The impact of employment contract laws on private sector employers in Port Vila Vanuatu

Jowitt, Anita L. (2006) The impact of employment contract laws on private sector employers in Port Vila Vanuatu. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

labour market that is only slowly expanding. It has the highest labour costs of any Pacific Island nation, a factor which may act as a disincentive to private sector expansion. This raises the legal policy question of the extent to which employment contract laws act as a disincentive to employment growth. This paper is based upon preliminary analysis of data from a questionnaire distributed to employers in Port Vila, Vanuatu in 2003 and 2004. The analysis first examines the positivist legal assumption that employment contract law does affect employers’ actions and the related hypothesis that if labour costs are pushed too high by employment contracts regulation then employers will hire fewer employees. This is rejected as too simplistic, as it does not entirely explain the non-use of law by various businesses, and the support of various labour laws that increase employers’ indirect wage costs. Alternative reasons for the lack of use of law, including that law is ignored because it is not enforced and that law is seen as being largely irrelevant as it is a colonial transplant, are then explored. The paper concludes that any labour law policy that wants to have a positive impact on employers needs to take a more holistic view of the operation of the labour market.

Item Type:	Other
Subjects:	J Political Science > J General legislative and executive papers K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Law
Depositing User:	Repo Editor
Date Deposited:	09 Mar 2015 03:45
Last Modified:	09 Mar 2015 03:45
URI:	http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/8068

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