bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Low Pay and Wage Regulation in the European Community
Authors: Bazen Stephen , Benhayoun Gilbert 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe prospect of direct intervention in the process of wage determination as envisaged in the Social Charter has met with considerable criticism. In particular, employers' organizations and certain governments have rejected outright the proposal to require firms to pay an equitable wage. However, in all member‐states except the UK and Ireland, arrangements exist to ensure that nearly all workers are covered by minimum wage protection (through national minimum wages or full‐coverage collective agreements). In this article the nature of low‐paid employment in member‐states is examined and different methods of wage regulation are described. After reviewing the economic effects of wage regulation, we discuss possible initiatives on wage regulation at the Community level.
The Disappearing Relationship Between Directors' Pay and Corporate Performance
Authors: Gregg Paul , Machin Stephen , Szymanski Stefan 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIn this paper we investigate the relationship between the remuneration of the highest paid director and the economic performance of approximately 300 large UK companies over the 1980s and early 1990s. The rate of growth of directors' remuneration was very high over this time period (about 20 per cent per year on average) and very weakly linked to corporate performance. Any such link breaks down after 1988, when the very high pay awards received by top directors in the recessionary period up to 1991 appear to be unrelated to the performance of their companies, whether corporate performance is measured using stock market data or using accounting data on earnings per share. Rather, it appears that corporate growth is an important determinant of the change in directors' remuneration. These results strongly call into question the effectiveness of current systems of pay determination for top company directors.
Preparing for Privatization: Corporate Strategy and Industrial Relations in New Zealand's State‐owned Enterprises
Authors: Walsh Pat , Wetzel Kurt 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of the ‘political contingency’ upon management strategy in New Zealand's newly established public enterprises. It is argued that an unambiguous state strategy of readying the organizations swiftly for privatization gave management a clear mandate for radical restructuring. The coincidence of commercial and political rationality greatly reduced the likelihood of direct political intervention in the operation of the organizations and led to substantial changes to traditional patterns of industrial relations. Variations in management strategy reflected different organizational circumstances rather than differing applications of the political contingency.
Workplace Industrial Relations 25 Years after Donovan: An Employer View
Authors: Gilbert Robbie 
Published: January 2009

AbstractSome common management themes of the 1980s can be traced to Donovan and are revealed in practice by the 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The paper considers the relevance of factors not endorsed by Donovan and concludes that, while in terms of industrial action in manufacturing — the focus of concern in the mid‐1960s — there is evidence that more order and responsibility has been injected into industrial relations at plant level, we cannot yet maintain that inflationary dangers have been overcome. Collective bargaining is, however, now revealed as affecting only a minority in the private sector, and public services behaviour looks increasingly out of step. The paper suggests that future surveys may therefore need to be recast to capture changing patterns of employer – employee relationships and their links to economic success.
Employee Stock Ownership Plans and Productivity in Japanese Manufacturing Firms
Authors: Jones Derek C. , Kato Takao 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBy using a large new enterprise‐level data set, and evidence drawn from case studies, we show that Japanese employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are a pervasive and neglected institution. In 1988, more than 90% of all firms listed on Japanese stock markets had an ESOP, and close to 50% of the labour force in firms with ESOPs participated in the plan. Micro data and a production function framework are used to examine the effects on business performance of ESOPs. On average, the net effect of introducing an ESOP is to increase productivity by almost 7%.
Human Resource Management in the Japanese Financial Institution Abroad: The Case of the London Office
Authors: Evans Carolyn L. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe evidence on human resource management in overseas offices of Japanese multinational service‐sector firms is far less abundant than that for manufacturing firms. Existing studies describe employment practices that vary, both between firms and over time. To supplement the existing body of evidence, the present study investigates employment practices at two Japanese financial services firms in the City of London through the use of interviews and questionnaire surveys. It focuses on those facets of the ‘Japanese’ management system that may be considered fundamental characteristics: recruitment and selection procedures, training methods, pay and promotion policies, employment security, company culture, and the position of workers within the overall organization. The study considers the implications of changes over time within the two firms when viewed in the context of the existing evidence; such comparison suggests that both corporate strategy and human resource management policy in Japanese financial organizations may have changed during the 1980s.
