be tough. This means the migrants are provided with equal salaries,

welfare benefits and legal rights, for example in the case of illness or pregnancy of the natives9.

Additionally, many states believe that the ILO regulations infringe on the sovereignty of

their nations by limiting their capability of deciding the entry and stay of migrants. The EU states

maintain that the convention could be a catalyst for an irregular stay of the illegal workforce in

their labor markets as well as prevent their fight towards illegal entry and settlement of

immigrants. Also, the EU nations feel that the regulations in the ILO Conventions are already

entrenched in other international laws and their regional instruments. Hence, they add no

significant value.

Gurung (2009), in his article “Major Challenges for Implementing ILO Convention 169

in Nepal,” states that one of the roadblocks to implementing ILO’s regulation is the dominance

of culture and traditional beliefs 10. They believe that traditional doctrines have prevented the

penetration of outside world rules as the people within the municipality are either reluctant to

implement them or have refused to change. Secondly, ILO 169 Convention advocates for

indigenous people over their traditional lands, forests, water, and natural resources, but over the

years, many cities have experienced immigration of other tribes bringing about conflicts on the

use of resources.

9 Touzenis, Kristina and Dr. Alice Sironi. “Current challenges in the implementation of the UN

international convention on the Protection of Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families.

Directorate-General for External Policies. 2013. pp. 23-33

10 Bronstein, Arturo. “International and comparative labour law Current challenges” Internationla Labor

Organization. 2009. Accessed March 24, 2020. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/--

-publ/documents/article/wcms_107847.pdf

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Conclusion / summary ??

Well done. This is a substantive and exhaustive review of the relevant literature pertaining to the topic of ILO. Theoretical arguments are missing in the paper. I like the described challenges that the implementation of ILO regulations faces. However, there is a lack of real life examples throughout the paper. Your arguments are really good but they need to be applied on real life cases. Keep up the good work.

Points 80

Criteria Beginning Developing Accomplished

Sources and Source Quality

(10 points)

7

Inquiry Question

(10 points)

8

Organization

(15 points)

15

Connection to Defined Problem Area

(10 points)

10

Incorporation of Theoretical Framework (15 points)

5

Synthesis/Summary

(10 points)

5

Style

(30 points)

30

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Reference

Andrees, Beate. “Human Trafficking: Issues Beyond Criminalization” The Pontifical Academy

of Social Sciences. April 2015. Accessed March 24, 2020.

http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/publications/acta_20/andrees.html

Bronstein, Arturo. “International and comparative labour law Current challenges” Internationla

Labor Organization. 2009. Accessed March 24, 2020.

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---

publ/documents/article/wcms_107847.pdf

Diller, Janelle M. “Three Challenges Facing International Labor Law”. American Society of

International Law. MARCH 28-31, 2007, Vol 101, pp. 398-402

Gurung, Om. “Major Challenges for Implementing ILO Convention 169 in Nepal” Organized by

the Center of Advanced Studies, Oslo, Norway. 2009.

Jakovleski, Velibor, Scott Jerbi and Thomas Biersteker. “The ILO’s Role in Global Governance:

Limits and Potential” International Development Policy. 2019 Vol 11

Servais, Jean-Michel.” The ILO law and the present crisis” international society for labor and

social security law. 2013. Accessed March 24, 2020. https://islssl.org/the-ilo-law-and-

the-present-crisis/#_ftn6

Schwikowski, Martina. “UN labor agency ILO sees big challenges on 100th Anniversary”

Deutsche Welle. 11.04.2019. Accessed March 24, 2020. https://www.dw.com/en/un-

labor-agency-ilo-sees-big-challenges-on-100th-anniversary/a-48273266

Touzenis, Kristina and Dr. Alice Sironi. “Current challenges in the implementation of the UN

international convention on the Protection of Rights of All Migrants Workers and

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Members of Their Families. Directorate-General for External Policies. 2013. pp. 23-

33