Stitching governance for labour rights: towards transnational industrial democracy?

In: Business, value creation, and society

Abstract

"Stitching Governance for Labour Rights Transnational labour governance is in urgent need of a new paradigm of democratic participation, with those who are most affected - typically workers - placed at the centre. To achieve this, principles of industrial democracy and transnational governance must come together to inform institutions within global supply chains. This book traces the development of 'transnational industrial democracy', using responses to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster as the empirical context. A particular focus is placed on the Bangladesh Accord and the JETI Workplace Social Dialogue programme. Drawing on longitudinal field research from 2013-2020, the authors argue that the reality of modern-day supply chain capitalism has neither optimal institutional frameworks nor effective structures of industrial relations. Informed by principles of industrial democracy, the book aims at enhancing emerging forms of private transnational governance as second-best institutions. Juliane Reinecke is Professor of Management at Said Business School, University of Oxford. She is a Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Research Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, from where she received her PhD. Juliane's research focuses on transnational governance, collective action and multi-stakeholder collaboration, sustainability in organizations and in global value chains. She serves as Associate Editor of Academy of Management Journal and as a trustee of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS). Jimmy Donaghey is Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of South Australia, Australia. His main research interests focus on the effects of internationalisation on the employment relationship. He is an editor of the journal Work, Employment and Society. Aside from his academic interest in employment relations, Jimmy has been an active participant in industrial relations in both the UK, where he was a branch officer and national executive member of UCU for over 15 years, and Australia, where he is currently branch secretary of the UniSA NTEU branch"--