Weight Discrimination in the American Workplace: Ethical Issues and Analysis

Research providing consistent evidence of pervasive discrimination against overweight job applicants and employees in the American workplace raises important questions for organizational stakeholders. To what extent is the disparate treatment of job applicants or employees based on their weight ethically justified? Are there aspects of weight discrimination that make it more acceptable than discrimination based on other characteristics, such as race or gender? What operational steps can employers take to address concerns regarding the ethical treatment of overweight individuals in the workplace? This article investigates these and related questions. Its purpose is to provide information and analysis that will assist organizations in formulating ethical responses to a widespread phenomenon: weight discrimination in the workplace. Although its focus is the American workplace, the proposed employer ethical obligations and the practical guidance that is provided are viewed as generalizing across countries and cultures.     

Employer training in Australia: current practices and concerns

This paper presents and analyses results from a research project on current trends in employer training in Australia. While the formal vocational education and training (VET) system is well‐researched, the everyday training that happens in workplaces is relatively under‐researched in Australia. Using some of the results of an employer survey undertaken in 2015, the paper describes and analyses employer‐based training across a range of industry areas. The survey included groups of questions on a range of matters, including the reasons why employers train, and how these relate to employers’ perceptions of their operating environment, and the structures they have in place to manage and organize training. Detailed data are provided about three specific forms of training: in‐house training and learning; the use that employers make of external providers of training; and employers’ use of nationally recognised training – training from the VET system. Finally the paper reports what managers said about the barriers to providing more training. The paper analyses the findings in relation to the literature and also identified changes over time in training practices in Australian companies. Implications for training policy and practice, as well as for future research, are identified.     

Trade, wages, and the political economy of trade protection: evidence from the Colombian trade reforms

Worker industry affiliation plays a crucial role in how trade policy affects wages in many trade models. Yet, most research has focused on how trade policy affects wages by altering the economy-wide returns to a specific worker characteristic (i.e., skill or education) rather than through worker industry affiliation. This paper exploits drastic trade liberalizations in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s to investigate the relationship between protection and industry wage premiums. We relate wage premiums to trade policy in an empirical framework that accounts for the political economy of trade protection. Accounting for time-invariant political economy factors is critical. When we do not control for unobserved time-invariant industry characteristics, we find that workers in protected sectors earn less than workers with similar observable characteristics in unprotected sectors. Allowing for industry fixed effects reverses the result: trade protection increases relative wages. This positive relationship persists when we instrument for tariff changes. Our results are in line with short- and medium-run models of trade where labor is immobile across sectors or, alternatively, with the existence of industry rents that are reduced by trade liberalization. In the context of the current debate on the rising income inequality in developing countries, our findings point to a source of disparity beyond the well-documented rise in the economy-wide skill premium: because tariff reductions were proportionately larger in sectors employing a high fraction of less-skilled workers, the decrease in the wage premiums in these sectors affected such workers disproportionately.     

Enterprise‐level training in developing countries: do international standards matter?*

Several studies have examined the determinants of training in developing countries but few have paid attention to the potential importance of international standards such as ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 on the firm's training decision. This article examines training determinants using recent employer surveys for five developing countries: Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco and Nicaragua. It finds that ISO certification status is an important determinant of training, even after controlling for other characteristics such as workers’ formal schooling, firm size, industry and foreign ownership. This points toward the importance of international standards, including product quality and production standards, for firm training. The article also discusses policy implications related to the findings and provides directions for further research.     

Liberalisation and Regional Market Integration: Turkish and Australian Automotive Sector Experience Compared

With similar production strategies and shared policy objectives forming a common background in both countries, plans to liberalise automotive production and trade emerged in Turkey and Australia after 1980. The subsequent outcomes of these attempts to abandon protection were to diverge, however, and the future viability of these two formerly heavily protected markets has now come to depend increasingly upon access to regional trade blocs. Examination of the path followed by these two economies as they adjust to the consequences of automotive liberalisation clarifies not only comparative economic performance in key areas of industry and trade, it also highlights the influence of differing levels of multi‐state economic integration, as these processes create, or fail to create, new opportunities for manufacturing economies operating in their individual regional geographic settings.     

