Employee Law and Relations (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, Harvard University, language: English, abstract: The last forty years in Britain have been characterised by enormous changes that have led to the consequent change in the role of legal regulations and the employment relationship at the work place. There exists an explicit transformation from the traditional legal abstention of the state to the use of individualistic legal employment rights to protect workers. The change in employment relations in Britain is traced to the adoption of new statutory rights for individuals by the Labour government.

In the 1960's the employment relations in Britain were best described as Voluntarist as the public policy at that time envisioned abstention of the state. Trade unions and Employers had to consult to reach any conceivable agreement, and this gave trade unions colossal power in protection of the workers' interests. Coats (2010) identified that the state at the time had the sole responsibility of regulating aspects of child labour, safety at work and payment of wages in low-income industries. According to Dickens (2009) the shift from collective bargaining as the distinct method of regulation of employment is because of the conservative governments between the years of 1979-1997. The said governments concentrated on increasing of managerial control and freedom to take independent action. The labour governments then took over and employed a different approach through the introduction of minimum employment standards of regulation that were aimed at promotion of equality at work places. The changed attitudes of employment relations by European Union and the introduction of National Minimum Wage in 1999 led to the expansion of statutory rights. The affected aspects included rights relating to working time, consultation of employees and antidiscrimination hence positively affecting the rights of atypical workers (Dickens 2009).
Current Problems in Employment Relations in Britain