Modern Employment Law
Charles Barrow, Ann Lyon
- 480 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Modern Employment Law
Charles Barrow, Ann Lyon
About This Book
Modern Employment Law covers all aspects relating to the employment relationship between employer and employee at both individual and collective levels. All chapters are absorbing and exact, with nuanced topics such as unfair dismissal, discrimination and trade union law being explored from several different angles. Pedagogical features such as Thinking points and Further reading sections enable students to consolidate and extend their knowledge.
Though primarily aimed at LLB students, this book offers a wide-ranging, accurate, authoritative, contemporary and readable guide to modern employment law for all students of the subject, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Although a collaborative effort, each author focused on specific areas of employment law. Ann Lyon examined the statutory rights of employees including topics such as redundancy, unfair dismissal and discrimination and equal pay issues. Charles Barrow had primary responsibility for the introduction, the majority of the contract of employment chapters and the collective aspects of employment law.
Frequently asked questions
Chapter 1
Introduction, historical overview and the institutions of employment law
Chapter contents
1.1 Overview
- From the middle ages to the industrial revolution the state controlled the employment relationship through legislation that regulated wages and criminalised workers who left employment or who agitated for higher pay.
- Skilled workers were able to protect their position through the guilds or through self-help groups set up to petition Parliament or JPs to set higher wages. But direct action was criminalised as a common law conspiracy.
- A feature of the industrial revolution was further conflict with the property-owning classes and the state. The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 further criminalised workersâ organisations.
- Government during the mid-period of the Victorian era did pass social legislation to limit the worst excesses of the factory system but it was not until unions obtained freedom to organise after the passage of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 that some workers gained the benefits of union representation.
- Employers were able to use the new common law civil liabilities developed by the judiciary to limit union influence at the workplace. It was not until 1906 that industrial action to enforce collective bargaining became lawful.
- The modern contract of employment developed from the late nineteenth century onwards with the abolition of criminal controls over employees; replaced by the regulation of the employment relationship by judicial enforcement of contractual obligations.
- After 1906 trade union representation and collective bargaining became an accepted aspect of the employment relationship. The fledging âvoluntaristâ system of industrial relations now developed, based on the non-intervention of the law in industrial disputes and on free collective bargaining between the parties.
- In the 1960s the economy deteriorated, and in order to solve the issue of increased industrial action, the Conservative government introduced the Industrial Relations Act 1971 â which reversed âvoluntarismâ by introducing legal controls over trade union activity.
- On the election of a new Labour government in 1974 legislative initiatives were introduced to support collective bargaining. On the fall of the government in 1979 many of these provisions were repealed. The new Conservative regimes (in power from 1979 until 1997) followed a legal strategy that limited and regulated trade union activity and looked to reduce individual rights where possible.
- The New Labour government from 1997 introduced new rights at the collective and individual level, including the right to recognition and new unfair dismissal and âfamily friendlyâ rights.
- The coalition government, formed in 2010, undertook a review of individual employment law resulting in reforms to unfair dismissal procedure introduced by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.
- The Conservative administration, elected in May 2015, has introduced far reaching additional regulation of trade unions through the Trade Union Act 2016.
- A number of specialist institutions exist in this field. The Certification Officer plays an important part in regulating trade unions; ensuring that unions follow their rule book and that the numerous statutory rules that apply to unions are complied with. The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Serviceâs (ACAS) role is to promote the improvement of industrial relations by engaging in the conciliation of disputes at the collective and individual level and to arbitrate on disputes where the parties have agreed. The Central Arbitration Committeeâs (CAC) main function is to oversee, administer and determine a recognition application under the Employment Relations Act 1999.
- The vast majority of employment disputes start in the employment tribunal. They were originally intended to provide for a system of quick informal dispute resolution. The complexity of current law has meant that they operate more like employment courts. Appeals from an employment tribunal proceed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).