Vocational education and training and employer engagement: an industry‐led sectoral system in the Netherlands

The overall objective of this paper is to determine, through a qualitative case study of the Dutch sectoral training system, factors associated with successful employer engagement. As well as examining the key features of the Dutch approach to vocational education and training (VET), the article makes a number of specific arguments: (1) employer ‘buy‐in’ is crucial to the success of the sectoral approach to VET; (2) simply establishing a system of sector‐based training bodies (e.g. skills councils) does not guarantee effective employer engagement; and (3) to make sectoral training work, especially in countries where a ‘supply‐led’ system dominates, a fundamental reform is required in areas such as funding, qualification structure, leadership and system support.     

Health Insurance,Job Lock,and the Supply of Self‐Employment

Unlike most wage earners, self‐employed Americans have limited access to health insurance and face higher costs. Thus, social commentators and policymakers argue that many potential entrepreneurs are “locked” into their current jobs for fear of losing their health coverage even though they could be more productive in self‐employment. Using a large data set for the period 2000–2008, we find the availability of employer‐provided health insurance to be negatively correlated to the likelihood of self‐employment in the long run, but the effect to be mediated by individual and family health status. However, we find employer‐provided health insurance to have no significant effect on the probability of switching in the short run. Finally, we find differences in the magnitude of the effects between our samples of husbands and wives.     

The Skill Structure of Export Wage Premium: Evidence from Chinese Matched Employer–Employee Data

We study how the wage gap between exporting and non‐exporting firms (export wage premium) differs across skill groups, using unique matched employer–employee data from China. We find robust evidence that exporters pay relatively higher wages than non‐exporters to more educated workers. The differences in export wage premium across education groups are sizable. Further investigations show that the positive correlation between export wage premium and education is more pronounced in sectors with higher scope for quality differentiation. This is consistent with the theory that exporters produce relatively higher quality goods which require relatively higher quality skilled workers.     

Who Supports Free Trade in Latin America?

This paper examines individual trade policy preferences across 17 countries in Latin America. The focus is on whether skilled or unskilled workers are more likely to support liberalised trade and on whether country characteristics, such as factor endowments, alter the preferences of skilled and unskilled workers. Based on the standard Heckscher‐Ohlin model and the Stolper‐Samuelson theorem, wage inequality in developing countries will decrease under free trade and unskilled workers will benefit. We find that on average skilled workers are more likely than unskilled workers to support free trade in Latin American countries. Separate country regressions reveal that this pattern is only statistically significant in 8 out of 17 Latin American countries. However, there are no countries in our sample in which unskilled workers are statistically more likely to support free trade than skilled workers, not even in the lowest skill‐endowed country in the sample. We also find that people from Latin American countries with higher GDP, faster growth, more cropland and a longer period of time since reform were more likely on average to support free trade.     

Strengthening Globalization’s Invisible Hand: What Matters Most?

In this paper, we investigate what matters most to sustaining strong economic growth in today’s more globalized, knowledge economy. An examination of 2005- 2006 statistical and survey data across 52 countries reveals that economic growth is driven mainly by developed and trustworthy financial markets, a well-educated and skilled workforce, and access to information and communications technologies. Moreover, we find that creditworthy financial markets are strengthened by free and open economies based on the rule of law and legal protections. Our findings support the notion that innovative ideas and entrepreneurship are at the heart of economic growth. However, these ideas need support from institutional policies and practices that create and sustain growth by providing needed protections and a market in which to finance them. JEL Classification F02, F16     

Wage convergence and trade

We examine differences in wage rates across countries for workers employed in the same industry, distinguishing workers in the low, medium and high‐skill groups. These differences are large and show persistence over time. We ask, nonetheless, whether there is evidence of convergence, much as is done in studies of convergence in per capita income across countries. With our focus on the micro level, we expect convergence to reflect, at least in part, the degree of integration of a country or industry into the world economy and examine particularly the role of market integration and trade. Our results show strong evidence of convergence in a diverse sample of 39 countries, which includes most large economies whether rich or poor. The estimated convergence rate over the period from 1995 to 2008 is about 4% per year for workers in all skill groups, higher in the more integrated economies of the EU than in other economies without such open borders and lower in industries supplying services rather than manufactures. Also, we find evidence that the rate of growth of domestic output impacts positively on the growth of wages in an industry, providing a source for ongoing deviations from the convergence prediction.     

