Executive Summary
The purpose of this paper is to help Gubengi, a state that has been under civil strife occasioned by colonialism for long, to establish a labor relations movement. For instance, the case study highlights the need for the government of Gubengi to eliminate cheap labor and organized criminal gangs from the labor market. It also highlights the need for the nation to deal with issues of worker safety and environmental protection. The paper recommends that Gubengi establish a labor relations office under the department of labor and decentralize the responsibilities of the office to all the states and political jurisdictions. It further suggests to the government of Gubengi to establish an environmental protection department, which will ensure that companies meet the set standards set for the protection of the environment in conjunction with humanitarian movements. Lastly, the paper recommends that Gubengi undertake the training of its workforce to eliminate the influence of organized criminal gangs and the use of cheap labor.
The Facts of the Case Study
The case study indicates a state on the northwestern coast of Africa, which has been subjected to different political forces for a long time. First, as the case study highlights, the state, Gubengi, was under the French rule. The French regime on the state resulted in the construction of shipping industries that specialized in sailing to the Americas. In the eventual process, the rulers of Gubengi imposed their systems of government, which included their laws and legal system. The French appointed a ruler from one of the local tribes called the Mashontis to whom they transferred their power after they had withdrawn their interest in Africa. The aftermath of the French rule resulted in the Gubengians attempting to establish themselves as a new nation through their development of a national identity. However, the case study reports that they failed in establish any forms of political, legal or judicial superstructure, which caused the Gubengians to migrate to different parts of their nation. Later, the nation was then occupied by the then Soviet Union.
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The new colonial masters promised that they would provide any forms of financial assistance to Gubengians only if they Gubengians allowed them to use their nation as a sphere of influence. The Soviet then appointed a leader from the Bakanis tribe in the nation, which resulted in a civil strife with the Mashontis since the latter tribe considered that they were the rightful owners of the nation. The Soviets stayed in Gubengi until the end of the cold war and supplied the nation heavily with weapons. The nation tore into civil wars after the Soviets had withdrawn from their country. However, the USA and the United Nations combined efforts in 2001, saw, and end to the war, which allowed the nation to carry out their first ever-democratic elections and the implementation of a constitution and the bill of rights. Both the EU and the USA suggested to the leadership of Gubengi to join the World Trade Organization. However, the nation still had a number of issues to address to streamline its operation and transition in power, which the subsequent sections of this paper discuss.
The Labor Relations Issues of Gubengi
Gubengi has never had a coherent system of labor relations since the previous governments of the French and Soviets did not care for such needs. As a result, the country has been relying on cheap labor, and organized criminal gangs have been at the forefront in transporting women and children into the country to provide the cheap labor. First, it is critical for the government of Gubengi to set the ground regulations that will govern relationships at the workplace (Trebilcock, n.d: 1). Two serious issues should be addressed by the rules. First, the government should outlaw the organized gangs that have been at the forefront in determining issues of labor relations. For instance, a need exists for the government to establish a department that will deal with issues of labor and related matters (Jorgensen, 2001: 57). The department of labor should deal with, among others, issues related to terms of hiring the workers, their minimum wage, their rights at the place of work, and the working conditions that the employers should provide to them. For instance, the nation might want to have laws governing the wages and working hours for its labor force, workplace safety, and health. Others might include the compensation of workers, employee benefit security, unions and union membership, and the protection of workers among others (Department of Labor, n.d: 1). Such a movement will mean that the nation will eliminate the influence of the criminal gangs that have been acting as intermediaries in the labor issues.
Second, the government ought to establish a system that will train a workforce that will deliver according to the expected standards. For instance, the case study indicates that the criminal gangs have been importing cheap labor, which might point at the fact that the nation does not have a system that trains workers. Therefore, a strong educational system is the backbone of a vibrant labor force (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 1995: 100). Training, apart from eliminating the availability of cheap labor, will deal with the issues of under-aged persons such as children from the labor market. Training a workforce will also mean that the nation will have a chance of competing with the rest of the world economies such as the US in the global labor markets (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 1995: 102). However, training might take long, which means that Gubengi should start by outsourcing expertise from model nations in terms of labor relations to streamline the labor issues (Noe, and Peacock, 2002: 33). Several advantages accompany the issue of outsourcing technical expertise, such as having the chance to benchmark the quality of services provided in foreign nations and the chance to establish a strong labor department through the training obtained from the experts (Northrup and Thornton, 2008: 67).
