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Open research questions in International Labor and Employment Law

65 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 4,419 International Labor and Employment Law papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Whether, as recent literature suggests, the 2022 amendment adding WHS to the International Labour Organization’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights is able to serve as a catalyst for this remains to be seen.

    The challenge of improving work health and safety in global supply chains: Institutions and evidence of effectiveness · 2024 · DOI

  • Indeed, it is remarkable and little known that during this period, as the debates about the shadow economy in the FRG and other Western industrial countries took shape, informal economic activities were often regarded as rational, reasonable, and effective.

    The Shadow Economy and Ideas of Freedom · 2023 · DOI

  • I first show how H‐1B rights, already limited by the domestic politics that shaped the IMMACT, became subject to judicial retrenchment when the federal courts confined H‐1B disputes under the INA to the quasi‐judicial state at the Department of Labor (DOL).

    Under the<scp>quasi‐judicial</scp>state:<scp>H‐1B</scp>employment rights in an era of judicial retrenchment · 2023 · DOI

  • This is unlikely to change in the near future, given that permanent labour immigration programmes (that provide migrant workers with permanent residence and work permits on arrival) are typically limited to the most highly skilled workers and have declined in importance in countries where they used to play a large role.

    Guest workers: Enduring questions and policy controversies · 2021 · DOI

  • trade relations and labour standards), there is a lack of consensus among practitioners and scholars about the conditions that favour or cause labour standards improvements and, specifically, it is still unclear whether the increasing pervasiveness of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) is conducive to enhancing labour conditions.

    Trade agreements and labour standards clauses: Explaining labour standards developments through a qualitative comparative analysis of US free trade agreements · 2016 · DOI

  • The “Employing Workers” indices compiled from the World Bank's Doing Business (DB) survey for 2006 presented mixed results as to the nature and extent of labour regulation in South Africa.

    The cost of “doing business” and labour regulation: The case of South Africa · 2010 · DOI

  • The study also suggests several related research topics which should be explored: documentation and analysis of the specific cost savings and productivity improvements achieved by individual systems; examination of the comparative recruiting/training costs and turn-over rates of part-time versus full-time employees; impact of these practices on the quality of the services provided; and the impact of these labor practices on the attitudes of transit workers.

    A SURVEY OF PART-TIME LABOR AND CONTRACTING OUT IN THE TRANSIT INDUSTRY · 1986

  • In a statement criticizing the House bill and urging the adoption of the Department's plan, Secre- tary Wickard declared that $26,100,000 was insufficient and that the importation program would end abruptly should the House bill become law.

    The Bracero program under the farm security administration 1942–1943 · 1962 · DOI

  • Practically all the best known economists of every school, in every century, have affirmed that such a tendency exists, though their reasons have varied widely. All the same, countries do export capital, and we can say that if 'labour is scarce in those countries, the effect. It does not apply where natural resources of a particular kind are scarce. But mineral bearing lands, or lands with just the right suitability for cocoa, are relatively scarce. A is the country where labour is scarce, B the country where unlimited labour is available in the subsistence (food) sector.

    Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour · 1954 · DOI

  • ABUSES PREVENTED The danger is less apparent now in this time of relatively high wages and unprecedented employment, but i t is a form of abuse that is first to creep in when jobs are scarce.

    Safeguarding Labor Standards in Vocational Training · 1944 · DOI

  • For this latter group, the issue of the admissibility of unpaid traineeships, as well as the scope of other employee rights – especially in the area of social protection, which trainees should be covered by – remains controversial.

    Social protection of trainees in Polish law. Considerations in the context of current and planned EU traineeship regulations · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research on the topic is needed since the car industry is a core player in national economies, and, hence, its influence on migration practices and policies should not be underestimated.

    Migrant labour in the automotive industry: A literature review · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite the existence of human rights legislation in Canada, equitable access to these rights remains elusive in many workplaces—particularly in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as engineering and mining.

    Embedding Anti-Discrimination Policies and Allyship in Mining and Engineering Workplaces: A Pathway to Decent Work · 2025 · DOI

  • Administrative data on domestic work arrangements are scarce and, while anecdotal evidence suggests that the domestic work sector must be sizeable, most of it goes unregistered.

    Access for domestic workers to labour and social protection: the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina · 2025 · DOI

  • They are especially ill-suited to identify state-imposed forced labor mobilization processes—an understudied and under-conceptualized form of human trafficking.

    Measuring Non-Internment State-Imposed Forced Labor in Xinjiang and Central Asia: An Assessment of ILO Measurement Guidelines · 2023 · DOI

  • Moreover, in a situation where other human communities are scarce, the importance of the community of the workplace (especially if one remembers its relative stability) turns out to be fundamental.

    The ‘Social Organisation’ of the Workplace as a Fundamental Concept of Labour Law Theory · 2022 · DOI

  • While the assistance pro- vided to Polish workers from continental European has been addressed, the solidar- ity effort in Britain is scarcely understood.

    “For Your Freedom and Ours” · 2022 · DOI

  • In addition to well-known groups of socialist blue-collar workers, such as metalworkers, textile workers, or coal miners, the articles include under-researched socialist white-collar workers.

    Labor in State-Socialist Europe, 1945–1989: Contributions to a History of Work · 2022 · DOI

  • Collective bargaining relating to domestic work is a rare occurrence and its contributions to regulation and formalization have not yet been addressed by the literature.

    Collective bargaining in domestic work and its contribution to regulation and formalization in Italy · 2022 · DOI

  • However, what the transnationalization of class means for the Polish workforce in the context of diversified employment and mobility regimes has remained underexplored to date.

    Transnational Contract Work and the Remaking of Class among Polish Workers in Construction and Shipyards: Between Collective Subjugation and Stratified Empowerment · 2018 · DOI

  • While these cases establish the positive role of human rights law in accounting for the wider context in which inequality impacts on migrant labour, this role is also inherently limited by the purpose, scope, and function of the Tribunals.

    The Inequality of Low-Wage Migrant Labour: Reflections on<i>PN v FR</i>and<i>OPT v Presteve Foods</i> · 2018 · DOI

  • Abstract The distinction between de jure and de facto regulation is well understood in theory, but has rarely been applied to cross‐country empirical work on the impact of labour regulation on labour market outcomes for lack of data.

    Enforcement matters: The effective regulation of labour · 2018 · DOI

  • Yet fine-grained studies on how the interplay of informal institutions and local actors’ interests prevents standards being implemented are still lacking.

    Domestic obstacles to labor standards: law enforcement and informal institutions in Argentina’s garment industry · 2017 · DOI

  • Abstract Social inequality is underpinned by exploitative labour institutions, yet the agency of employers in establishing and maintaining such institutions remains underexplored.

    The Institutional Work of Exploitation: Employers’ Work to Create and Perpetuate Inequality · 2017 · DOI

  • Though little is known about the detail of their work experiences, scattered reports suggest that wages and working conditions are often poor and pose significant issues of social justice.

    Inhospitable workplaces? International students and paid work in food services · 2016 · DOI

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65 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 4,419 International Labor and Employment Law papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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