Director - Research

A co-founder of Ergon, Alastair has provided policy advice and technical guidance on labour rights issues to a range of international financial institutions, NGOs and multi-stakeholder initiatives. Alastair's specialism is the relation between labour rights, sustainable development and finance. He is currently conducting research into the social and labour impacts of cotton production in West Africa, South Asia, Brazil and Central Asia.

Alastair has been consultant to European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), UK Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), the World Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). Core activities involve:

• Training on international labour standards as they relate to international financial institutions and governmental bodies
  

• Evaluation and advice on labour issues in relation to both projects and strategy
• Commodity value chain analysis with regard to addressing labour and social impacts
• Analysis of multi-stakeholder initiative member reporting on supply chain labour standards management
• Facilitation of stakeholder engagement and participation

Research papers and publications include:

• 'Scoping research' on the principal social and labour impacts of cotton cultivation in West Africa, South Asia and Brazil for the Better Cotton Initiative (2006)
• Presentation to the 2006 Annual Plenary Meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Council (ICAC) on social and labour impacts of cotton production
  
• Co-author (with S. Gibbons) of IFC Good Practice Notes on Retrenchment and Non-Discrimination (2005/6)
• Co-author (with S. Gibbons) of guidance notes for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on working with trade unions in international development activities, focusing on the role of trade unions in poverty elimination (2004)
• The G77 and Core Labour Standards - ‘mapping project’ for DFID (2001) 
• ‘Annex: Approaches To Core Labour Standards In The Development Work Of Other DAC Member States’ in Moving Towards Core Labour Standards, Gibbons/Ladbury (DFID, 2000)
• ‘The implications of EMU for collective bargaining in French metalworking: exception proves the rule?’ in: Collective Bargaining under the Euro (European Trade Union Institute, Brussels, 2001)
• With P. Burgess, Allgemeinverbindlichkeit und Mindestlohnregelungen in Mitgliedsstaaten der EU - Ein Überblick (research on minimum wage and collective agreement extension mechanisms for Nordrhein-Westphalia Labour Ministry/WSI)
• Employment in France 2006 (IDS, London, 2006)

Prior to joining Ergon, Alastair was Senior Researcher in the international department of Incomes Data Services (IDS), initiating and managing research on a variety of labour issues for government and international institutions, private companies, public sector bodies, trade unions and NGOs. For 2004-5, Alastair was the UK research co-ordinator for the international WageIndicator programme run by University of Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Labour Studies.