3.3.1.4 Enforcement of Workers’ Rights

Economic regulations may include some safeguards to protect employees, as socio-economic rights:

• Most countries operate a minimum wage policy (3.3.3.3).
• Health and safety regulations protect employees.
• The EU, for example, sets minimum Working Conditions which include “provisions on working time, part-time, and fixed-term work, temporary workers, and the posting of workers”; this prevents member states from competing with ‘a race to the bottom’ at the expense of employees.
• Employees may be entitled to a period of notice before terminating employment, and they may also be entitled to redundancy payments.

These regulations all impose a cost upon employers, so they affect the operation of the labour market.

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