Collective Voice without Collective Bargaining
Pandemic Induced Wage Theft Claims and Worker Responses in Apparel Supply Chains
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7459693 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Achalie Kumarage (0000-0002-3912-3580, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 131-151 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Journal of Law and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2052-9015 • E-ISSN: 2052-9023 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/als.2024.19 |
| OpenAlex | W4402885609 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
Concentrated corporate power and failures to manage the distribution of risk mean that workers bear the heaviest burden in globalised apparel supply chains. Law and associated normative frameworks seek to strengthen collective worker voice and other worker rights to tip the scales of unequal bargaining power to benefit the workers. However, some of the traditional tools of labour law such as unionising and collective bargaining have weakened over the years and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a conceptual framework based on regulatory theory, feminist insights, and semi-autonomous social fields, this article examines the law-practice gap for regulating just wages within the apparel supply chain, responses, and how workers fight wage theft and carve out pathways to demand just wage standards. Drawing from the case of Sri Lanka, the article discusses how alternative forms of worker voice seek to fill in the implementation gaps. The findings of this study demonstrate worker initiatives to shape the regulation of just wages and how networked labour activism, especially by women workers, prompts to re-imagine structures of actor accountability on wage rights
Business · Clothing · Collective bargaining · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Economics · Labour economics · Pandemic · Political science · Supply chain · Wage · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Medicine · Law · Marketing
Global Business Regulation
Genders in Production
Law as Process
Australian industrial relations in 2019
Women workers in the apparel sector
Regulatory Reform in Light of Regulatory Character
Can regulation and governance make a difference
After Legal Consciousness
Law and Social Change
Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers
Strategies of Organisation and Resistance
The Garment Industry in Bangladesh, Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations, and The Impact of Covid-19
The weakest link? Unions, freedom of association and ethical codes
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |