Documents Brazil 235 results

"In this important volume, nine studies identify the complexities of protecting labour rights in a mobile global economy by assessing the role of ILO standards, as well as public, private, and public-private initiatives, in countering the potentially negative impact of international trade and investment flows on labour rights. The editor's powerfully summative introduction and conclusion pinpoint the crucial issues confronting labour law in this context, highlighting the need for policy coordination and coherence. Among the topics and issues raised in the book are the following:

empirical studies of migrant workers employed in global supply chains;

international recruitment intermediaries;

governance through hierarchy versus governance through networks;

trade sustainable impact assessments (SIAs);

the so-called governance triangle – the state, companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs);

corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; and

the OECD's national contact points (NCPs).

Various authors focus on such features as the difficulties of monitoring labour conditions in a supply-chain system, the multiple forms of disadvantage often faced by supply-chain workers, enforcement and jurisdictional roadblocks, and pitfalls caused by prioritizing quantitative modelling at the expense of qualitative analysis. Authors and editors both offer recommendations on ways to not only hold multinationals responsible for the negative externalities of their actions but also provide building blocks for"

"The Socio-Labour Declaration is the legal instrument that protects fundamental labour rights within Mercosur and its Member States legal orders. Its 2015 revision enhanced quantitively and qualitatively the rights enshrined therein. Relying upon recent literature on Latin American regional integration, this article considers the complex institutional and legal framework in which the Declaration has been adopted and implemented. It examines how the intergovernmental character of Mercosur has shaped the legal content of the Socio-Labour Declaration. The institutional context of the Declaration requires the active cooperation and intervention of both regional and national actors. This article explores how Mercosur bodies have taken advantage of the flexible institutional framework to implement the Declaration through regional plans and policies. It also analyses the contrasting enforcement roles of the national executive and legislative powers, characterized by their timidity, and the judicial activism that is essential to consider the Declaration as a justiciable instrument. The article concludes that the Socio-Labour Declaration is a crucial instrument in protecting workers' rights in this trade bloc, and that the 2015 revision introduced substantial improvements that may provide the legal basis for future judgments, and regional and national labour laws reforms."

"A comprehensive handbook that addresses the relationship between nature and labour from the point of view of workers as social actors against globalising environmental degradation
Provides a wide-ranging account that connects the policies and struggles of workers, peasants, and indigenous populations for a socially and environmentally sustainable form of production and livelihoods across the world
Takes a truly global perspective, incorporating perspectives from the Global North and Global South where critiques of and strategies against environmental degradation are often very different
An interdisciplinary approach to the subject allowing researchers and practitioners to engage and advance the creation of theory about the relationship"

"Multinationals from Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the BRIC countries, are a new and powerful force in global competition and are challenging the incumbency of much older global companies from the developed world. Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) now account for a quarter of foreign investment in the world, are a prolific source of innovation and make almost one in three cross-border acquisitions globally. Despite this, traditional theories of international business do not provide a satisfactory explanation of their behaviour or performance. The authors of this book shine new light on the rise of the EMNEs and how they have built a competitive advantage through innovation, novel configurations of their international value chains and the acquisition of companies overseas. Any manager, policy maker or researcher who wishes to understand the emergence of this new breed of multinational will find this book an invaluable resource."

"Objectives This study explored the effects of occupational exposure to solvents and noise on the hearing of rotogravure printing workers from São Paulo, Brazil.
Methods The study group comprised 124 workers exposed to various levels of noise and an organic solvent mixture of toluene, ethyl acetate, and ethanol. Data on work history, psychosocial aspects of the job, medical history, present health, stress, occupational and nonoccupational exposures to noise or chemicals, and life-style factors were collected through an interview. The participants underwent pure-tone audiometry and immittance audiometry testing. Their exposures to noise and solvents were assessed.
Results Forty-nine percent of the workers had hearing loss. From the numerous variables that were analyzed for their contribution to the development of hearing loss (age, tenure, noise dose, solvent concentrations in air, biological marker for toluene, job category, work and medical history items, smoking, alcohol consumption, work perception scores, nonoccupational exposures), age and hippuric acid (the biologic marker for toluene in urine) were the only variables that met the significance level criterion in the final multiple logistic regression model. The odds ratio estimates for hearing loss were 1.07 times greater for each increment of 1 year of age [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.03--1.11] and 1.76 times greater for each gram of hippuric acid per gram of creatinine (95% CI 1.00--2.98).
Conclusion The findings suggest that exposure to toluene has a toxic effect on the auditory system. Further research is needed on the mechanisms underlying the effects of toluene and on the adequacy of current recommended exposure limits."