The ‘Flexible Firm’: Strategy and Segmentation
Authors: Hunter Laurie , McGregor Alan , Maclnnes John , Sproull Alan 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper draws together and provides further analysis of two research projects commissioned by the Department of Employment, with a focus on employers' labour use strategies in Britain. It seeks to place on a firmer statistical basis arguments about the presence and growth of the ‘flexible firm’, and it draws also on case‐study data to explore some of the issues relating to flexibility and strategy. Our conclusions are that there has been a marked absence of strategy in this area, and reasons for this are explored, as are the implications for gender and segmentation in the labour market.
Trade Union Membership Concentration, 1892‐1987: Development and Causation
Authors: Waddington Jeremy 
Published: January 2009

AbstractExisting studies of British trade union membership concentration have used the variance of logs and concentration ratio measures to show a tendency towards increasing concentration. This paper proposes the Herfindahl index as a more appropriate measure. The annual variation in concentration is analysed by means of the Herfindahl index and shows some fluctuation, particularly prior to 1947. Divergent trends are also shown for manual and white‐collar membership concentration. An explanation of the aggregate trend and of these different occupational trends is advanced in terms of bargaining structure and the development of general unionism.
The Metamorphosis of Australian Industrial Relations
Authors: Hancock Keith , Rawson Don 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article outlines the current processes of change in Australian industrial relations ‐ processes whose ultimate direction and effects are unforeseeable. The traditional dominance of conciliation and arbitration tribunals is giving way to more devolved arrangements. Some protagonists of change envisage a move towards collective bargaining, with trade unions having a pervasive and secure role; others believe the place of unions is in question.The impulse for change comes partly from market‐oriented ideology, but this is not extensively discussed, A second source is the desire of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Labor Government to determine wage policy jointly, with the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission being essentially that of implementation. Also important is a widely held view that reform of industrial relations is a path to better productivity performance. The paper discusses the justification for that view.Various questions remain to be answered. These include the possibility for enduring wages policy; the legal framework necessary for bargaining; the nature of the industrial relations system of non‐union enterprises; and the congruence of enterprise bargaining with the structure of trade unionism.
Wages Councils: Was There a Case for Abolition?
Authors: Dickens Richard , Gregg Paul , Machin Stephen , Manning Alan , Wadsworth Jonathan 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe 1993 Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act removed the remaining minimum wage protection for some 2.5 million low paid workers by abolishing the last 26 UK Wages Councils. The Government's case for abolition rested on three key arguments: (1) minimum wages do little to alleviate poverty since most covered workers do not live in poor households; (2) when in operation, minimum wages reduced employment in covered industries; (3) the problems of poverty that the wages councils were set up to deal with in 1909 are not relevant in today's labour market.In this paper we address each of these points in turn. We find that: (a) 50 per cent of families with at least one earner being paid wages council rates come from the poorest 20 per cent of families; (b) the existing evidence suggests that abolishing the Wages Councils is unlikely to create jobs; (c) the widening earnings distribution in the UK means that low pay is an increasingly important determinant of poverty. If anything, there appears to be an increasing need for minimum wage legislation in the UK.
The Employers' Offensive in the Provincial Newspaper Industry
Authors: Gall Gregor 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper examines the widespread moves made by the employers in the provincial newspaper industry since 1987 to derecognize the National Union of Journalists. Based on personal structured interviews with NUJ lay and full‐time officials, and editors and managers, it looks at the extent of the changes and the methods of introducing derecognition. This and several other indicators are used to argue that the employers' actions can be characterized as a strategic offensive. Finally the paper examines the reasons for the employers' offensive, disputing in part the arguments of other researchers in their explanation of the employers' reasons for derecognition.
The Pilots' Compensation Scheme: A Study in Arbitration, Interpretation and Causation
Authors: Smith I. T. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article considers nine cases dealt with by ACAS arbitration in the period from September1991 to July 1993 under the statutory compensation scheme for marine pilots whose engagements were terminated in consequence of the major changes made to the provision of pilotage services by the Pilotage Act 1987. It explains the background to those changes and the problems that arose in the nine cases (problems of interpretation of the scheme, particularly in sickness cases, and then of proving causation in individual cases), and comments on the use of the arbitration procedures in circumstances such as these.
Recent Developments in US Industrial Relations
Authors: Kochan Thomas , Weinstein Marc 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe persistence of economic pressures that first challenged American industry in the 1970s continues to reshape US industrial relations. In an effort to maintain their competitiveness, US firms have developed a panoply of strategies ranging from confrontation and labour control to collaboration and employee empowerment. This essay reviews evidence relating to the development and diffusion of these alternative strategies and their implications for long‐term US competitiveness. In this context, the recent work of Commission on the Future of Worker‐Management Relations is discussed as well as a number of public policy options intended to facilitate the implementation of high value‐added production systems. The essay concludes with a discussion of the implications of recent trends for industrial relations research.
