Productivity is a notorious determinant of competitiveness, essential for both national development and residents welfare. Thus it is not surprising that organizations address great effort towards the development of procedures and technologies that allow increment in the relation of output per employee.
However, efforts to increment production, profit and productivity may generate conflicts between employers and workers that in most cases justify state intervention resumed in legislation and regulatory mechanisms.
When defining the limits of employer-employee relation, governments deal with a complex interaction of interests that might, in some cases, affect the labor productivity and result in several policy implications. Among others consequences researchers have observed the potential spillover effect of labor productivity on environment justifying that productivity will ultimately reflect on resources conservancy practices.
Studies from China provide remarkable examples on the spillover effects of labor productivity over environment conservation policies. There, gains in workers productivity are taken as important determinant of successive records in energy intensity improvement in the last 4 decades. Productivity increment in China is also associated to lower pressure over public services, waste reduction and rational usage of natural resources.
Well designed policies that balance labor well-being and employers ambitious without jeopardizing productivity levels are the ideal however it is not the main set available out there. In most developing countries labor regulation has posed significant constraints on workers productivity. This is the case for most part of Latin America where current legislation on work relations, formulated in the first half of the XIX century, are in many cases contradictory with productivity oriented efforts. The limitations to establish flexible labor relations that would include inceptive schemes to increase productivity and the stability assigned to most holders of government positions are some examples of how pernicious the legislation may be to productivity standards in these countries.
Even though poor productivity levels observed in developing economies are not sole consequence of limitations in work legislation this factor must not be neglected by policy makers, including those engaged in environment protection efforts.
Thus, in a context of necessary improvement in the competitiveness of nations and urgent expectations for the decoupling between economic growth and environmental pressure the design of labor regulation that includes incentives to productivity increment is fundamental. This topic must be included in the current discussion on labor regulation reform being carried out in developing nations that are trying to improve the competitiveness of their products while respecting for the posed environmental constraints.
Sideriver environment 