How Gubengi Should Address the Poor Working Conditions in its Factories
The labor relations issues covered in the preceding section might help the country in setting regulations on the conditions of working. Specifically, the nation should establish laws that define the wages and working hours that both the public and private sector should adhere to (Hanslowe, 2007: 90). In addition, the regulations should also define the overtime payment rates for workers in the two sectors of the economy. The regulations in this section should also restrict the number of hours that children below the age of 18 years can work in non-agricultural operations an forbid the hiring of children in some jobs that will be deemed dangerous for them (Hanslowe, 2007: 95). The workplace safety and health regulations should require the employers to provide safe and healthy working conditions for their workers (Riccucci, 2007: 198). There regulations should direct the employers to provide conditions of working that comply with a national standard of health within the workplace that the department of labor will stipulate. The employers should be required by law to ensure that they offer a workplace that is free from serious recognized hazards, which the workplace investigations and inspections will be in charge of insuring. There is also a need for the department of labor to state the guidelines for employee compensation in the events of accidents, termination of their work contracts, and their retirement among others. The laws should also deal with the involvement of workers in unions and what role the unions should play in the well-being of workers (Riccucci, 2007: 2000).
There is also a need for the rules to protect workers from forms of workplace harassment such as sexual, racial, health, religion among others (Rootham, 2007: 18 ). Such regulations on the protection of the rights of workers should be rooted within a national framework provided by the constitution, which bans racism and sexual harassment at the place of work. The workers, for such reasons, should have a system through which they can report the forms of harassment in their workplaces to the office of the department of labor. Issues of employee protection should also deal with layoffs, and they should define the legal circumstances through which the employers would be allowed to lay off their workers (Rootham, 2007: 23). Gubengi can attain all the mentioned issues of conditions at the workplace through the establishment of an industrial court system that will specifically address issues of workers (Rootham, 2007: 45).
How Gubengi Should Address Issues of Environmental Protection
The Gubengi government has a role to play in the protection of the environment and contribute to the global objectives of dealing with global warming. For instance, the government should provide guidelines that factories will follow in terms of reducing pollution and sustaining community life. The companies should be required to pass tests that certify their commitment to ensuring proper levels of emissions as well as ambient air quality. They should also pass tests for their commitment to ensure energy conservation, which will reduce the rate of depletion of natural resources (United States, 2001: 103). The regulations should also deal with guidelines that will deal with wastewater and the ambient quality of water, water conservation, the management of hazardous wastes, noise, and contaminated land (United States, 2001: 104). Legislations that seek to promote community health and safety should also accompany the regulations requiring the companies to meet standards of environmental protection ( Smith and Mclaughlin, 2011: 89 ). For example, the government might want to include issues such as traffic safety, life and fire safety, structural safety and project infrastructure, the quality and availability of water, the transportation of hazardous materials, the prevention of diseases, and emergency preparedness and response ( Smith and Mclaughlin, 2011: 89 ). The requirement for firms to comply with the mentioned aspects of environmental and community life protection can be included within their corporate social responsibility strategies, which the government will be required to monitor (EPA Victoria, 2007: 1).
Recommendations
The political system of Gubengi requires it to have a concrete labor relations framework. Therefore, the following recommendations are viable in helping the nation towards such a scenario.
Establish a labor relations office under the department of labor and decentralize the responsibilities of the office to all the states and political jurisdictions.
Establish an environmental protection department, which will ensure that companies meet the set standards set for the protection of the environment in conjunction with humanitarian movements.
Undertake the training of its workforce to eliminate the influence of organized criminal gangs and the use of cheap labor.
Conclusion
The political system of Gubengi in the past has not allowed it to establish a strong labor relations system. This work has recommended that the government establish a labor relations office within its department of labor to oversee its involvement in the labor issues. In addition, decentralizing the functions of the office will ensure that more citizens, the workforce, are covered by the stipulated regulations since they can access the legal system through the industrial courts as soon as they feel the need to do so. This step means, therefore, that the nation will be able to deal with issues of working conditions of the workplace such as the protection of workers. The recommendation to establish an environmental protection agency that will collaborate with humanitarian groups to ensure an adherence to environmental protection regulations will help the nation to move away from the scrutiny of the world in such dimensions. Lastly, the need to train a workforce will eliminate the availability of cheap labor and eliminate the involvement of criminal gangs from the labor market.
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