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December 2015

Labor regulation in Zambia - Finding the right balance

Gibson Masumbu's picture

Labor reforms have been a key reform agenda in Zambia for quite some time. Experience on the ground shows that labor laws can have a significant impact on poverty and competitiveness. When laws have been loose, workers have been disadvantaged. When the government has tried to tighten the ropes, employers have been hurt. Therefore, finding the right balance is essential.

Less is more for unions in Central and Eastern Europe

Iga Magda's picture

There is evidence that firm- and industry-level agreements that led to wage premia in CEE countries increased after EU entry. These agreements were negotiated by trade unions with employers or employer associations. But union membership in these countries has been falling since the 1990s. At the same time that union members became less numerous, they managed however to be more effective in negotiating their objectives, especially with regard to the wages of workers covered by collective agreements.

A typology of employment systems: beyond the binary

Dev Nathan's picture

A lot of our thinking in economics is based on a binary typology. The nature of employment systems is one area in which it makes sense to move away from this. A quick look at employment in developing economies (and increasingly in developed economies) shows that standard employment is the exception rather than the rule. This raises the question: how useful is it to use a binary categorization in which the negative or non-standard is, in fact, the standard?