Does the public sector overpay or underpay workers relative to what they could earn in the private sector? Usual comparisons focus on similar jobs, but in a Developing country it is more sensible to focus on similar workers, as shown by the case of Vietnam.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy
In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.
Not so long ago, people thought that a ten-hour, six-day week was normal; now, it’s the eight-hour, five-day week. Will that soon be history too? In this book, three leading experts argue why it should be. They map out a pragmatic pathway to a shorter working week that safeguards earnings for the lower-paid and keeps the economy flourishing. They argue that this radical vision will give workers time to be better parents and carers, allow men and women to share paid and unpaid work more equally, and help to save jobs – and create new ones – in the post-pandemic era. Not only that, but it will combat stress and illness caused by overwork and help to protect the environment. This is essential reading for anyone who has ever felt they could live and work a lot better if all weekends were three days long.
Overstaffed bureaucracies afflicted by eroding salaries, demoralization, corruption, moonlighting, and chronic absenteeism are often unable to carry out the key tasks of economic recovery. What should the Bank do about it?
This book is about the rise of digital labor. Companies like Uber and Amazon Mechanical Turk promise autonomy, choice, and flexibility. One of network culture's toughest critics, Trebor Scholz chronicles the work of workers in the "sharing economy," and the free labor on sites like Facebook, to take these myths apart. In this rich, accessible, and provocative book, Scholz exposes the uncaring reality of contingent digital work, which is thriving at the expense of employment and worker rights. The book is meant to inspire readers to join the growing number of worker-owned "platform cooperatives," rethink unions, and build a better future of work. A call to action, loud and clear, Uberworked and Underpaid shows that it is time to stop wage theft and "crowd fleecing," rethink wealth distribution, and address the urgent question of how digital labor should be regulated and how workers from Berlin, Barcelona, Seattle, and São Paulo can act in solidarity to defend their rights.
Under some conditions macroeconomic crises can have a positive effect on the accumulation of human capital because they reduce the opportunity cost of schooling. This has profound implications for the design of appropriate social protection policies.
That we are participants in a global economy may no longer be news, but its impact continues to shape the field of labor relations. This is certainly true in the public sector where union membership is stagnant and outsourcing is becoming more and more prevalent. Further impacting current trends are local and state movements to restructure public organizations and the processes they use to conduct their activities and provide services. These include the mechanisms of collective bargaining and contract administration. Reflecting these and many other trends and changes, this fourth edition of the perennially bestselling Labor Relations in the Public Sector is now completely updated. The fundamental reader-friendly organization of the book remains the same, and it continues to address the many facets that must be considered today, as unions still represent 40 percent of public sector workers. However in keeping up with the formative events of recent times, this text— Accounts for emerging trends in scholarly and professional literature as well as in practice Features several new case studies that provide readers with experiential learning opportunities across a range of contemporary situations Places greater emphasis on ways to develop and use interest-based ("win–win") negotiations during bargaining processes and throughout the administration of contracts This volume recognizes the key role played by unions in the federal government and in a large proportion of state and local jurisdictions, but it also recognizes that much is changing. Fiscal realities and strategic challenges are changing the role of the labor union in the public sector. This is a trend that must be understood if its consequences are to be anticipated and met for the mutual good.