Projects
LABOUR LAW, DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES
Community driven accountability in Cambodia
Evaluating redress mechanisms governing the human rights practices of transnational business: lessons for institutional design and operation
Promoting decent work: The role of Labour Law
Standard Taking in Malaysia: the impact of post-Asian financial crisis corporate governance reform prescriptions
Re-Embedding the Market: Crisis and Reinvention?
Corporate Governance and Workplace Partnerships
Labour law, development and poverty alleviation in low and middle income countries
Years: 2012 to present
Description
The aim of the project is to understand the role of labour law in alleviating poverty in developing countries. We hypothesise that this can be done in two ways: by promoting greater equality of incomes and wealth, and through encouragement of the more productive and efficient use of labour resources both at firm level and more generally in labour markets.
The empirical strategy for addressing these issues is two-fold. The quantitative dimension of the work will take the form of econometric analysis of datasets providing data on legal and institutional variables at national and regional level, alongside relevant economic and labour market indicators (GDP, employment, unemployment, productivity, etc.). For the most part, the data to be used in this part of the project already exist or will be supplemented from existing documentary sources. The collating and analysis of this data will be conducted by researchers employed at Cambridge University. The qualitative dimension of the work will take the form of analysis of interviews with relevant actors in the case study countries. These will include actors with legal knowledge and experience (judges, lawyers, politicians, regulators, civil servants, labour inspectors), private-sector firm-level actors (HR and other managers) and actors in civil society (trade unions, NGOs). These two aspects of the study will be brought together to provide rich comparative data of countries with different levels of industrialisation, economic structures and cultural contexts.
Researchers:
Shelley Marshall BLT, Prof. Simon Deakin, Cambridge University and the International Labour Organisation,
Funding Source:
UK Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC: UK Pounds £700,000 for 2013-14).
community driven accountability in cambodia
Description:
The aim of this project is to investigate community understandings of accountability in the context of development and infrastructure projects in Cambodia. Communities in Cambodia are being displaced and their livelihoods are under threat because of infrastructure and development projects that they have very little control over. These communities urgently need to find ways to have greater influence over decision making concerning the projects before they occur, and make the projects more accountable for their effects after they occur. (This project is closely related to the ARC Linkage Grant, titled Evaluating redress mechanisms governing the human rights practices of transnational business.)
Years: January 2012 – July 2014
Funding Source:
AUD $298,754 awarded to team by the Oxfam-Monash Partnership
My role:
Chief investigator and Project Lead for Monash
Other Members of Team:
· Dr Kate Macdonald, University of Melbourne
· Michael Simon, Head of Advocacy, Oxfam
· Pauline Taylor McKeown, Region Head, Oxfam Mekong
Evaluating redress mechanisms governing the human rights practices of transnational business: lessons for institutional design and operation
ARC Code: LP110100426
Description:
This project addresses the urgent need to provide vulnerable workers and communities with more effective means of defending their human rights when these are violated by businesses from countries such as Australia. We will develop a regulatory reform model that explains how the various functions and powers of contrasting ‘redress’ mechanisms affect the strength of regulatory systems and promote long term change in business behaviour.
Years: 2011 – 2014
Funding Source:
ARC: AUD $328,000
Partners: AUD $286,632 in kind; AUD $83,516 cash
My role:
Co-coordinator with Kate Macdonald, Chief Investigator
Other Members of Team:
The University of Melbourne – Kate Macdonald and Fiona Haines
Oxfam Australia
The Corporate Responsibility Coalition, UK
ActionAid UK
Federation of Homeworkers Worldwide
Monash University – Shelley Marshall
The University of Newcastle – Tim Conor
University of Essex – Sheldon Leader
Promoting decent work: The role of Labour Law
RM Fund Scheme Code: ILOGENCA09
Description:
This project provided advice to DIALOGUE, the arm of the International Labour Organisation that provides technical assistance to member nations, of a new policy and operational framework. The aim is for DIALOGUE to provide more appropriate and effective advice regarding labour law reform to member countries. The key outcome was an analytical framework for assessing labour law reforms needed, and understanding the way that labour law can facilitate economic and social development.
