The government announced that it was scrapping the 'two-tier code' with immediate effect. The code ensured that new starters working on outsourced government contracts had broadly comparable pay and conditions to those staff who had been transferred from the public sector under protected (TUPE) conditions of service.
Source: Press release 15 December 2010, Cabinet Office
Links: Cabinet Office press release | Code | CSP press release | People Management report
Date: 2010-Dec
An article used data for the period 1999-2006 to investigate the dynamics of job tenure across the European Union. There had been no generalized decline in job tenure: but there had been a trend towards shorter tenure among young workers (aged 15-24) in many countries. This trend was associated with the weakening of employment protection provided by law and by trade unions.
Source: Sandrine Cazes and Mirco Tonin, 'Employment protection legislation and job stability: a European cross-country analysis', International Labour Review, Volume 149 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A study examined how forced labour was framed within national legislations; introduced a 'continuum' of exploitation and interventions, ranging from decent work to extreme exploitation, and covering both labour law and criminal law; and used case studies to demonstrate how the concept of a continuum could be applied in practice in the United Kingdom.
Source: Klara Skrivankova, Between Decent Work and Forced Labour: Examining the continuum of exploitation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2010-Nov
An article set out the findings from an analysis of the relationship between job loss and the experience of rights problems. It considered the likely scale of the economic recession's impact on the incidence of rights problems and demand for legal (and legal aid) services.
Source: Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel Balmer, 'The audacity of justice: recession, redundancy, rights and legal aid', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper said that the restoration of fairness in organizations was fundamental to giving business new legitimacy and to engaging employees.
Source: Will Hutton, Are We Heading for a Fairer Workplace?, Work Foundation
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a business organization called for employment law reforms aimed at producing a more 'flexible' labour market that sustained jobs. The right to request flexible working should be extended to all employees. The statutory consultation period for collective redundancies should be shortened from 90 days to 30 days. Industrial action should only be allowed if 40 per cent of the balloted workforce supported it, as well as a simple majority of those voting.
Source: Making Britain the Place to Work, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | TUC press release | Guardian report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined workplace bullying in Britain and Sweden. It compared and contrasted the patterns of bullying in the two countries, examined the attitudes and responses of employers, and explored the different legal frameworks.
Source: David Beale and Helge Hoel, 'Workplace bullying, industrial relations and the challenge for management in Britain and Sweden', European Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 16 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined the concept of 'regulatory dilemmas' – those requiring trade-offs between efficiency, equity, and voice and/or between workers' and employers' interests – as formulated in the major traditions of labour law scholarship.
Source: Eric Tucker, 'Renorming labour law: can we escape labour law's recurring regulatory dilemmas?', Industrial Law Journal, Volume 39 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jun
A report (by a business organization) said that the 'relentless flow' of complex employment law was stifling economic competitiveness, and risked future job creation.
Source: Abigail Morris, Employment Regulation: Up to the Job?, British Chambers of Commerce
Links: Report | BCC press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report said that there was a significant group of working people who were denied the most basic standards of job security and fair treatment in the workplace – including people who were not classified as 'employees' but as 'workers', and people falsely classified as 'self-employed'.
Source: Fair Work: Fighting poverty through decent jobs, Fair Work Coalition
Links: Report | TUC press release
Date: 2010-Mar
Researchers evaluated pilot projects designed to establish how practical support could be provided to vulnerable workers and their employers.
Source: Kate Shearn, Ben Knight and Ashvinder Kaur Matharoo, Evaluation of the Vulnerable Workers Pilots: Year Two Final Report, Employment Relations Research Series 108, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
A trade union report said that new employment protection measures since 1997 – all opposed as 'costly red tape' by business organizations – had raised incomes for the lowest paid, helped women back into work, and encouraged people to stay in the same job and build their skills.
Source: The Red Tape Delusion: Why deregulation won't solve the jobs crisis, Trades Union Congress
Links: Report | TUC press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined the experiences of low-paid, non-unionized workers with problems at work. There was a very low level of successful resolution, highlighting the lived experience of isolation and poor resolution among workers seeking external help.
Source: Anna Pollert, 'The lived experience of isolation for vulnerable workers facing workplace grievances in 21st-century Britain', Economic and Industrial Democracy, Volume 31 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb
The Draft Agency Workers Regulations 2010 were introduced (following consultation), designed to implement a European Union Directive on temporary agency work. The effect of the regulations would be to ensure that after 12 weeks in a given job agency workers would be entitled to equal treatment on basic working and employment conditions, including pay and holidays, as if they had been recruited directly by the hirer.
Source: Press release 21 January 2010, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: DBIS press release | Text of regulations | TUC press release | CBI press release | REC press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jan