scholarly journals From Rigid to Flexible Employment Practices in UK Commercial Television: a Case of Government Led Reform

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Trevor Campling
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employee Morale ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
Employment Practices ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
Flexible Employment ◽  
Perceived Pressure ◽  
The Impact

The article locates the forces precipitating the radical changes in employment practices in British Commercial Television since the mid 1980s and proceeds to discuss the various dintensions of these employment reforms jron1 a "flexible firm" perspective. It is argued that perceived pressure from government, rather than jron1 the product market, triggered the unilateral imposition by management of "flexible" employment practices. In addition, key industrial events in British comnzercial television, such as the dissolution of national multi-employer collective bargaining arrangenzents and the strike and lockout at TVam, combined with the numerous changes to national labour relations legislation, shifted the balance of industrial power to management. This allowed "flexible" practices to be introduced nzore rapidly and without disruptive opposition from the broadcasting unions. Whilst the new "flexible" employment arrangetnents have reduced labour costs dramatically in the short term, some of the practices are inconsistent, resulting in employee morale and product quality problems. With governments in New Zealand and Australia pursuing a variety of policies to inject greater "flexibility" and less regulation into product markets, labour I markets and work places, they should pay close attention to the lessons that can be learnt from the British commercial television experience. The impact upon productivity, work practices, and employment levels of politically instigated employmnent change is of importance to an industry; facing such circumstances. It is also contributes to the wider debate on the origins and nature of employment flexibility and changes in industrial relations.

Reducing the Impact of Unemployment through Work-Sharing: Some Industrial Relations Considerations

1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah M. Meltz ◽  
Frank Reid
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
National Level ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Work Sharing ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Impact

The Canadian Government has introduced a work-sharing program in which lay offs are avoided by reducing the work week and using unemployment insurance funds to pay workers short-time compensation. Compared to the lay-off alternative, there appear to be economic benefits to work-sharing for both management and employees. Reaction to the scheme has been generally positive at the union local level and the firm level, but it has been negative at the national level of both labour and management. These divergent views can be explained mainly as a result of short-run versus long-run perspectives. Managers at the firm level see the immediate benefit of improved labour relations and the avoidance of the costs of hiring and training replacements for laid-off workers who do not respond when recalled. The national business leaders are more concerned with work incentive and efficiency aspects of work-sharing.

The Early Nineteenth-Century Port of London: Management and Labour in Three Dock Companies, 1800-1825

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony R. Henderson ◽  
Sarah Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Labour Management

This essay addresses the impact of industrialisation on the experience of work during the early 1800s. It presents the idea that industrial relations focused less on trade unions and more on broad labour/management contact and gave a new emphasis to the significance of the labour process. Also featured is a map of The Port of London in the 1830s, which is used as an example for evidence of change within the pre-industrial pattern of management/labour relations.

scholarly journals Restoring Democracy to the Workplace? An Analysis of Union Membership Patters Before and After the Employment Contracts Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Cregan ◽  
Chris Rudd ◽  
Stewart Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Before And After ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the impact of the Employment Contracts Act on trade union membership. Two separate surveys of labour market participants lvere conducted in Dunedin on the eve of the legislation and one year later. The findings demonstrated that for these samples, trade union membership in aggregate was not based on compulsion before the legislation and remained at a similar level a year later. Democracy was not restored to the workplace it was already apparent there. This implies that changes in the industrial relations system had already taken place prior to the legislation and it is suggested that these findings are explicable if the effect of the exigencies of the recession on both parries is taken account of In the ensuing discussion, reasons for the persistence of the same level of union membership after the legislation were considered. It was demonstrated that most members li'anted the union to act as their bargaining agent and felt few pressures regarding their choice of employment contract. In other words, employers did not utilise the provisions of the Act to weaken union membership, at least in the short term.

scholarly journals Flexible Employment in Hong Kong: Trends and Patterns in Comparative Perspective

Asian Survey ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen W. K. Chiu ◽  
Alvin Y. So ◽  
May Yeuk-mui Tam
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Asian Financial Crisis ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Employment Practices ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Flexible Employment

Abstract Through analyzing primary and secondary data, this paper argues that flexible employment practices in Hong Kong are largely employer-driven. This feature is explicable by the low level of government intervention in industrial relations, the development of the labor movement, and the Asian financial crisis that accentuated employers' prerogatives in employment relations.

scholarly journals Award, Agreement or Nothing? A Review of the Impact of S132(a) of the Labour Relations Act 1987 on Collective Bargaining

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Harbridge ◽  
Stuart McCaw
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Court System ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Court Of Appeal

The on-going saga of the G.N. Hale redundancy dispute appears now to have run its course. From grievance committee, to the Labour Court, to the Court of Appeal, and back to the Labour Court, the case has attracted considerable attention - from the media and naturally from industrial relations practitioners, eager to learn the view of the New Zealand court system on the vexed matter of redundancy compensation. In the most recent Labour Coun decision on Hale (WLC89/90), Goddard C J held that while the employer was able to prove that the worker was genuinely made redundant the dismissal was unjustifiable because "the circumstances called for the payment of compensation; none was paid; and the amount that was offered and refused was fixed by unilateral decision of the employer and was inadequate". The effect of this decision is profound. Employers planning to make employees redundant have a new set of requirements to meet before their actions can be taken as justifiable. While it will remain the case that there is no right to compensation for a dismissal on the grounds of redundancy unless that right is conferred by a redundancy agreement or by an award or collective agreement, there may still be a right to compensation if the dismissal, although genuinely on the grounds of redundancy, is unjustifiable and thereby gives rise to a successful personal grievance. An employer will now need to focus on the circumstances of the redundancy to detetuaine whether it calls for compensation and where it does, the employer will need to offer, and have accepted, compensation that is both adequate and negotiated.

