IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v26y2015i1p43-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government procurement contracts and minimum labour standards enforcement: Rhetoric, duplication and distraction?

Author

Listed:
  • Sasha Holley
  • Glenda Maconachie
  • Miles Goodwin

Abstract

Government contracts for services typically include terms requiring contractors to comply with minimum labour standards laws. Procurement contract clauses specify reporting procedures and sanctions for non-compliance, implying that government contracting agencies will monitor and enforce minimum labour standards within contract performance management. In this article, the case of school cleaners employed under New South Wales government contracts between 2010 and 2011 is the vehicle for exploring the effectiveness of these protective clauses. We find that the inclusion of these protective clauses in procurement contracts is unnecessary in the Australian context, and any expectations that government contracting agencies will monitor and enforce labour standards are misleading. At best, the clauses are rhetoric, and at worst, they are a distraction for parties with enforcement powers.

Suggested Citation

  • Sasha Holley & Glenda Maconachie & Miles Goodwin, 2015. "Government procurement contracts and minimum labour standards enforcement: Rhetoric, duplication and distraction?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 43-59, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:26:y:2015:i:1:p:43-59
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304614546450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1035304614546450
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1035304614546450?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCrudden, Christopher, 2007. "Buying Social Justice: Equality, Government Procurement, & Legal Change," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199232437, Decembrie.
    2. McCrudden, Christopher, 1999. "International Economic Law and the Pursuit of Human Rights: A Framework for Discussion of the Legality of 'Selective Purchasing' Laws under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 3-48, March.
    3. Christopher McCrudden, 2004. "Using public procurement to achieve social outcomes," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(4), pages 257-267, November.
    4. Iain Campbell & Manu Peeters, 2008. "Low Pay, Compressed Schedules and High Work Intensity: A Study of Contract Cleaners in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 11(1), pages 27-46.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karen Jaehrling & Mathew Johnson & Trine P Larsen & Bjarke Refslund & Damian Grimshaw, 2018. "Tackling Precarious Work in Public Supply Chains: A Comparison of Local Government Procurement Policies in Denmark, Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(3), pages 546-563, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mirjam Strupler Leiser & Stefan C. Wolter, 2017. "Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Social Public Procurement Policy: The Case of the Swiss Apprenticeship Training System," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(2), pages 204-222, June.
    2. Laura Treviño-Lozano, 2022. "Framing Social Sustainability in Infrastructure Theory and Practice: A Review of Two Road Projects in Mexico from a Business and Human Rights Lens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Raphael Leão & Enioluwa Jonathan Ijatuyi & Luis F. Goulao, 2023. "How Public Procurement Mechanisms Can Be Used as a Tool for Developing Pro-Poor Food Value Chains: From Entry Points to Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    4. George Denny-Smith & Riza Yosia Sunindijo & Martin Loosemore & Megan Williams & Leanne Piggott, 2021. "How Construction Employment Can Create Social Value and Assist Recovery from COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    5. Laura Treviño-Lozano, 2021. "Sustainable Public Procurement and Human Rights: Barriers to Deliver on Socially Sustainable Road Infrastructure Projects in Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Pelša Inese, 2019. "Green Public Procurement: Case Study of Latvian Municipalities," Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 33(1), pages 207-221, January.
    7. Mustafa Can, 2015. "Public Procurement of Innovation: Proposal of a New Model," EY International Congress on Economics II (EYC2015), November 5-6, 2015, Ankara, Turkey 217, Ekonomik Yaklasim Association.
    8. Reinhard Steurer & Andre Martinuzzi & Sharon Margula, 2012. "Public Policies on CSR in Europe: Themes, Instruments, and Regional Differences," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 206-227, July.
    9. Kidalov Max V. & Snider Keith F., 2011. "US and European Public Procurement Policies for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME): A Comparative Perspective," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-43, December.
    10. Francesca Colli & Johan Adriaensen, 2020. "Lobbying the state or the market? A framework to study civil society organizations’ strategic behavior," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 501-513, July.
    11. Lema, Rasmus & Bhamidipati, Padmasai Lakshmi & Gregersen, Cecilia & Hansen, Ulrich Elmer & Kirchherr, Julian, 2021. "China’s investments in renewable energy in Africa: Creating co-benefits or just cashing-in?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Kim Dae-in & Yoo Joon Koo, 2012. "Microtrade and Public Procurement: Facilitating "Aid for Trade" through Government Purchasing," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 129-152, June.
    13. Grosser, Kate & Moon, Jeremy, 2008. "Developments in company reporting on workplace gender equality?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 179-198.
    14. Laura Montalbán-Domingo & Madeleine Aguilar-Morocho & Tatiana García-Segura & Eugenio Pellicer, 2020. "Study of Social and Environmental Needs for the Selection of Sustainable Criteria in the Procurement of Public Works," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    15. repec:wut:journl:v:3:y:2013:id:1082 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Olga Martin-Ortega & Claire Methven O'Brien, 2017. "Advancing Respect for Labour Rights Globally through Public Procurement," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 69-79.
    17. Damian Grimshaw & Jo Cartwright & Arjan Keizer & Jill Rubery, 2019. "Market Exposure and the Labour Process: The Contradictory Dynamics in Managing Subcontracted Services Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(1), pages 76-95, February.
    18. Andrea S. Patrucco & Davide Luzzini & Stefano Ronchi & Michael Essig & Markus Amann & Andreas H. Glas, 2017. "Designing a public procurement strategy: lessons from local governments," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 269-276, June.
    19. Gale Raj‐Reichert & Cornelia Staritz & Leonhard Plank, 2022. "Conceptualizing the Regulator‐Buyer State in the European Union for the Exercise of Socially Responsible Public Procurement in Global Production Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 759-782, May.
    20. Arnim Langer & Frances Stewart, 2015. "Regional Imbalances, Horizontal Inequalities, and Violent Conflicts," World Bank Publications - Reports 22514, The World Bank Group.
    21. Corinne Caumartin, 2011. "Introduction," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 131-138.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cleaners; enforcement; government procurement contracts; minimum labour standards;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J88 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Public Policy
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • L59 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:26:y:2015:i:1:p:43-59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.