повышение нормы эксплуатации работников

21:10 Jan 26, 2017 

The general idea underlying the text may indeed be that employees are being increasingly exploited (with or without reference to Marxism), but has anyone ever seen 'standards of exploitation' anywhere...? I really don't think the author meant to be that explicit here. Rather, he is suggesting that employers, by their actions (e.g. increasing performance standards and limiting workers' rights), are trying to exploit the workers in a covered-up way.
Also, let's not forget Victoria Markova's interpretation - so far completely ignored in this discussion - that нормы эксплуатации in Russian is normally used to describe the use of machinery rather than people. After all, she is one of the few native Russian translators here.

19:13 Jan 26, 2017 

"Limiting the workers' rights" indicates that there are rights still to be limited, so the situation may not be as dire as picking cotton in the South or working in the slaughterhouses of Chicago in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."

19:00 Jan 26, 2017 

Russian is indeed way bigger on "exploitation" than English, or maybe any other language, for that matter, and for obvious reasons. The author is definitely negative about it (I mean, who wouldn't be? The Duck-in-Chief?) I guess even sociologists have a heart - unlike those nasty aynrandians, that is:) Cheers, Susan.

18:37 Jan 26, 2017 

And libertarians think that's just great, whereas we Marxists think it's "exploitation," right? I know what it means in reality; the question is, what does the author think it means, in sociology-speak? I am not writing my personal opinion, but translating something written by somebody else, after all.
Also, I am under the impression (still, after this discussion) that Russian uses "эксплуатация" more broadly than English uses "exploitation." Which is why I asked the question in the first place.

18:27 Jan 26, 2017 

Susan, what all of this means is that it's a buyer's market and the employers squeeze their office plankton and such any way they see fit. That's all there is to it. The rest is just splitting hairs.

15:19 Jan 26, 2017 

это марксизЬм-ленинизЬм во мне заговорил, но если бы автор статьи хотел выразиться более политически корректно, он бы, по-моему, использовал более "мягкие фразы", типа "повышение требований к работникам" и т.д. Здесь, однако, мы имеем "эксплуатацию работников", да еще и "ограничение их прав", т.е. работают по 20 часов в день, зарплату не платят, отпусков не дают... Самая настоящая эксплуатация труда.

15:06 Jan 26, 2017 

Susan, it appears to me that here it is more in negative connotations, as a critique of the current trend. So it is not a neutral assertion, but rather an assertion made in critical overtones.