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Cheong, David; Ebert, Franz Christian --- "Labour law and trade policy: What implications for economic and human development?" [2016] ELECD 1537; in Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin (eds), "Labour Regulation and Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 82

Book Title: Labour Regulation and Development

Editor(s): Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785364891

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Labour law and trade policy: What implications for economic and human development?

Author(s): Cheong, David; Ebert, Franz Christian

Number of pages: 45

Abstract/Description:

In July 1900 at an international congress that was to establish the International Association for the Legal Protection of Workers, Eugen von Philippovich, a professor at the University of Vienna, recounted the following anecdote: In Austria, for example, where the 11-hour work day has been imposed by law with success (and where the work day is often shorter in practice), there remains only one exception made for the silk mills in the south of Tyrol. There, the work day has continued to be 13 hours for all, young people and adults, who are part of the industry. The population there has the same characteristics as the neighbouring Italian population, which is active in the same industry with a 13-to 14-hour work day. It was necessary to place the industry in a position to withstand this competition. This anecdote reminds us that the links between labour regulation and international trade have been a subject of concern well before the era of globalisation as we know it. The example reflects the worry among 19th-century European proponents of labour reform – such as Owen, Hindley, and Le Grand – that cross-border economic competition would jeopardise the introduction of laws and institutions intended to ease the plight of workers (Servais, 2009, 22). More than a century later, this example is still pertinent as sweatshop conditions persist, especially in the segments of the global textiles and garment industry located in developing countries (see Pickles, 2012).