The Survival of Apprenticeship Training: A British, American, Australian Comparison
Authors: Gospel Howard 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper examines the development of apprenticeship training in three English‐speaking countries where apprenticeship has fared very differently. It declined at an early date in the USA in most sectors of the economy; it survived intact in Britain well into the post‐Second World War period; and it has survived relatively strongly in Australia up to the present day. The reasons for decline and survival are examined and an explanation is proferred in terms of the interaction between the institutional supports and the ability and need felt by employers to sustain the system.
The Effect of Trade Unions on the Provision of Training: Australian Evidence
Authors: Kennedy Sean , Drago Robert , Sloan Judith , Wooden Mark 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper uses data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey conducted in 1989–90 to examine the net impact of trade unions on the extent of formal types of employer‐provided training. A net positive effect is found, but only where unions are active in the workplace and not merely de jure representatives of the work‐force. The results also indicate, with respect to in‐house training, that unions shift the emphasis towards work‐forces with long tenure, a finding that is consistent with ‘union voice’ arguments.
Predicting Organizational and Union Commitment: The Effect of Industrial Relations Climate
Authors: Deery Stephen J. , Iverson Roderick D. , Erwin Peter J. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractResearch evidence from North America shows that employees can be committed simultaneously to both their union and their company. Moreover, a co‐operative industrial relations climate has been seen to be conducive to the existence of higher levels of commitment to both organizations. This study utilized a sample of white‐collar unionists in Australia to identify whether union and company commitment could be predicted by the same factors and whether positive perceptions of the industrial relations climate were related to dual commitment. The research found no evidence of dual commitment. Furthermore, company and union commitment were predicted by different factors, and employee perceptions of a co‐operative industrial relations climate were associated with higher employee commitment to the company but lower commitment to the union.
Trade Union Policies towards the Youth Training Scheme: Patterns and Causes
Authors: Ryan Paul 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe Youth Training Scheme presented British unions with a mix of opportunities and threats. Patterns of interest in and policy towards YTS among the 42 largest unions are studied for 1983–8. Most unions showed interest in YTS but they divided sharply on whether or not to oppose it. Statistical analysis indicates a role for both economic and political factors in determining differences between unions in interest and policy. Opposition proved most intense and widespread among unions that represented the lower‐grade occupations in the public sector. Such unions were heavily affected by trainee‐employee substitution and in addition were relatively well placed to enforce its exclusion. Left‐wing political orientation was also associated with opposition to YTS, but at the level of principle rather than action.
Restructuring and Workplace Unionism at Manchester Airport
Authors: Darlington Ralph 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper provides evidence from empirical case‐study research into the impact of compulsory competitive tendering on workplace union organization among the baggage‐handling workforce at Manchester Airport. It documents the main processes of development within an historical context, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of workplace unionism during the 1980s, the recent challenge posed by managerial restructuring in the early 1990s, and the wider implications for debates about the ‘state’ of workplace unionism in Britain today.Compared with the union resilience displayed by the baggage handlers during the 1980s, the nature of shop‐stewards' organization appears to have changed drastically to managemenťs advantage during the last few years. However, continuing underlying tensions in worker‐management relations suggest that this situation may not necessarily amount to a fundamental and irreversible transformation in the nature of workplace unionism in the manner in which those who use the vocabulary of the ‘New Industrial Relations’ would suggest.
Annual Review Article 1994
Authors: Morris Tim 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis review examines trends in the economy and industrial relations in 1994 and goes on to consider the implications for unions of the continuing restructuring of organizations in the public and private sectors. The background is one of cyclical improvement in economic performance, with low inflation and strong growth feeding through to higher profit margins. Firms are shown to have enjoyed the benefits of the upturn with little pressure from labour for a greater share of the surplus. Unsurprisingly, employers have not generated much demand for further reform of the industrial relations system. Unions, on the other hand, have remained largely on the defensive, from a combination of job insecurity among their members, organizational constraints and political marginalization. Initiatives from the TUC show evidence of the union movement trying to develop a new set of strategies to break out of the spiral of decline.