scholarly journals Accident Compensation and Labour Relations: The Impact of Recent Reforms

1970 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Road ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Unique System ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

In the context of industrial relations, New Zealand's accident compensation scheme (ACC) is an internationally unique system. Recent reforms have been criticised by trade unions, however. They perceive ACC as a positive benefit of employment obtained for workers as of right in exchange for the extinguishment of the right to sue. Any threat to this is seen as a threat to workers' conditions of employment. The 1992 reforms have been by business leaders, on the other hand, for not going far enough along the road of privatisation and maintaining one of the bastions of welfare dependency. In the light of these tensions, the present article examines the history of the scheme, the current reforms and some implications for the future of ACC.

Industrial Transformation and Labour Relations in Puerto Rico: From ‘Operation Bootstrap’ to the 1970s

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro A. Caban
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Industrial Transformation ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Operation Bootstrap ◽  
The Impact

During the 1950s and 1960s Puerto Rico's industrial transformation was accompanied by social stability and relatively peaceful labour relations, which were essential for a development programme dependent upon foreign investments. The state took a central role in this process, as it guided economic activity and mobilised vital human and material resources. However, by the late 1960s profound changes in the island's political economy threatened this state-guided development programme. This essay traces the history of Puerto Rican economic change and the relationship between industrial transformation and the state's capacity to manage the operation of the economy, particularly industrial relations up to the late 1970s. Four features of this process will be examined: (1) labour relations during the early phase of industrialisation; (2) the changes in the economy resulting from the expansion of capital-intensive industrial sectors; (3) the impact of these changes on the state's capacity to manage the political economy, particularly its fiscal policy; and (4) how these changes altered the nature of state-labour relations.

scholarly journals Labour Market Adjustment under the Employment Contracts Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Whatman ◽  
Craig Armitage ◽  
Richard Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
Speed Up

In order to measure the extent of adjustment since the Employment Contracts Act 1991 was introduced, the Department of Labour has contracted two surveys of labour market adjustment under the Act. The first survey was conducted in August-September 1992 by the Heylen Research Centre and Teesdale Meuli & Co. (the results of the survey were reported in the NZJIR (18(1): 94-112). Three particularly important outcomes were reported. First, enterprise bargaining and individual contracting had become far more widespread Second, some enterprises took the opportunity to begin or speed up strategic industrial relations reforms, although others seemed to have simply removed union rights and cut labour costs in the short term. Finally, while the overall rate of labour market adjustment increased, adjustment was generally concentrated amongst larger enterprises. The second survey, conducted by Hey/en in late 1993, indicates that the bulk of the structural changes occurred in the initial years under the Act, and now appear to be largely complete. Enterprise collective and individual contracts now predominate. The other adjustments that were indicated in the first survey are little changed, though there is evidence that the effects of adjustment are being felt differentially. There is evidence of greater acceptance of the Act, though employers and employees still feel that employers hold more power than employees.

Gli effetti della liberalizzazione del trasporto pubblico locale sulle relazioni industriali: Regno Unito e Italia a confronto

2009 ◽  
pp. 337-364
Author(s):  
Hamish Mathieson ◽  
Roberto Pedersini
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Ownership Structure ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
The Uk

- This article examines the extent to which a number of hypothesised consequences for industrial relations in the context of liberalisation have been realised, such as a strengthening of managerial prerogatives and unilateral actions, the emergence of specific competitive pressures on labour costs, work flexibility and worker protections, the fragmentation of collective bargaining with an emphasis on company-level regulation. The sector selected is local public transport and in particular the bus industry. In the article the ownership structure of the bus industry, its regulatory and labour relations features are discussed in the context of governmentinitiated reforms in the UK and Italy. Evidence from empirical research conducted in both countries will then be presented and discussed in the conclusions.Key words: Liberalisation, Public services, Local public transport, Industrial relations, United Kingdom, Italy.Parole chiave: Liberalizzazione, Servizi pubblici, Trasporto pubblico locale, Relazioni industriali, Regno Unito, Italia.

scholarly journals Globalisering en arbeidsverhoudingen

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kees Vos ◽  
Rob Gründemann
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Industrial Systems ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
National Systems ◽  
New Instruments

Globalisation and labour relations Globalisation and labour relations What is the impact of globalization on the national industrial systems? To answer this question the article considers several views on globalization. It is argued that taking into account recent developments one could speak of a new globalization paradigm. Considering industrial relations in a broad sense it is concluded that outside contextual changes have limited the room for manoeuvre and the bargaining choices of the actors in the national systems. This implies not only downward competition on employment conditions and social protection, but also a loss of functions for actors and institutions. Such a process seems to be irreversible unless new instruments like voluntary agreements, direct and indirect employee share ownership will be put into practice. Otherwise decreasing social and political support for globalization could result into new forms of protectionism.

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