Years: July 2009 – continuing
Funding Source:
USD $95,000 (AUD $105,042.70) awarded to Shelley Marshall to coordinate project from DIALOGUE, a department of the International Labour Organisation, Geneva.
My role:
Coordinator and chief investigator.
Other Members of Team:
Collaborators include:
Paul Benjamin, Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Inc, South Africa
Professor Simon Deakin, Cambridge University, UK.
Professor Kevin Kolben, Rutgers University Business School., USA
Professor Kamala Sankaran, Delhi, India.
Mr Steven Gibbons, Director, Ergon Associates, UK.
Keywords:
Labour Law, Labour Standards, Development, Governance
Research Codes: Up to 3 and allocate % weighting
180118 Labour Law 50%; 160505 Economic Development Policy 50%
Standard Taking in Malaysia: the impact of post-Asian financial crisis corporate governance reform prescriptions
Years: 2009 – 2012
Description:
This project studies the ‘standard setting’ and ‘standard taking and adapting’ process that occurred after the 1997-8 financial crisis in Malaysia and discover to what extent the bundle of corporate governance reforms advocated under the auspice of ‘good governance’ have been adopted. Top 100 company annual reports are coded from 1997 to 2010 to establish what company level changes have occurred in response to international standards and company law reforms.
Funding Source:
Departmental Grant, Business Law and Taxation, Monash University: AUD $13226.25.
Sunway Campus, Monash grant: MYR 31,000
My role:
Co-investigator with four Malaysian academics, including Dr Elsa Satkunasingam, Dr Shanthy Rachagan of Monash Sunway Campus.
Keywords:
Economic development Policy, Corporate Governance, Labour Relations, Malaysia
Research Codes: Up to 3 and allocate % weighting
160505 Economic Development Policy 50%; 160606 Government and Politics of Asia and the Pacific 50%
Re-Embedding the Market: Crisis and Reinvention?
Description:
The project invites fundamental re-examination of perennial questions regarding the role of state and societal governance within a capitalist market economy following the global financial crisis.
Parallel one-day workshops were hosted by the University of Melbourne and Harvard University on 4 December 2009, linked by video. The project has resulted in a number of novel proposals for the reform of market governance by key international thinkers, documented in a special edition of the journal Politics and Society as well as an edited book published by Routledge.
Years: July 2009 to September 2011
Funding Sources:
$2,950, Govnet/IEGL
$3,000.00, Brotherhood of St Laurence
$3,000.00, Department of Business Law and Taxation, Monash University
$700.00, Social Justice Initiative, University of Melbourne
$1000, United Nations Association, Australia
My role:
Co-coordinator with Kate MacDonald, Melbourne University and Sanjay Pinto, Harvard University.
Publications:
Special Edition, Politics and Society Journal, Fall, 2011[ERA: A rank, Policy & Administration / Political Science]
Macdonald, K., Marshall, S and Pinto, S (eds) New Visions for Market Governance: Crisis and Renewal, Routledge, 2011 (forthcoming).
Corporate Governance and Workplace Partnerships
Years: 2003 to present
Description:
This project examines the intersection of industrial relations and corporate governance, studying the impact of changes in corporate governance structures and strategies upon labour regulation. The project has provided new insights into the extent to which Australian businesses adopt ‘shareholder primacy’ strategies, at the expense of employee interests. It has resulted in two books and a large number of additional publications.
Funding Source:
Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant: $640 500 awarded 2001 to CI Ramsay and Mitchell
My role:
Senior Research Fellow responsible for coordinating project from 2004
Other Members of Team:
Chief Investigators Prof Ian Ramsay, University of Melbourne, and Prof Richard Mitchell, Monash University; Research Fellows Anthony O’Donnell, Meredith Jones, Kerstin Anderson and various research assistants.