Workers, Precarity and Exploitation of the “Post-Work” Era in Africa

The weakening influence of organized labour amidst politically ‘captured’ social movements in Africa continues to reshape labour relations that are at best malignant. With the era of “post-work society” gaining traction, the world has witnessed a radical transformation of work with precarity becoming the central defining feature. Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated precarity and vulnerability in the workplace. Transformative forces of automation and neoliberalism have unleashed a myriad of challenges. These challenges have by and large emaciated workers bargaining power as expressed through employers’ biased labour legislation, exploitation and encroachment on workers’ rights to organize. The hyperbolic movement of international capital and labour has pitted multinational companies against local workforce, resulting in flagrant violation of labour laws with complicit involvement of comprador bourgeoisie. Another dimension of workers’ disempowerment includes perverted secularism whereby religion is allowed to define various aspects of labour relations and organisation. All these call for a revised understanding of the world of work to generate analytical resources that allow for a nuanced grasping of radically transformed labour environment. With focus on Africa, we welcome papers within the ambit below:

• Shifting boundaries of work and industrial relations exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic;
• Tripartism and workers in Africa;
• Nationalism, populism, social movements and labour relations;
• Secular states, religion and world of work;
• Foreign-owned companies and labour regimes;
• Interconnections between labour, technology and gig economy;
• Labour-hire, wages and working conditions;
• Unionization and informality;
• Precariousness and worker exploitation;
• Gendered dimension of work, with focus on gendered power relations;
• Social protection and future of work