This book is an authoritative, comprehensive guide to labor inspection and its fundamental principles. It presents policy issues in an international context, while examining how the major, foreseeable developments in economics, the labor market, and technology—as well as national, sectoral, and enterprise social structures—affect labor inspection. Taking into account substantial new developments and major changes in the field, this volume looks at what has occurred in both the policy and practice of labor inspection in the 21st century. It explores the often entirely new systems and strategies that have surfaced, such as “internal control” in the Nordic countries and the merger of parts of social insurance (worker’s compensation) with inspection services (in Australia and New Zealand), and explains how these, and other practices, may benefit countries in similar situations. In addition, the book focuses on pivotal trends which are having a profound impact on labor inspection practices, including: the sum effects of globalization; growth of smaller, independent units that are often difficult to supervise; the continuing trend of enterprises to exist for only a short time, change ownership, and becoming more mobile; the appearance of virtual enterprises of networks; and the increase of cost and competition pressures at the expense of social concerns. The book explores how these trends are forcing labor inspectors to increasingly abandon a rigid, narrow approach based on a single specialization in favor of a truly integrated vision. It stresses the importance of developing an understanding of all the factors influencing and contributing to improved labor protection. Labor protection specialists, policymakers and others involved in the world of work will find a wealth of information on improving and evaluating labor inspection systems.
