Singapore’s Progressive Wage Model, introduced in 2012 and mandatory in the cleaning industry since 2015, is a skills- and productivity-based approach to redesigning jobs and restructuring wages in the largely outsourced cleaning, security and landscaping sectors. Focusing on cleaning work in the food and beverage industry, this case study examines some early outcomes of this national drive to reduce wage inequality by improving the pay and conditions of commodified work in a sector subject to outsourcing-based cost competition. Based on interviews with cleaners, supervisors and managers, the findings suggest that in general, government and the trade union and employers’ association have worked together, to set wages and conditions transparently. Nevertheless, enforcement issues mean that cleaners remain vulnerable. They have limited information about their employment benefits and face various types of poor conditions, some sanctioned by and others in violation of labour laws. These vulnerabilities have structural roots, including rent imbalances and cheap sourcing, factors that commodify jobs. The implementation of the Progressive Wage Model may have helped de-commodify cleaning jobs for Singaporeans and permanent residents, but such outcomes are still dependent on non-systemic and unenforceable factors such as the kindness of individual supervisors. While a promising start has been made, Singapore’s initial efforts to improve incomes and conditions in low-wage work will nevertheless require stronger regulatory commitment.

The 2008 economic crisis has had significant impacts on labour markets around the world. In Europe, in particular, the need for internal devaluation within European Union nations in financial difficulty precipitated a wave of labour market reforms alongside the reform of welfare systems struggling to cope with high levels of unemployment. Various analyses have explored the nature of these changes separately for the labour market and welfare systems. Using a conceptual framework rooted in a political economy understanding the social nature of labour, this article takes an inclusive approach to understanding regulatory changes for both employed and unemployed labour. We do this using the case of Ireland, a country that went through a severe economic crisis, was subject to a European Union/European Central Bank/International Monetary Fund bailout in 2010 and witnessed one of the most significant labour market crises in Europe. The Irish case is instructive because it highlights both the range and depth of regulatory interventions utilised by the state during periods of crisis to deal with the social nature of labour and its role under advanced capitalism.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, austerity measures have been introduced in many national contexts to reorganise public sector work and redesign labour laws and labour policies. At the same time, right-populist discourses and movements have arisen in ways that give both legitimacy and voice to the politics of austerity. Toronto, Canada, provides a world-renowned case of populist experimentation at the metropolitan scale, as the actions of Mayor Rob Ford typified this nexus of austerity and populism. Set in the context of Ford’s term as Mayor of Toronto (2010–2014), this article asks how the combined rise of austerity and right populism creates both new challenges and new opportunities for public sector labour in urban spaces. We argue that public sector unions are central in both the making and unmaking of populist austerity and identify potential trajectories for organised labour in the face of the continuation of austerity-driven politics.

Temporary migrant workers are widely regarded as a precarious group of workers. This precariousness is often traced back to the sphere of employment, though recent research also points to the implications of the limited rights entailed by temporary migrant status. This article draws on empirical work among registered nurses who have participated in the Australian 457 visa scheme – the major programme for temporary migrant workers in Australia. Using a range of empirical sources, including in-depth interviews with 26 temporary migrant nurses, we examine whether these nurses experience precariousness and locate the sites and sources of precariousness. The article draws attention to the importance of the regulatory context that defines different pathways from the country of departure to employment in the Australian healthcare system. We suggest that, although temporary migrant nurses are well integrated within the healthcare workforce in terms of formal wages and conditions, other stages in their migration pathways can be associated with precariousness. This in turn has significant impact on experiences at work and outside the workplace.

This introduction overviews four approaches to theoretical and empirical research on the ‘gig’ economy, framing them within the concept of the ‘fissuring of the workplace’. It outlines arguments that ‘gig’ or digital work is not a new phenomenon but a resurgence of older, unregulated labour extraction methods and outlines the need for a more nuanced way of measuring the dimensions of job insecurity and their corrosive effects. In foreshadowing potential policy approaches to addressing the regulatory deficit surrounding gig economy work, it argues for an eclectic approach to using and strengthening legislation designed to safeguard the rights of consumers and providers of services, including contractors, and regardless of employment status. Finally, it foreshadows a study of how a successful union movement respond to the gig economy – negotiation with a digital platform to bring advertised hourly pay rates into line with the minima set within the industrial relations system for employment in the relevant industries.

As Britain prepares to leave the EU immigration policy has come to the top of the policy agenda. The Brexit vote was seen as a vote against free movement and new policies are aimed at introducing more restrictive controls. The report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in September 2018 recommended little new provision for low-skilled migration post-Brexit (MAC, 2018). This was then adopted by the Home Office in its Immigration White Paper, published in November 2018 (Home Affairs Committee, 2018). The White Paper explicitly references public concerns that migrant labour reduces opportunities for British workers and undermines their pay and conditions. Yet employers have argued that they need to be able to continue to recruit lower, as well as highly skilled labour because the supply of British workers is insufficient. The paper explores the likely impact of proposed restrictions on immigration post-Brexit, using data from NIESR studies of employers and of the general public. It combines an assessment of what is needed to meet the needs of employers, the economy and to address public concerns, finding that there is more consensus than there is often considered to be.

Traditionally, benefit-cost analyses focus on average benefits and average costs. However, heterogeneous treatment effects and/or costs are most often present, which means that there is an efficiency potential hidden in the implementation of public programs, if policies can be targeted at those who, net of costs, benefit the most. We introduce efficiency potential defined as the ratio between the net benefit achieved under perfect selection of the individuals with significant positive net benefit of program participation, and the actually realized benefits net of costs. Using data from a randomized control-trial experiment of a Danish return-to-work program combined with rich administrative records and survey data, we find that there is indeed a potential for increased efficiency. Results from the treatment literature indicate that, generally, it may be difficult to harvest the full potential. Our application corroborates this finding.

Dans la plupart des pays européens, la redéfinition du contrat de travail et de ses modalités de rupture est au cœur des débats contemporains de politique économique du marché du travail. Ces débats s'appuient sur l'impo-sante littérature consacrée aux liens entre protection de l'emploi et performance du marché du travail développée au cours des dix dernières années. Toutefois, une source de divergence importante entre les marchés du travail européens, le degré de centralisation des négociations salariales, a été curieusement éludée dans la plupart de ces études. L'objet de cet article est précisément d'envisager d'un point de vue théorique la nature des interactions entre politiques du marché du travail et niveaux de négociation. Dans cette perspective, nous développons un modèle dynamique du marché du travail dans la lignée des travaux de Pissarides (2000) intégrant différentes branches d'activité. Notre analyse montre que dans ce cadre de référence, les négociations de branche conduisent systématiquement à une allocation inefficace des ressources. Il existe alors une justification explicite à l'introduction des politiques de l'emploi. Nous montrons alors qu'un ensemble de politiques, notamment fiscales et de protection de l'emploi, est susceptible d'assurer l'équivalence entre équilibre de branches et optimum.