Survey among workers, managers and union representatives from companies of export-oriented industries in Kenya and Brazil (2018-2020)

Preamble The project explores the extent to which transnational private governance affects the capacity of workers to take collective action in pursuit of improvements in employment conditions in developing countries. Transnational private labour regulation such as corporate codes of conduct and multi-stakeholder standards on labour, environment or human rights claim to respond to the governance deficits that have arisen as a result of the globalization of global production networks. Yet, little consensus exists about the effectiveness of their monitoring and enforcement practices or their ultimate impact. Context Since the 1990s, the concern has intensified about the responsibility of businesses in global subcontracting chains for exploitation of labour, inequality, and pollution. Many private transnational regulatory initiatives claim to address this concern by incentivizing multinational companies to voluntary sign up to human rights and environmental standards often referring to, for example, the International Labour Organization’s core labour standards. The effectiveness of this approach remains a complex and highly debated issue. Over the last decade, scholars have studied the emergence, performance and problems related to transnational private labour regulation, their interactions on the transnational level and local level compliance. Stepping back from conventional debates on the overall effectiveness of transnational private governance, the project focuses instead on agency: the effect of transnational private labour regulation on the capacity of those involved, especially workers, to act in local contexts. With our project, we explore how different types of transnational private labour regulation, different national settings and different firm-level contexts of application combine to form what we call transnational hybrid production regimes. Aim The study examines how these regimes support workers’ collective capacity to take action to improve their own conditions of employment.