Chapter 4: The System of Economic Law
4.5. Labor Relations Law
In 4.1. of this chapter, we pointed out that labor laws are included in the communist economic law system. This is because labor and management are combined in a communist business organization. In this respect, capitalist labor laws, which are premised on the separation of labor and management, are often divided into individual labor laws that protect the rights of individual workers and collective labor laws that stipulate the organization and rights of labor unions.
The fact that workers' rights cannot be fully protected unless they form unions and unite outside the company is a result of the capitalist separation of management and labor, but as we explained last time, in communist business organizations, whether they are co-determination type or self-management type, workers' organizations are permanently established within the business organization, so there is basically no need for external organizations such as unions.
As a result, there is no particular concept of what is called the right of workers to organize. However, this does not mean that unity is prohibited. Rather, it can be said that the right to organize is included in the right to co-determination and the right to self-management.
Furthermore, there will be no need for the right to strike, which is the most radical of the three labor rights. As long as co-determination or voluntary determination is functioning, labor-management disputes that develop into industrial action should not occur in the first place. Even if a serious labor dispute does occur, it will be sufficient for a third-party arbitration committee established within the company to make a ruling.
Thus, communist labor relations laws will be dominated by so-called individual labor laws, but at the same time, they will not be limited to the Labor Standards Act in the narrow sense, but will be integrated laws that also include labor environment legislation such as the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the Employment Discrimination Prohibition Act.
In the first place, in a communist society where the monetary economy has been abolished, there is no wage labor, and everything is unpaid labor. Therefore, labor standards are fundamentally different from capitalist labor standards, which are almost entirely about wage issues, and communist labor standards will have working hour regulations at their core, but will also be accompanied by workplace environment regulations such as safety and health and the prevention of harassment.
As a result, the nature of labor standards inspection will change significantly, and the police-style labor standards inspection system with compulsory investigation powers that existed under capitalism will no longer be necessary. Instead, a more judicial labor dispute resolution system with a human rights relief approach, such as the Tribune for Labor, will develop.
👉The table of contents so far is here.
👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.
