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Week Week 1

Notes DONE

Tópicos Introdução / labor right and comparative Law

Avaliação:
E- learning- 50%

Reading Assignment + question ( opinion in 2 paragraphs)

5 e-leanings

Test- 50%

5 in person lectures

Test will be in the 1st week of december

Attendence + participation- plus in grade

Comparative Labor Law:

There is extremes around the world regarding what labor law systems look like.
On extreme is the USA and little bit about uk

USA:
Uk, autralia- USA light

The US system of labor law is in favor of the employer basically- pro employer

It’s based on a system called Employment at Will- Means you can be fired for any
reason. It gives complete rights to the employer to fire anybody for any reason. On
the other hand, the employee could quit for any reason and leave immediately.

Employment contracts are rare, most people don’t have it. You work on a
handshake, you work for as long as the employer wants you to work or as long as

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 you want to work there

Exception to this system: Discrimination. US has very good anti-discrimination laws.

Supercapitalist, it’s not about human rights but about business. Ex: Desable people
they will have something to offer, so if you discriminate them you will be loosing a
good employee. According to US, discrimination is bad for economy and business.

It’s a free market system, what’s good for business is good for the workers. If there’s
a lot of employment, that’s good for everybody, and minimum regulation.

Adam Smith, far capitalism- The market will correct itself. Ex: if you have an evil
employer that fires everybody for no reason or doesn’t pay good wages or has bad
health and security conditions, it will be some competitor that will solve it ( paying
doble for exemple). So the theory is that USA doesn’t need the EU kind of
regulation. The bad employers will be replaced by the good one because people
won’t choose to work for them. This doesn’t work because there are agreements
between employers making the competition disappear.

What’s good for the employer is good for the employee because it will be more jobs
and more economic activity. They rather have a job and less labor protection.

Continental Europe: Germany; France; Spain

Heavily regulated- Tend to have the state regulating every aspect of labor life.

Scandinavia-don’t have minim wage

The Labor units control everything, labor Unions are dominant. The employees are
members of this labor Unions. This membership is high compared to the numbers in
EU.

There’s collective bargaining agreements that governs kind of money you should
make and what rights do you have. There are collective agreements between the
labor units and the employers.

This labor units are national level and to every profession. They are so powerful that
these countries have a very high standards of labor protection.

Regarding labor law , they leave almost everything to be regulated by labor unions

It’s not the state that regulates the aspects of labor law. Some of this countries don’t
have minimum wage even . They don’t have a lot of regulation , it’s the labor unions
have their own collective contracts.

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 Some countries of EU- Roménia; Bulgaria

This countries have really good labor law rules on the books, in the code but it isn’t
that much enforced? Sometimes that’s a lot of corruption that gets envolver.

Developing world- Economically less developed.

South America; Africa; South east Asia

Some of this countries have no labor law and some of them have it but it’s
completely it enforced.

They lower their labor standers so they can attract investment

Usually poor countries don’t want minimum wages bc they want investment , they can
be more competitive

Why do we care by what happens to other workers : sustainable development

Labor law and labor rights are connected to Sustainable development. If you
destroy labor rights, they won’t be educated , not create things , you have to sell
products , if e everyone is starving - global economy destroyed. We have to sell
products.

What can trade uniões do in places with no labor rights and why do these places hate
trade unions so much?

Labor law referes to principles that can be applied around the world - minimum
standards

Labor rights - no discirimination

No child labor

Right to joint a Union and collective bargaining

Min safety
Theo can né enforcar in the WORLD , evetyware nevasse Theo dont have a direta
Economic cost

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