Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GLOGOLAB (GLObal GOvernance of LABour: an integrated approach)
Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2025-01-31
Over recent decades, the global economy has experienced profound transformations driven by accelerating globalization, economic integration, and the restructuring of production into complex global value chains. These developments have challenged traditional nation-centric frameworks for regulating work and employment, highlighting substantial limitations in understanding and effectively governing labour issues through national policy alone. Historically, studies on labour governance have predominantly focused on national-level analyses. However, the increasingly transnational character of production and economic exchange demands new, integrated, multi-scalar approaches to understanding and governing labour relations and workers' rights.
Against this backdrop, GLOGOLAB (2023-2026) — funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship and hosted by the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Scuola Normale Superiore, and by the ILR School at Cornell University in the US —addresses the urgent need for comprehensive analysis and understanding of global governance of labour. The project seeks to move beyond existing scholarly approaches by systematically examining various transnational labour governance regimes that have emerged since the 1990s. Such regimes include inter-governmental agreements (e.g. ILO Conventions, labour clauses in trade agreements), private governance initiatives (e.g. international framework agreements, corporate voluntary codes of conduct), and supranational interventions (e.g. IMF structural adjustment programs).
By pioneering an integrated analytical approach that unifies insights on power dynamics, collective action, and multi-level governance processes, GLOGOLAB is expected to significantly advance scholarly understanding of global labour governance. By doing so, it will deepen academic comprehension of the complex mechanisms shaping employment regulation in a globalized economy, thus informing future comparative research.
Beyond academia, the project holds substantial societal relevance. Through a comparative assessment of how different global labour governance frameworks concretely impact workers' rights, GLOGOLAB will provide valuable insights for evidence-based policymaking. Its findings will directly benefit international organizations like the EU, the ILO and the OECD, as well as social partners, civil society, and social movements seeking effective strategies to enhance labour rights globally.
Against this backdrop, GLOGOLAB (2023-2026) — funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship and hosted by the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Scuola Normale Superiore, and by the ILR School at Cornell University in the US —addresses the urgent need for comprehensive analysis and understanding of global governance of labour. The project seeks to move beyond existing scholarly approaches by systematically examining various transnational labour governance regimes that have emerged since the 1990s. Such regimes include inter-governmental agreements (e.g. ILO Conventions, labour clauses in trade agreements), private governance initiatives (e.g. international framework agreements, corporate voluntary codes of conduct), and supranational interventions (e.g. IMF structural adjustment programs).
By pioneering an integrated analytical approach that unifies insights on power dynamics, collective action, and multi-level governance processes, GLOGOLAB is expected to significantly advance scholarly understanding of global labour governance. By doing so, it will deepen academic comprehension of the complex mechanisms shaping employment regulation in a globalized economy, thus informing future comparative research.
Beyond academia, the project holds substantial societal relevance. Through a comparative assessment of how different global labour governance frameworks concretely impact workers' rights, GLOGOLAB will provide valuable insights for evidence-based policymaking. Its findings will directly benefit international organizations like the EU, the ILO and the OECD, as well as social partners, civil society, and social movements seeking effective strategies to enhance labour rights globally.
In the first 24 months of the project, I’ve worked towards the first objective of the project, namely conducting a comprehensive mapping of the various forms of global labour governance. This has already resulted in the publication of a chapter, written with some of the leading scholars in the field, on how different forms of regional integration affect decent work. I’ve also reviewed for the British Journal of Industrial Relations some of the key texts recently published on global labour governance. In turn, this is informing the drafting of a broader review essay on power resources in global labour governance, which I have presented at international academic conferences and that I will submit for publications to the European Journal of Industrial Relations.
Within this mapping exercise, I’ve also focused on new significant developments in global labour governance, i.e. the movement towards binding regulations on corporate sustainability due diligence, especially within the European Union. This regulatory effort, which resulted in the approval of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in 2023, is unprecedented, as it establishes the legally binding principle of responsibility for multinational companies along their value chains, even beyond the perimeter of the enterprise. My analysis of these recent developments has already resulted in a number of scientific publications, accepted and in progress. Finally, the mapping exercise has led me to the selection of case studies, which are fundamental to reach the second objective of the research project, i.e. to analyse and compare the impact on workers’ rights of different global labour governance. I’m currently focusing on Chile and Indonesia as countries affected by various forms of global labour governance, and which hold a strategic position in critical raw materials extraction, notably lithium and copper, industries increasingly central to global economic transitions and sustainability objectives.
