Source: https://b-ok.org/book/1000635/cd0f1d
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 10:30:44+00:00

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Policy discussions play an important role in labour law, and labour lawyers draw on a wide range of disciplines and approaches in order to construct their arguments. This overview of the basic principles of labour law and the related policy arguments introduces two of the main perspectives used in the analysis of labour law today - human rights and economics. It offers a brief history of the influence of human rights and economics on labour law since the 1950s, explains neoclassical and new institutional economics and summarises the historical development of international human rights law. The insights of rights theorists and economists are then applied to a selection of topics in labour law, including anti-discrimination law, dismissal, working time, pay, consultation and collective bargaining, trade union membership and industrial action, in order to demonstrate the interplay between the two perspectives.
Bronwen Morgan (University of Bristol).
on European law, globalisation, transnational legal processes and comparative law.
â•… Perspectives on labour law / A.C.L. Davies. – 2nd ed.
â•… ISBN 978-0-521-89757-0 (hardback)â•… 1.â•‡ Labor laws and legislation–Great Britain.
â•… 2.â•‡ Employee rights–Great Britain.â•… I.â•‡ Title.
highly complex body of law.
1â•‡ H. Collins, ‘The productive disintegration of labour law’ (1997) 26 ILJ 295.
develop a nuanced understanding of the perspectives themselves.
richer understanding of labour law.
to the Employment Act 2008 during the production process.
unwitting guinea pigs for both editions, for their sharpness and enthusiasm.
efficiency in seeing the book through to publication.
than one perspective to understand the law.
strength to protect individual employees against arbitrary dismissal.
P.Â€Davies and M. Freedland, Labour Legislation and Public Policy (1993).
Industrial Relations in Great Britain: Its History, Law and Institutions (1954).
policy of ‘non-interference’ that Kahn-Freund labelled collective laissez-faire.
Act 1871 declared that the doctrine of restraint of trade did not apply to unionsâ•−.
successfully redressed the power imbalance between workers and employers.
to decide things for themselves and to respond to changing circumstances.
3â•‡ Hornby v. Close  LR 2 QB 153.
4â•‡ Taff Vale Railway v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants  AC 426.
5â•‡ Kahn-Freund, ‘Legal framework’, p. 44.
from the common law, which did not inquire into the employer’s reasons at all.
not all employees were protected by collective representationâ•−.
Â�bargaining or legal enactment: the 1999 Act and trade union recognition’ (2000) 29 ILJ 1.
7â•‡ Davies and Freedland, Labour Legislation, p. 46. 8â•‡ Ibid.
9â•‡ Industrial Relations Act 1971, ss. 22–32.
Equality, had much stronger enforcement powers than the old Boardâ•−.
majority of part-time workers are femaleâ•−â•−.
emergence of workers’ rights as a central concern of modern labour lawâ•−.
10â•‡ Clarke v. Eley (IMI) Kynoch  ICR 165.
11â•‡ Lord Wedderburn, The Worker and the Law (3rd edn., 1986), p. 6.
12â•‡ Collins, ‘The productive disintegration of labour law’.
13â•‡ Davies and Freedland, Labour Legislation, pp. 383–4.
to abandon the policy of collective laissez-faire.
always want to get paid more, and employers always want to make more profit.
the cost of living generally, thus leading to further wage demands by workers.
members, who saw their standard of living decline during periods of restraint.
request from the government for a 5 per cent limit on pay rises.
might have dismissed this as a temporary suspension of collective laissez-faire.
action, they might not be able to deliver their products to purchasers on time.
16â•‡ Davies and Freedland, Labour Legislation, p. 242.
17â•‡ Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations.
by union leaders, taking into account the needs of all the various workgroups.
bargain on this basis and the change spread rapidly.
firms not directly involved in a dispute with the union.21 However, the government’s grand scheme met with considerable resistance from the trade unions.
The unions’ most Â�successful strategy was to refuse to register under the Act.
be supposed that this would have put the unions in an impossible position.
Â�government’s electoral defeat in 1974.
19â•‡ See the White Paper In Place of Strife: A Policy for Industrial Relations (1969) (Cmnd 3888).
