54 Annual Conference 20-22, December, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India

Transcription

1 THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF LABOUR ECONOMICS 54 Annual Conference 20-22, December, 2012 Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India The 54th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) will be held during December, 2012 at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. Professor S.K. Thorat, Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) (also a former Chairman of the University Grants Commission), will preside over the Conference. Dr. Kiran Barman and Dr. B.V. Singh, Professors in the Department of Economics, Banaras Hindu University, are the Local Organising Secretary and Co-Organising Secretary respectively. About 500 delegates, including a number of distinguished scholars, policymakers, and professionals from India and several from outside, are expected to participate in the Conference. Conference Themes The topics selected for the Conference this year are: 1. Wages and Wage Share in the Indian Economy 2. Employment in the Post Reform India 3. Labour Rights in the Globalising World CRITICAL INFORMATION Important Dates - Last Date for Submission of Papers: 31 October, Communication from ISLE about acceptance of Papers: 15 November, 2012 Those who want an early communication on the acceptance of their papers should send them by the end of September, 2012, with a request for early information in this regard. - Dates of the Conference: December, 2012

2 Timings of the Conference The Conference will start around 9:30 A.M. on 20 December, 2012 and will be over by Lunch on 22 December, The delegates are advised to reach a day prior to the Conference and depart in the evening of 22 December, A preconference event is also being planned in the evening of 19 December and those who want to participate in it, should reach Varanasi by 4 pm on 19 December, Submission of Papers Researchers and other professionals, including those from outside India, are invited to contribute papers on the Conference themes. The contributors from outside India are welcome to contribute papers either on conceptual issues or empirical papers relating to their own region/countries. Those who wish to contribute papers may send the full papers to: The Hon. Secretary, The Indian Society of Labour Economics, NIDM Building, 3rd Floor, IIPA Campus, I.P. Estate, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, New Delhi , India. The soft copies may be ed to: conference.isle@gmail.com The paper should not exceed 8000 words (including tables and appendices) and should adhere to the style of writing being followed in the current issues of The Indian Journal of Labour Economics (IJLE) (Log on to for further reference). It should be accompanied by a summary of about 1000 words. The summaries of all accepted papers will be brought out separately in the form of a publication to be distributed among the Conference participants, alongwith a CD of the complete papers. Selected and revised papers based on peer reviews will be published in the subsequent issues of IJLE during Those who desire their papers to be considered for publication in IJLE should send the revised papers to the Editor, IJLE after the Conference. Panel Proposals A few panel discussions on special themes will also be organised during the Conference. For this purpose, proposals for panels are invited from scholars and institutions. The final proposals will be selected by a team of experts and reviewers for presentation at the Conference. A panel session would comprise four to five presentations of papers. Each proposal should contain the following: (i) Title and description of the theme of the panel; (ii) Title, authors and abstracts of the papers;

3 (iii) Name, affiliations and short biography of the proposed speakers; (iv) Name and contact information of the panel organiser. The proposals should be submitted to the ISLE Secretary latest by 15 October, Best Paper Awards The best paper writers, who are below the age of 40 years, would be honoured with the Ruddar Datt Memorial Award and the Sanjay Thakur Young Labour Economist Award (each of which carries an amount of Rs. 10,000/-). The contributors who wish to be considered for the award are requested to furnish age proof along with their full papers. LOGISTICAL INFORMATION Conference Registration Registration fee for the Conference is Rs. 800/- for members. The registration fee for students and research scholars (on production of valid proof of their status) shall be Rs. 400/-. The registration will entitle the participants to avail modest boarding and lodging as well as the conference kit to be provided by the organizers. The filled in registration form along with demand draft drawn in favour of 54th ISLE CONFERENCE 2012, payable at SBI, BHU Branch, Varanasi, should be sent to the organizers as mentioned above, at the earliest and in any case, latest by 20 November, Participants who have not enrolled/renewed their membership of the ISLE for the year 2012 need to pay their membership fee to be able to attend the Conference. The annual membership fee is Rs. 400/- for those from India (Rs. 4000/- life), US$ 75/- for those from developing countries, and US$125/- for those from other countries). Payment may be made through DD/local cheque in favour of The Indian Society of Labour Economics, payable at New Delhi, along with the application form to: Hon. Secretary, The Indian Society of Labour Economics, NIDM Building, 3rd Floor, IIPA Campus, I.P. Estate, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, New Delhi , India, isle.ijle@gmail.com.