I’ve also advanced towards the third objective of the project, that of presenting a theoretical framework able to account for the complex policy processes and outcomes taking place within global governance of labour structures. This has been done through the publication of a solo-authored article in the prestigious ILR Review, where I propose to integrate concepts from the industrial relations and the international relations literature to understand transnational labour governance, as well as with the drafting of the review essay on power resources in global labour governance.
Within this mapping exercise, I’ve also focused on new significant developments in global labour governance, i.e. the movement towards binding regulations on corporate sustainability due diligence, especially within the European Union. This regulatory effort, which resulted in the approval of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in 2023, is unprecedented, as it establishes the legally binding principle of responsibility for multinational companies along their value chains, even beyond the perimeter of the enterprise. My analysis of these recent developments has already resulted in a number of scientific publications, accepted and in progress. Finally, the mapping exercise has led me to the selection of case studies, which are fundamental to reach the second objective of the research project, i.e. to analyse and compare the impact on workers’ rights of different global labour governance. I’m currently focusing on Chile and Indonesia as countries affected by various forms of global labour governance, and which hold a strategic position in critical raw materials extraction, notably lithium and copper, industries increasingly central to global economic transitions and sustainability objectives.
I’ve also advanced towards the third objective of the project, that of presenting a theoretical framework able to account for the complex policy processes and outcomes taking place within global governance of labour structures. This has been done through the publication of a solo-authored article in the prestigious ILR Review, where I propose to integrate concepts from the industrial relations and the international relations literature to understand transnational labour governance, as well as with the drafting of the review essay on power resources in global labour governance.
GLOGOLAB is applying a novel integrated approach to global labour governance, whereas until now the scientific literature has tended to adopt a ‘silo’ approach, with different regimes of regulation being studied separately. With GLOGOLAB, I am also working towards the development of an innovative analytical approach that will bring together hitherto separated approaches that look at power and collective action with those that look at multi-level governance, expanding horizontally and vertically the understanding of today’s governance of social affairs and the prospects for global developmental goals.
Moreover, I have updated the research project to take into account the most recent developments, in particular the increasing regulatory movement towards binding rules on corporate sustainability due diligence. By including also these developments into the framework of analysis, the project will advance significantly the literature on supranational regulation on workers’ rights.
In addition, the project will also advance the state of the art through the analysis of sectoral case studies. I have chosen to conduct one of my case studies on workers’ rights in critical raw materials (CRMs) value chains, which are assuming an increasingly important role in global capitalism, as they are at the foundation of the digital and ecological transition. CRMs are indispensable for powering our electronic devices, life-saving innovations, and green technologies. One element that is absent from the dominant discourse around CRMs, however, is that of workers’ rights. By including CRMs as one of the sectoral case studies, GLOGOLAB will advance the understanding of a relatively unexplored but crucial sector from the perspective of workers’ rights.
One challenge that the project has encountered is that the regulatory framework is evolving in real time while the project is developing. New EU laws such as the Battery Regulation and the Critical Raw Materials Act have been adopted but they are in the early stage of implementation. The CSDDD has been adopted but it is now subject to revisions through the omnibus procedure. For this reason, I have applied to new sources of funding to continue working on these key topics. In particular, I have applied for a starting grant (value 1.3 mln euros) from the Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (https://fis-submission.mur.gov.it/(opens in new window)) and I intend to apply to the ERC starting grant.
Moreover, I have updated the research project to take into account the most recent developments, in particular the increasing regulatory movement towards binding rules on corporate sustainability due diligence. By including also these developments into the framework of analysis, the project will advance significantly the literature on supranational regulation on workers’ rights.
In addition, the project will also advance the state of the art through the analysis of sectoral case studies. I have chosen to conduct one of my case studies on workers’ rights in critical raw materials (CRMs) value chains, which are assuming an increasingly important role in global capitalism, as they are at the foundation of the digital and ecological transition. CRMs are indispensable for powering our electronic devices, life-saving innovations, and green technologies. One element that is absent from the dominant discourse around CRMs, however, is that of workers’ rights. By including CRMs as one of the sectoral case studies, GLOGOLAB will advance the understanding of a relatively unexplored but crucial sector from the perspective of workers’ rights.
One challenge that the project has encountered is that the regulatory framework is evolving in real time while the project is developing. New EU laws such as the Battery Regulation and the Critical Raw Materials Act have been adopted but they are in the early stage of implementation. The CSDDD has been adopted but it is now subject to revisions through the omnibus procedure. For this reason, I have applied to new sources of funding to continue working on these key topics. In particular, I have applied for a starting grant (value 1.3 mln euros) from the Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (https://fis-submission.mur.gov.it/(opens in new window)) and I intend to apply to the ERC starting grant.