Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations

The concept of human rights at work has advanced significantly in the last decade. The authors of the essays in Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations focus in various ways on how the promotion and protection of human rights at workplaces here and around the world posit a new set of values and approaches that challenge every orthodoxy in the employment relations field, every practice and rule based in that orthodoxy, and even the underlying premises and intellectual foundations of contemporary labor and employment systems.The authors constitute a diverse and accomplished group of human rights activists, practitioners, and scholars. Implementing the theme of the volume, they address a wide range of important subjects: worker health and safety, child labor, worker freedom of association, migrant and forced labor, the human rights obligations of employers, workplace discrimination, and workers with disabilities. The authors also discuss the implications of their findings for labor and employment research and, where relevant, make pragmatic proposals for change.

Contributors: Susanne M. Bruyére, Cornell University; Lance Compa, Cornell University; James A. Gross, Cornell University; Jeffrey Hilgert, Cornell University; Barbara Murray, International Labour Organization; Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol; Maria L. Ontiveros, University of San Francisco Law School; Edward E. Potter, Director of Global Workplace Rights, Coca-Cola Company and U.S. Employer Delegate, International Labour Organization Conference; Marika McCauley Sine, Global Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Coca-Cola Company; Rebecca Smith, National Employment Law Project; Burns H. Weston, University of Iowa

James A. Gross is Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History at the ILR School, Cornell University. He is the author of A Shameful Business and editor of Workers' Rights as Human Rights, both from Cornell.

Lance Compa is a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He is coeditor of Human Rights, Labor Rights, and International Trade.