4 Conference Registration and ISLE Membership Fee Category Conference Registration* Annual ISLE Membership India (Rs.) ** Developing Countries (US$) Other Countries(US$) * For spouse/accompanying persons from India, Rs. 600; from developing countries US$ 50 and other countries US$ 75. ** For Life membership of individuals, Rs Those who are not members of ISLE need to send their membership fee separately for the same to the Hon. Secretary at the ISLE on the address mentioned above. Those who are not members are requested to download the membership form from the Society s website ( and send the application of membership duly filled. Only members are entitled for paper presentations. This membership would entitle them to receive all the four issues of The Indian Journal of Labour Economics (IJLE) for the year The registration fee for the Conference includes payment towards a conference kit (comprising the summary of all the papers presented at the conference, a CD of the full papers, conference bag, and stationery, etc.), and towards modest boarding and lodging. - Those who want to arrange their own accommodation need to pay themselves and should contact the Local Organizing Secretary for the available hotels. - For site-seeing and choice accommodation/ hotel booking, please log on to: - Delegates are requested to send complete information along with the registration fee at the earliest so that proper arrangements can be made for their accommodation.

5 CONTACT DETAILS For registration and reservation of accommodation, kindly contact: Conference Local Organising Secretary: Professor Kiran Barman Department of Economics, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi , India Mob: / office: / or Conference Co-organising Secretary: Professor B. V Singh Department of Economics, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi , India, Mob: / bhupendravsingh@gmail.com PRE CONFERENCE EVENT A major pre-conference international event is being planned between 5 and 8 pm on 19 December The details about this will be provided shortly on the website. Those who wish to attend the pre-conference event should reach Varanasi in the afternoon of 19 December 2012 by 4 pm. For an update on the conference, please visit the ISLE website: or call at / ; Fax: , or at isle.ijle@gmail.com Delegates are requested to send complete information along with the registration fee, at the earliest and in any case, before 20 November, 2012 so that proper arrangements can be made for their accommodation. Those interested in staying beyond the conference dates, will have to make their own arrangements. ABOUT THE LOCATION Varanasi (also Banaras) located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the world s oldest cities. Situated between the rivers Varuna and Assi as they join the Ganges, Varanasi takes its name from the location. It is also called Kashi, the city of light. A major cultural and religious centre in northern India, Varanasi

6 is steeped in tradition and mythological legacy and is a much revered pilgrimage destination for not only Hindus, but also for Buddhists and Jains. The city is well connected with major cities of India by air, rail and road. For more information on the city, please log on to: varanasi.htm. Banaras Hindu University: Banaras Hindu University, established by the great nationalist leader Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in 1916, ranks amongst the first few in the country in the field of academic and research output. The Banaras Hindu University played an important role in the Indian Independence movement and making of modern India. It has immensely contributed to the progress of the nation through a large number of renowned scholars, artists and scientists. For further information, please visit: Brief Suggestions for Paper Contributors on the Conference Themes Theme 1: Wage Determination and Wage Share Wages and income distribution have been one of the major themes of economic analysis and policy. However, the tools of analysis adopted for developed countries often are not relevant in the context of developing countries, where a small modern sector co-exists with a large traditional sector. It is wage employment in the modern sector that is similar to that in developed countries. In the traditional sector, much of the employment is self-employment. And the wage employment that exists is casual wage employment. These features have important implications for wage determination and for measurement and significance of wage share. The process of wage determination in a developing country like India differs widely across sectors, industry groups as well as locations. The low productive agriculture, other traditional sectors as well as the unorganized sector, have been outside the collective bargaining system and wages have been determined by factors such as customs, labour productivity, local development, demographic structure, etc. As a whole, the traditional and unorganized sector have been characterized with the phenomenon of unlimited labour supply and the transfer of labour to modern sector has been very small. Although still such a phenomenon largely exists, globalization and several other factors, including institutional ones, have also impacted the wage determination process, albeit with varying degrees across sectors and locations. There have been changes in the

