Labour governance in global production networks (LG-GPN)

The project aims to fill gaps in research on labour governance in GPNs through theoretical and empirical contributions. Theoretically, the project will advance theory of transnational labour governance in global production networks (GPNs) through a unique interdisciplinary approach that combines the GPN analytical approach with emerging theories in transnational regulatory governance from political science and employment relations in labour sociology. The combined interdisciplinary theoretical framework will make unique contributions to the literatures of GPN, political science, and labour sociology. Empirically, it will contribute to literature by examining labour provisions in a new generation of public procurement legislation and a latest EU FTA which have not been extensively researched. The project is also unique in its comparative analysis of the clothing and electronics industries, which is rarely conducted in the literature on labour governance. Finally, is the relevance of conducting research on an emerging economy in the Asia Pacific region - Vietnam - which is relatively under-researched compared to larger rising economies such as China and India.

For many countries of the Global South, integration into global production networks (GPNs) is a key development strategy. However, GPNs have contributed to poor working conditions and labour rights violations. Research on labour governance in GPNs has focused on national labour laws and private standards that have been shown as being largely unsuccessful. We know less about the effects of a new generation of labour standards tied to market access into large consumer markets on working conditions in countries of the Global South. The LG-GPN project has researched the impact labour standards that are part of a new generation of public procurement legislation and trade agreements in the EU have on labour governance. It focused on the clothing and electronics GPNs linking the EU and the key exporter country Vietnam as well as on public procurement legislation and practices in the leading EU member states of Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The research drew on an inter-disciplinary theoretical framework that combines the GPN analytical approach with theories in transnational regulatory governance and employment relations. Research methods included an on-line firm-level survey amongst electronics and workwear firms engaged in socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) and semi-structured interviews with respondents in the EU, particularly Brussels, and selected EU member states as well as Vietnam. For the FTA part, in contrast to the EU's rather weak trade-labour nexus, external pressure from the EU through the EVFTA had an impact on labour reform in Vietnam pre-ratification; however, its impact on implementation and actual labour standard has been much weaker. This is explained by particular political economy and state-society relations in the EU and Vietnam through which pro-labour reformists in Vietnam and the European Parliament drew the European Commission in a more assertive role. Theoretically, we contribute to the literature on the trade-labour nexus by highlighting power dynamics in the EU as well as in partner countries and within GPNs, with the latter two being often side-lined, drawing on a strategic-relational theorization of the state and civil society and multi-scalar labour regimes linked to GPNs. For the SRPP part, the project provided a detailed mapping of public procurement transactions and actors in the clothing and electronics sector in the selected EU countries, showing the possibilities but also challenges that specific state actors face and sector contexts provide. Theoretically, we have added new insights into how states and new firm actors can mobilise different sources of power to influence SRPP outcomes in GPNs. In particular, the conceptualisation of a hybrid regulator-buyer state breaks new ground as it goes beyond traditional understandings of state power through public procurement as solely buyer power.