Labour Standards Regulation in a Globalised Economy: A Review of Existing Paradigms

Recent global development paradigms such as the deregulation of labour markets in tandem with the informalisation have weakened the power of trade unions as well as that of the state in all countries, irrespective of their unique circumstances. One area most affected by this reduced union and state power is the inspection and enforcement of labour standards, especially along value chains and among informal economy operators. A space has therefore been created for an emergence and a proliferation of new forms of labour standards governance, monitoring and regulation. These are made up of firm’s self-regulation of labour standards and non-governmental systems. The viability of these options for labour standards governance remains a subject that requires interrogation for the purposes of analysis and policy. This paper is an attempt to fill this need by presenting a review of the existing paradigms. Regardless of the endemism of non-governmental regulation, this paper is grounded on the premise that non-governmental regulation mechanisms do constitute a viable alternative to state regulation. A combination of voluntary initiatives by firms, as well as monitoring and enforcement by the state is thus proposed.KEYWORDS: Ghana, Labour, Regulation, Standards, Unions