7 wage determination process in the organized sector as well because of globalization and associated factors such as weakening of the collective bargaining system, decline of trade unions, growing labour flexibility practices, etc. In the light of the above, it will be interesting to examine the changes in the wage determination process in India (and in fact in other countries, particularly the developing ones). Some of the suggested contours of analyses in this regard may be: Emerging patterns of wage determination processes across sectors and industries. Wage differentials across various sectors and locations as well as gender differentials. Impacts of globalization and associated factors/processes on wages and wage determination process. Issues of skills, experience, education etc. and their roles in determining Wages Impacts of relevant public policies (such as wage policies) and programmes (i.e. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act, MGNREGA) on wages and labour market in India Wage share, denoting the wage and non-wage benefits to workers/employees in the value added, is a rough indicator of the distribution of income between capital and labour. Again in a developing economy like India, where the self-employed workers as well as casual wage workers and unorganized sector constitute an overwhelmingly large proportion of workforce, it is not possible to have a reasonable estimate of wage share for this part of the economy. As such, it will be useful to analyse the wage share only in the organized sector part of the economy. It is widely held that globalization has led to decline in the wage share of the organized sector and hence this issue assumes a lot of importance from the point of view of labour welfare and income distribution. Some of the issues on which the paper writers can contribute, include: The behaviour of wage share in the aggregate and in different industries

8 The implications of globalization (and associated phenomena such as increasing labour flexibility, declining strength of trade unions, etc.) for wage share Explaining the trends in wage share: technological change, wage fixation rules (labour regulations), composition of employees, collective bargaining Relationships among productivity growth, product wage growth and real wage growth The implications of changing wage share for labour welfare and industrial demography Theme II: Employment during the Post-Reform Period Economic reform process, which was initiated in 1991 in India, brought about integration of the Indian economy with the world economy by facilitating movements of goods and capital as also by enhancing the role of the private sector in the growth process. These policies definitely had largely positive effect on the growth process. The Indian economy grew at a rate of more than 6 per cent, on an average, during the last two decades or so. The rapid economic growth following liberalisation was expected to accelerate the employment growth leading to a tightening of the labour market, which was expected to improve wages and the conditions of work. These expectations, it is widely feared, have not been borne out by the actual developments. While there have not been significant deterioration in employment conditions, there have not been substantial improvements either. Employment growth has occurred mostly in the unorganised and unregulated informal sector. The acceleration in economic growth does not appear to have been associated with acceleration in the employment growth in the organized sector. In developing economies such as India, the organized sector jobs are in fact the decent ones and it is rapid growth of these jobs that contribute to real improvements in employment conditions. The prospective contributors on this theme may keep in mind these while writing the papers. Some of the issues on which the prospective paper writers may contribute are as follows: Structure of employment and changes therein by industry, types, locations and sector

