Tackling age discrimination in employment in Singapore

In a country with an ageing work-force, a decline in the number of new entrants to the labour market and an acute labour shortage, it would be reasonable to assume that employers would encourage older workers to remain in employment for as long as possible. In the case of Singapore, however, private sector employers often retired employees at age 55 and hired younger workers in their place. In many cases older workers re-hired had to accept lower pay and lower grade jobs. In an attempt to tackle this sort of age discrimination in employment, the government passed the Retirement Age Act in 1993. Prior to its enactment, the government urged employers to raise the retirement age voluntarily, but the response was poor, especially in the non-unionized sector. This paper argues that employers resisted the extension of the retirement age because they perceived older workers in stereotypical terms. The main issues which gave rise to the Retirement Age legislation are discussed. So also is the possible impact of the legislation on some HRM practices. The paper also proposes some future directions for research on older workers in Singapore.     

Credit unions vs. commercial banks,who takes more risk?

A unique feature of the financial services industry is that both shareholder-owned banks and member-owned credit unions coexist and compete against each other. In this study, we investigate two research questions. First, we compare risk-taking by banks and credit unions, with an additional consideration as to how regulatory oversight (state or federal) relates to such risk-taking. Second, we examine how competition affects the difference in risk-taking between these two types of financial institutions. To answer both questions, we rely on a matched sample (by loan type, size, and county) of commercial banks and credit unions, covering the period between 2010 and 2017. We use three empirical proxies for risk-taking, the Z-score, measuring an institution’s insolvency risk, as well as the ratios of non-performing loans to total loans and loan charge-offs to total loans, measuring the credit risk. Our results suggest that banks tend to engage in more risk-taking than credit unions; however, state regulatory oversight reduces the risk-taking gap, especially in terms of the Z-score. We further find that competition induces different risk-taking behaviors in banks and credit unions. Our results are robust to several alternative specifications.     

Employment Protection Versus Flexicurity: On Technology Adoption in Unionised Firms*

We analyse how different labour‐market institutions – employment protection versus ‘flexicurity’– affect technology adoption in unionised firms. We consider trade unions’ incentives to oppose or endorse labour‐saving technology and firms’ incentives to invest in such technology. Increased flexicurity – interpreted as less employment protection and a higher reservation wage for workers – unambiguously increases firms’ incentives for technology adoption. If unions have some direct influence on technology, a higher reservation wage also makes unions more willing to accept technological change. Less employment protection has the opposite effect, as this increases the downside (job losses) of labour‐saving technology.     

How do Labor Unions Influence the Gender Earnings Gap? A Comparative Study of the US and Korea

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative study of the United States and Korea regarding the effects of unions on gender earnings gaps in 2004. Using datasets representative of the population of the US and Korea, this contribution shows that gender differences in the workers' observed characteristics and the unobserved component reduce gender earnings gaps in union jobs in both the US and Korea. Fringe benefits in the union sector attract women workers with higher labor market qualifications into the union sector and thereby reduce the gender earnings gap in this sector. The study finds that this self-selection process in the union sector is stronger in Korea than in the US, but the seniority-based wage system that prevails in the Korean union sector widens the gender earnings gap.     

Trade Union Responses to Outsourcing in a Neo-Liberal Environment: A Case Study Analysis of the Australian Public Sector

Australia has witnessed a rapid growth in outsourcing over the past decade with the public sector being the clear leader in these initiatives. Explanations of the rise of outsourcing tend to emphasize economic and human resources management factors and neglect the political dimension. In particular, unions and collective labour relations have been a target of a neo-liberal reform agenda pursued by both Labour and conservative governments, which has included outsourcing as a means of individualizing the employment relationship and reducing union influence. This can be seen clearly from the experience of the state of Victoria both in its reform of local government and its electricity generation industry where a carefully implemented programme of downsizing and outsourcing played upon existing divisions in the workforce. In both cases a pragmatic, survival oriented response from the major unions was elicited.     

Economic Scholarship at Elite Liberal Arts Colleges: A Citation Analysis with Rankings

Although prominent economists at elite universities produce the most influential scholarship, economists at the nation's leading liberal arts colleges make significant contributions. The author measures the influence of 439 economists employed at the 50 top liberal arts colleges and ranks departments and individuals on the basis of citations. The author discovered a hierarchy with a small number of departments whose faculty produce cited scholarship, and a small number of influential economists employed at liberal arts colleges. The determinants of citations are estimated. Greater experience and more publications but not lower teaching loads are correlated with more citations.     

论质量改进的对象,主体及过程

质量改进的对象主要是管理；质量改进的主体主要是企业的领导和管理人员；质量改进的过程是创新的过程，持续的质量改进是全面质量管理的核心和灵魂。     

Income Inequality and Workers’ Powerlessness in Selected OECD Countries

Our goal is to show the effects of “elitization” on income inequality in affluent countries over the last two decades. By applying a robust regression model on a sample of twenty-one OECD countries, we observe that a high concentration of wealth by the richest “1%” of the population results in reducing the impact of trade unions on income redistribution through political institutions. Insufficient redistribution can be interpreted not only as the elites’ control over the resources that influence public policy and opinion, but also as affecting the evolutionary path of the economy. Moreover, this influence emphasizes the importance of traditional institutions and serves as an inspiration to reconsider the established social consensus regarding the welfare state.     

International Enterprises and Trade Unions

A “shipping war” has broken out between two friendly neighbouring countries: Estonia (a rather poor land; liberated of Soviet occupation in 1991), and Finland (a wealthy one; independent since 1918). Led by their trade union the Finnish dockers boycott Estonian ships demanding for Estonian sailors the salary in the same range as that is in wealthy West-European countries. Estonian Sailors' Union finds that such a war is not for their better work-conditions but against their working possibilities: the cheap labour force is the only possibility for a poor country to entice foreign investments in it. No matter how the “shipping war” will be solved – the problem will remain. This is the problem of two opposites – cheap labour force of poor countries and expensive one of wealthy countries –, and international enterprises standing between them. Could such an enterprise survive without using the cheap labour force? And if it could, how could the poor countries survive then? Could there be found a clear unambiguous ethical solution? What ought to be the role of trade unions in such international business conflicts?     

基层工会促进女教职工体面劳动实现的实践与思考

使广大劳动者得以体面劳动是体现劳动者尊严的具体实践,是和谐社会不断健康发展的新要求,是新时期对工会工作的新要求。三峡大学仁和医院工会以《工会法》为灵魂,积极探索新思路,真正代表实践好维护好女教职工的合法权益,促进女教职工体面劳动的实现。