20â•‡ This was the intended effect of s. 96. 21â•‡ Industrial Relations Act 1971, s. 98.
more extensively. And it reinforces the importance of the economic perspective.
Contract – were largely unsuccessfulâ•−.
and conclude by looking at the links between themâ•−.
23â•‡ Employment Protection Act 1975, ss. 11–16.
protecting people’s choices: individuals should be able to choose which organisations to join and organisations should be allowed to choose whom to admit.
unions, rather than to protect them from the power of their employersâ•−.
circumstances in which strike action would be protected from liability in tort.
immunity) and would have no chance of getting at union funds in legal actions.
that they are the main explanation for the changeâ•−.
25â•‡ Employment Act 1980, s. 19.
Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974.
27â•‡ Employment Act 1982, ss. 15–16.
Industrial Relations and Trade Union Law (1991) (Cm 1602).
legal rights. This provided another reason for reducing the level of regulation.
priced workers out of jobsâ•−.
of doing this for themselvesâ•−â•−.
30â•‡ Department of Employment, Employment for the 1990s (1988) (Cm 540).
31â•‡ Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993, s. 35.
32â•‡ Unfair Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 1979 (SI 1979/959).
33â•‡ Unfair Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 1985 (SI 1985/782).
extent to which Community law could counteract deregulation in the UKâ•−.
34â•‡ Directive 75/117/EC, Art. 1. 35â•‡ EqPA 1970, s. 1.
36â•‡ (Case 61/81) Commission v. UK  ECR 2601.
37â•‡ Equal Pay (Amendment) Regulations 1983 (SI 1983/1794).
â•−The Labour government elected in 1997 brought a new approach to labour law.
which the government continued to make minor adjustments to the law.
38â•‡ DTI, Fairness at Work (1998) (Cm 3968).
39â•‡ See, generally, A. Giddens, The Third Way (1998).
41â•‡ DTI, Fairness at Work, para. 3.2. See Chapter 8 for detail.
resist new legislation in certain areasâ•−.
Conservative legislation restricting industrial action.
(extended to the UK by Directive 98/23/EC) respectively.
44â•‡ DTI, High Performance Workplaces – Informing and Consulting Employees (2003), para. 1.1.
46â•‡ DTI, Fairness at Work, para. 4.12. 47â•‡ See Chapter 10.
B.Â€Hepple and G.S. Morris, ‘The Employment Act 2002 and the crisis of individual employment rights’ (2002) 31 ILJ 245.
questioned the government’s commitment to the third way.
of association (Article 11) in particular.49 These decisions have forced the government to make significant changes to the relevant legislation.
make sense of the legal materials.
presence at all. As a result, the trade union perspective may not be able to provide a complete ‘take’ on the subject.
49â•‡ Wilson v. UK (2002) 35 EHRR 20; ASLEF v. UK (2007) 45 EHRR 34. See Chapter 11.
scholars are concerned with the impact of law in society, and they often conduct empirical research to assess how particular policies are working in practice.
understanding of what is happening in the workplace, not just on guessworkâ•−.
economics and rights perspectives on labour law in greater depthâ•−.
and M. Freedland, Towards a Flexible Labour Market (2007). On the early history of labour law, see D. Brodie, A History of British Labour Law (2003).
50â•‡ Collins, ‘The productive disintegration of labour law’, p. 306.
51â•‡ J. Raz, ‘The Rule of Law and its virtue’ (1977) 93 LQR 195.
legislation and reflexive regulation: a response to the Discrimination Law Review’s consultative paper’ (2007) 36 ILJ 255.
importance? Can you trace the influence of rights arguments or economics arguments before the 1970s?
strongly challenged by Lord Wedderburn, ‘Collective bargaining or legal enactment: the 1999 Act and trade union recognition’ (2000) 29 ILJ 1.
is difficult to pinpoint a single statement of government policy for that period.
But it is believed that Mrs Thatcher was inspired by the writings of F.A. Hayek.
Chapter 18 of The Constitution of Liberty (1960) will give you a taste of his views.
of this chapter the two main schools of thought on this issue will be examined.
analysis is to grasp the crucial role played by assumptions.

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