Temporary contracts and non-protected employment in Argentina, Chile and Perú: incidence and determinants

The diverse kinds of legal temporary contracts and the employment forms that do not comply with legal requirements both facilitate employment adjustment to firms´ requirements and entail labour cost reductions. Their employment incidence depends not only on the economic and labour market evolutions but also on other factors, in particular the historical trajectories followed by labour legislation, state enforcement, and the degree of compliance. To contribute to the understanding of the determinants of the degree of utilization of different employment practices, the study reported in this article explores the use made of the various legal temporary contracts and of precarious employment relationships by private enterprises in three Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile and Peru) during 2003-2012, a period of economic growth, and the explanatory role of diverse factors.

The Spanish reforms on domestic work regulation

This paper analyses the latest Spanish reforms regarding domestic work. The Spanish legislator, doubtlessly influenced by the ILO Domestic Work Convention nº 189 – which, however, was not later ratified in Spain- made a deep reform on domestic work in 2011. This legal reform implied a striking change that affected both working conditions and social security of employees in the family home. The aim of this reform has been to bring the regulation in domestic work closer to the general regulation for other workers, although maintaining certain specialties. Regarding working conditions, their setting as “particular employment relationship” has been held. However, the differences between this relationship and the common ones have been reduced. As for social security, domestic employees have been incorporated into the General Social Security System, but with important specialties, thus erasing the Special Domestic Employees System. The paper also examines the legal changes that have taken place in this field after the new Government arose.

The expansion of soybean cultivation in Campeche, México: Problematic and perspectives

The soybean is the grain in which greater food dependency has Mexico, reason why as of 2008, the government has promoted his culture, granting excellent subsidies, as much to producers as to buyers of the grain, thus contributing to a recent process of expansion in certain states, as it happens in Campeche. The objetive of this article is the analysis of the characteristics and effects of those supports, as well as of the rest of factors that until today they have taken to the producers of the mentioned state to initiate or to expand the cultivation of the soybean. The findings of the investigation reveal that although the producers have improved their levels of income, the process is vulnerable, as it depends on variables like the governmental supports, the international prices of the soybean and exchange rate. Although the study of the negative effects of genetically modified soybeans (GM) in other areas (environment, biodiversity, deforestation, human and animal health) is not the purpose of this investigation, some information will be provided, as on the conflict between soybean producers and beekeepers in the state of Campeche.