9 Trends in different types of employment The nature of relationship between economic growth and employment growth The impact of reforms on the pace and pattern of employment growth In particular, the effects of growing openness of the Indian economy on demand for labour in various sectors and industries The contribution of various programmes, particularly MGNREGA, to employment growth Globalisation and employment: comparison of India s experience with that of other developing countries Theme III: Labour Rights in a Globalising World During the last two to three decades, the world has witnessed far-reaching changes due to the process of globalization. Propelled by significant changes in technology, transport and communication, the current phase of globalisation has widened and deepened the economic transactions, which has implications for both the product market as well as the factor markets. The orthodox argument is that globalisation imposes transitional costs on both firms and workers on the margin in the short run, but produces favourable outcomes all around in the medium to long run as the resources (capital and labour) are re-allocated from the less or least productive to more productive uses. The conventional assessment of the impact of the globalisation on labour is that it adversely affects the interests of labour on account of the greater bargaining power enjoyed by capital vis-à-vis labour. Globalisation based on the market efficiency model of transactions promotes a competitive framework, which curbs the rent-seeking activities of the bargaining parties in wage negotiations, thereby disciplining not only trade unions but also firms. In this sense, it promotes productive and distributional efficiency simultaneously. However, the fervour of this genre of globalisation has not gone uncontested, as dissenting voices question the efficiency and even legitimacy of the globalisation model. Indeed, the dynamics of globalisation is embodied in the contradictions and the counter-tendencies emanating in the non-market realm. The counter-argument is that the very forces which strengthen the market economic logic provide instruments and avenues to the workers and the social institutions like non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to challenge the dominance of capital. The coordinated actions of workers are possible thanks to the technological innovations unleashed by globalisation. Thus, labour rights are globalised in the sense that there is increased coordination between the working class agencies at both the horizontal

10 and vertical levels. The labour rights discourse assumes special significance as the agencies of the State such as the executive, legislature, police, judiciary, and labour administration are also affected by and effect the processes of rule-making through their economic and labour policies consistent with globalisation. In the globalised settings, international rule-making (such as WTO, ILO etc.) and lending and evaluation agencies come into play. They participate and, indeed, engineer and even sponsor the polemics over the regulation of the labour market in the direction consistent with their ideologies. The rating agencies of creditworthiness, business environments, fiscal health and so on and the lending institutions explicitly or implicitly seek to liberalise the governance of the labour market and employment relations system. The absence of labour standards in the assessment by some of these agencies is sought to be rectified by the core labour standards norms brought into the global labour rights discourse by the ILO. Thus, the labour rights debate has no disciplinary or geographical boundaries, and has many dimensions. The paper writers can attempt to write on any one or a combination of the following areas with a local or global or even glocal focus: Theoretical or conceptual approaches (of various ideologies mainstream, radical etc.) to assess the impact of globalization on labour rights outcomes. Compatibility of labour rights with capitalist production system and economic growth * The trends and patterns in labour rights discourses historical and spatial trajectories; labour rights as components of human rights and the interface between labour rights and others, say environmental, livelihood etc.; the debates on the nature of labour regulatory systems and their implications for labour rights. * The role of state agencies like government, judiciary, police in securing and redefining labour rights, and in ensuring the implementation of core labour standards, especially in the case of child and bonded labour. * The dynamics involved in conventional trade unions strategies or their lack or inadequacies in broadening the labour agenda and forging alliances at various levels, the obstacles in realising freedom of association and collective bargaining. * The rise of new organisations and new forms of social dialogue necessary for promoting decent work in the informal economy; labour rights and

11 problems relating to specific constituents like home-based workers, the self-employed, migrant workers, and unorganised agricultural workers. * At the global level, the role of global union federations, global framework agreements, in securing the global floor rights and the inadequacies in these new institutional arrangements. * The conflicts and complementarities between the soft (codes of conduct) and hard (labour standards, labour laws) forms of labour regulation, the role of non-labour organisations like the consumers movement in securing decent conditions of work, review of the conflicts between the public sector and non-governmental regulatory agencies in monitoring labour standards. Labour rights in special and new economic segments like the special economic zones, export oriented zones, textile parks, the proposed new manufacturing zones, and the service sector. The above sub-themes outlined in the three themes are only indicative and the prospective contributors could also address other issues relevant for the themes of the conference.

12 The Indian Society of Labour Economics NIDM Building, 3rd Floor, IIPA Campus I.P. Estate, Mahatma Gandhi Marg New Delhi , India Phones: / / Fax: isle.ijle@gmail.com / Website: org