Directors' Pay in the Privatized Utilities
Authors: Conyon Martin J. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis exploratory paper examines the relationship between the remuneration of the highest paid director and company performance in the privatized utilities. Four conclusions regarding the structure of top directors' pay emerge from the analysis. First, the salary plus bonus remuneration of top directors in the privatized utilities has increased by 12 per cent per annum since 1990. Second, average employee pay in these utilities has grown by about 3.1 per cent per annum over the same period. This suggests that top pay growth in the privatized utilities has outstripped that of the average worker since 1990. Third, the analysis cannot isolate a robust statistical relationship between directors' compensation and measures of pre‐dated company performance. Finally, directors' share option dealings can sometimes considerably inflate their overall compensation.Taken together, these findings implicitly question the current efficacy of remuneration committees for determining boardroom pay in the privatized utilities. One solution, which may enable shareholders more accurately to assess executive performance, is for complete disclosure of all components of directors' pay in the company accounts.
The Failure of Recent State Vocational Training Policies in Korea from a Comparative Perspective
Authors: Jeong Jooyeon 
Published: January 2009

AbstractOn the basis of fieldwork conducted during June 1992 and 1993, this study examines outcomes of two recent vocational training policies in Korea, cooperative training, and ChangWon Industrial Masters' College. It was found that these two policies, seeking to imitate the German dual vocational training model, failed to produce the industrial skills sought. These outcomes can be explained by examining two social contexts surrounding the policies in comparison with those in Germany: the exclusive role of the government in industrial relations, and a minimal interest in skill formation by manufactur‐ingfirms
Industrial Relations in Transition Economies: Emergent Industrial Relations Institutions in Bulgaria
Authors: Martin Roderick , Vidinova Anna , Hill Stephen 
Published: January 2009

AbstractEast European societies currently in transition to market economies are creating new structures for industrial relations. Transition has ambiguous effects upon the relations between industrial relations institutions and the state. On the one hand, economic pluralism implies separation between state and economy and ‘depoliticization’. On the other, economic crises and threats to social order require co‐operation between state and unions. The influence of the state is greater because of the embryonic form of employer organization and enterprise‐level management. This paper examines the political and economic contexts of industrial relations in Bulgaria, as an example of one type of ‘constrained’ collective bargaining system. The paper emphasizes continuities between the communist and post‐communist period, and the central role of trade unions in the transition process.
What Has Been Happening to Pay in the Public‐Service Sector of the British Economy? Developments over the Period 1970–1992
Authors: Elliott R. F. , Duffus K. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis study presents a detailed analysis of the most important developments in public‐service workers' pay over the period since 1970. It records the real earnings growth of all the largest groups of public‐service workers in Britain and details the consequences of the different rates of earnings growth enjoyed by the various groups for pay differentials and relative pay in the public sector. It details the size of wage settlements and calculates the magnitude of wage drift for all major groups of public‐service‐sector workers, and it considers the extent to which the fastest rates of earnings growth appear to result from particular institutional arrangements for determining pay, offering a brief discussion of the role of pay review bodies in this process. The study uses unpublished data from the New Earnings Survey together with detailed information on the size and timing of wage settlements over the period 1970–1992.
Negotiating the Government of Unison: Union Democracy in Theory and Practice
Authors: Terry Michael 
Published: January 2009

AbstractDuring the 1980s existing approaches to union government and democracy came under critical scrutiny. The virtues of decentralized systems were questioned; unions were strongly criticized for failing to represent the interests of women. These debates found clear expression in the negotiations leading to the creation of Unison. This paper examines the negotiations that created governing structures intended to preserve key features of the partner‐unions' own democratic traditions and to respond to criticisms of their shortcomings. Most dramatically, Unison introduced a system of proportionality for women. It also provided systems of representation for the lower‐paid and for other groups often excluded from union government. The conclusions examine whether the representative but complex system, likely to serve as a benchmark for the future, can live up to its claims.
What Caused Rising Earnings Inequality in Britain? Evidence from Time Series, 1970–1993
Authors: Leslie Derek , Pu Yonghao 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe paper reviews some of the competing explanations for the rising levels of earnings inequality in Britain, such as skill shortages, rising unemployment, globalization, demographic factors and inflation. These explanations are rejected in favour of the idea that it was the major changes in the institutional pay‐setting arrangements that were largely responsible for rising inequality. Union density figures and strike data are explored in support of this thesis.