Employment and Labor Laws

Abstract

This article reviews and compares the employment and labor laws of three countries-US, South Africa, and Ghana. The methodology employed is a qualitative review of each countries employment and labor laws that are centered on collective bargaining, employment discrimination and other workplace standards, unemployment compensation, pensions, workplace safety, and workers compensation. Even though, the three countries have laws covering various areas of employer/employee relationships, perusal of the various countries' laws reveals there are considerable differences between the three countries with respect to the importance of labor market institutions and the role they play in determining the terms of employment.     

Handle with care: Avoiding and managing retaliation claims

Anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers are routinely included in federal statutes. During the past decade, claims of retaliation in employment-related cases have grown in numbers and in reach, due in part to a seemingly far-reaching commitment by the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret anti-retaliation provisions to provide maximum protection to complainants. Employers must take care not to run afoul of the anti-retaliation provisions; however, that does not mean that employees who complain of discrimination are ‘untouchable.’ This article provides an overview of anti-retaliation law as it relates to the employer–employee relationship and outlines eight practical tips for managing and avoiding retaliation claims. Though anti-retaliation provisions provide ample reason for employers to proceed with caution in the face of employee complaints, employers need not succumb to paralyzing litigation fear when addressing concerns regarding complaining employees’ performance issues.     

The US Generalised System of Preferences in Principle and Practice

In principle, the US generalised system of preferences (GSP) offers uniform market access to exports from eligible developing countries for a broad set of GSP‐eligible products. In practice, realised GSP tariff exemptions demonstrate marked variation across countries, industries and years. In this paper, we identify the sources of discretionary and non‐discretionary GSP exclusions and quantify the extent to which competitive needs limitations (CNLs), waivers and additional annual product, country and country‐product exclusions drive a wedge between the ‘generalised’ principle of GSP and its implementation in practice.     

The role of training in reducing poverty: the case of agricultural workers receiving microcredit in Bangladesh

The policy of providing microcredit and skill training to poor agricultural workers in developing countries is well‐established. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of the training part of that policy. BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non‐governmental organization in Bangladesh, is making efforts to alleviate poverty by providing microcredit and relevant training to landless and marginal borrowers, who have less than 1.5 acres of land, in order to enhance their standard of living. The study aims to assess the effects of BRAC's training programs on the recipients' total household expenditure. Primary data were collected from female borrowers who participated in the microcredit programs of BRAC and these data reflect the key role women play in agricultural work and the lack of research on their status. The study shows that the training provided to the borrowers failed to create any significant impact on their household expenditure because only a small percentage of borrowers received training and the duration of the training was limited (on average three days per person). Moreover, many of those who received training experienced only a modest income effect. The findings are important not just for the practical purpose of influencing policies for reducing poverty in Bangladesh but also for their contribution to the understanding of the effectiveness of training. The existing literature is concerned mainly with the effectiveness of training in the context of business and other organizations in developed countries. Research on the effectiveness of training in developing countries, particularly in alleviating poverty, is less evident. Moreover, the present research is also exceptional as it focuses only on female trainees.     

