This provides an entry into key debates about 'new industrial relations'. The first part deals with employment, including unemployment, labour market flexibility, jobs and pay, subsidies and worksharing. The second part deals with pay, including pay structure, discrimination and low pay. The third part is an economic analysis of trade unions, covering union goals, union growth and decline, the closed shop, collective bargaining and strike activity. Particular concerns are the union impact on relative pay, productivity, output, inflation and income distribution.
Sociology impinges directly on industrial relations.
Themes range from ideology to the institutionalisation of conflict, from managerialism and bureaucracy to the labour process, from class consciousness to the affluent worker. Explores issues of immediate concern, including the sociology of total quality management, women in employment, the state, and industrial and union democracy. The primary focus is on collective law, encompassing such topics as union membership rights, union democracy, collective bargaining and strike regulation. Content is determined mainly by the participants who select particular topics for seminar presentations and discussion. You may choose an option course from the others offered at MSc level in the School with approval.