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.

Market reforms and privatisation in the English National Health Service

The article examines developments in the marketisation and privatisation of the English National Health Service, primarily since 1997. It explores the use of competition and contracting out in ancillary services and the levering into public services of private finance for capital developments through the Private Finance Initiative. A substantial part of the article examines the repeated restructuring of the health service as a market in clinical services, initially as an internal market but subsequently as a market increasing opened up to private sector involvement. Some of the implications of market processes for NHS staff and for increased privatisation are discussed. The article examines one episode of popular resistance to these developments, namely the movement of opposition to the 2011 health and social care legislative proposals. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these system reforms for the founding principles of the NHS and the sustainability of the service.

Health reforms in Latin America: processes and results

Two types of health reforms in Latin America are analysed: one based on insurance and service commodification and the one referred to the unified public systems of progressive governments. Health insurance with explicit service packages has not fulfilled their purposes of universal coverage, equal access to necessary health services and improvement of health conditions but has opened health as a field of profit making for insurance companies and private health providers. The national health services as a state obligation have developed territorialized health services and widened substantially timely access to the majority of the population. The adoption of an integrated and wide social policy has an impact on population well fare. It faces some problems derived from the old health systems and the power of the insurance and medical complex.

Pension structural reforms, re-reforms and their effects on social welfare: The case of Chile

This article fi rst summarizes the structural reforms of pensions (total or partial privatization) in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, identifying their advantages and disadvantages, and does the same with the international process of re-reforms of pensions with a greater role of the state. Second, chooses Chile as a case study, as a world pioneer in both types of reforms; describes their characteristics and effects on social welfare of the structural reform of 1981 and the re-reform of 2008. Such effects are evaluated based on ten basic principles of social security from the International Labour Offi ce (ILO): 1) social dialogue to approve the reforms, 2) universal coverage of the population, 3) equal treatment of insured persons, 4) social solidarity, 5) gender equity, 6) suffi ciency of benefi ts, 7) effi ciency and reasonable administrative cost, 8) social participation in the management of the system, 9) role of the state and supervision, and 10) fi nancial sustainability. Third, it summarizes the advantages and disadvantages-challenges of the re-reform and informs on the current debate for further reforms.

Non-agrocultural co-peratives and economy transformation in Cuba: politic processes and strategies

Contribution of co-operatives has been demonstrated since the 1970s as the main development line in agricultural production in Cuba. In contrast, there has been a late recognition of urban co-operatives, even if the need of transformations based on the realization of property in different territorial scenarios had been identified. The article analyses the reform processes launched since the first decade of the 21st century focusing on the nature of the initiatives fostering formation and promotion of nonagricultural co-operatives including follow up of their performance. The potential and limitations of the recent experiences are examined in order to reflect on the organizational processes and transformations from the point of view of their members. To conclude, some questions are posed about whether these co-operatives are capable of avoiding the impact of earlier employment circumstances and of developing strategies aimed at reinforcing voluntary membership and autonomy on which they are founded.

Estudio sobre la eficacia del régimen fiscal cooperativo portugués

El ordenamiento jurídico portugués consagra un régimen fiscal especial para el sector cooperativo, basado, al igual que otros ordenamientos como el español o el italiano, en la protección de la mutualidad como forma de organización empresarial especialmente benéfica en el plano social. Para alcanzar ese objetivo, el régimen fiscal cooperativo debe ser selectivo, lo que significa que al legislador se le plantea el reto de establecer criterios para separar, dentro del marco cooperativo, lo que debe ser protegido de lo que no merece protección fiscal. El legislador portugués optó por un modelo basado en dos grupos de ramos cooperativos claramente diferenciados según los beneficios fiscales aplicables, ambos con amplias exenciones fiscales. El presente trabajo no se centra en el contenido de los beneficios aplicables sino en las condiciones que las cooperativas deben reunir para acogerse a esos regímenes fiscales favorables. Estos criterios son: i) una división entre operaciones con socios y operaciones con terceros; ii) una delimitación de las operaciones o actividades cooperativas según estén o no vinculadas con el “fin propio de la cooperativa”; y iii) una estructura prevalentemente mutualista del factor trabajo. Esta fórmula legal tiene su raíz en una legislación de 1929 y se ha mantenido hasta el día de hoy debido en parte a un fenómeno de inercia legislativa. El presente trabajo, basándose en la metodología de la sociología jurídica, asienta en una encuesta dirigida a 64 cooperativas, por la que se buscaba indagar hasta qué punto estos criterios (de acuerdo con los que se seleccionan las cooperativas que pueden acogerse a los regímenes fiscales favorables) cuadran con la realidad cooperativa actual. Como era de esperar, la vetustez del régimen hizo que se encontraran desajustes muy significativos, que reclaman una reforma urgente.