Private Parts: A Global Analysis of Privacy Protection Schemes and a Proposed Innovation for Their Comparative Evaluation

Given recent technological advances, we now are able to invade personal privacy as never before. The challenge in the business community is to make the most of the opportunities presented by the growth in communication technology while, at the same time, protecting what remains of individual privacy. The conflict between technological advances and privacy concerns is not new, but it has grown exponentially in recent years, and the development of a data protection scheme in the European Union lends a certain economic urgency to meeting the challenge. Pursuant to a Directive adopted by the European Union, privacy protections throughout the EU must become more stringent and consistent throughout EU member countries. One area of great concern to the United States is the Directive's requirement for certain minimum standards of privacy protection in countries receiving information from member countries. Given the limited protections available in the United States, it does not appear that the United States meets these minimum standards. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the existing measurements of global privacy protections and to propose a new model which allows for their comparative evaluation.     

Is it ‘you’ or ‘your workplace’? Predictors of job‐related training in the Anglo‐American world

This paper examines the determinants of job‐related training and workplace voice. Using data from a unique 2016 cross‐national survey of Australian, British, Canadian and American employees, the paper contrasts two classic formulations in the literature; (1) the neoclassical/human capital approach which predicts that individual characteristics (such as age and education) which increase the efficiency of learning, will have the largest impact on the allocation of training (i.e. younger and more educated employees will be afforded training) and (2) the traditional institutional approach which favors the structural characteristics present at the industry and firm level, the nature of the job itself and the strategic choices of firms as the major predictors of job‐related training. We find that age – a key factor in the human capital model – plays a significant role in the allocation of training but that education (in keeping with recent evidence) does not. In sum the human capital model provides, at best, only a partial explanation for the differences in training observed across individuals. In contrast, variables invoked by the institutional literature (i.e. occupation level; industry; ownership type; and market structure) are highly significant and account for a much greater proportion of the variance in training observed across workers. Other institutional factors such as the presence of a union and a human resource department were strong positive predictors of job‐related training. But most important were product‐market strategy and employee voice. Respondents working in firms utilizing a ‘high road/high quality’ product/service strategy and with a workplace consultative committee were significantly more likely to receive training than similar workers employed in observably similar firms. This last finding supports the industrial relations view of voice as an important channel by which training is optimally delivered inside the firm.     

Factors affecting Modern Apprenticeship completion in Scotland

Completing an apprenticeship has been shown to be critical to an individual’s future employment, earnings and career development when compared with apprentices who do not complete. International research, notably in England, Australia and Germany, has identified factors specific to the apprentice, employer and training provision that are associated with a higher chance of completion. However, to date, there has been no comparable research in Scotland, which operates its own distinct and well‐established apprenticeship system. Based on the factors identified in other countries, logistic regression was conducted on records of apprenticeship leavers in Scotland, covering the period from 2007 to 2015. Data for a total of 78,952 leavers were analysed, consisting of 59,737 completers and 19,215 non‐completers. It was found that women are more likely to complete an apprenticeship than men, while those from deprived areas are less likely to complete. Apprentices employed by a large employer, those receiving training from public sector organizations and those studying for selected technical subjects are more likely to complete, as are apprentices living in an area with a high local unemployment rate. The paper considers the reasons why some apprentices are more likely to complete than others and discusses the implications for apprenticeship policy in Scotland and beyond.     

Identifying uniform employment-termination practices for multinational employers

After a review of the diverse laws governing termination of employment in 11 countries, the authors note patterns across the different legal systems. For example, all but two of the eleven countries required some form of just cause for dismissing an employee. Several mandated various forms and schedules of notice, and a few required some form of remuneration or severance payment—sometimes in lieu of notice. Additionally, some countries gave the workers the chance to appeal their dismissal, often with the assistance of third parties. Although the authors consider it unlikely that the severance-pay idea will become a blanket policy (since some countries don't require severance pay), they adduce a set of standards that could provide a uniform termination process across all 11 nations. The strategy underlying such a uniform policy is to make its provisions fit the laws of the most restrictive nation, by using a just-cause standard in all dismissals. While that adds some personnel cost, on balance, the authors argue that establishing cause for dismissal protects the employer from future claims and could save money in the long run. It also forces managers to make a specific effort to remediate employment issues and to try to help struggling employees.