Introduction to the Themed collection: Public sector employment relations in turbulent times

We introduce a themed collection of articles examining how the public sector has responded to, and been impacted by, the COVID-19 crisis. Although the pandemic has affected the roles, functions, economies, governance and structures of public sectors, this themed collection focuses on public sector employment relations. Authors examine significant areas which have been subject to accelerated change stemming from the pandemic. Building on decades of public sector reform, these changes impact public sector enterprise bargaining, terms and conditions of employment, working arrangements and practices, and the relationship between public servants and their employer. The articles in this collection provide important insights into the longer-term influences of the COVID-19 pandemic for public sector workforces. The collection also raises questions around whether the positive lessons from this crisis can be sustained to help manage serious crises in the future, or whether the public sector will slip back into a state of unpreparedness. JEL Codes: J45, J5, J81

DO THE PROVISIONS REGULATING THE TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT OF POSTED WORKERS, AS MANDATORY PROVISIONS, ENSURE THE PROTECTION OF THE EMPLOYEE?

All employment relationships, including strictly employment relationships, may be related to the legal areas of two or more countries, which raises the question of the law applicable to a specific legal relationship. The Rome I Regulation has a key importance in determining the applicable law to which the employment relationship is to be subjected. In this respect, the decree of Art. 8 of the Regulation has a fundamental importance, which was analyzed in the first part of this publication. However, the mechanism according to which the lex labori will be corrected by the provisions forcing their application, the issues of which are presented later in the publication, should be distinguished from the scheme presented in the above-mentioned regulation. According to the EU legislator, one of the matters of employment relationships regulated by such provisions is the standardization of the terms and conditions of employment of employees posted to perform work in the territory of a European Union Member State. Answers to the question whether it is appropriate to assign a nature of the rules enforcing its application provisions to this regulation (concerning the terms and conditions of employment of posted workers) has been made at the end of this publication.

COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS IN THE ANTI-CRISIS SHIELD

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Anti-Crisis Shield has been enacted, which provides, inter alia, for the possibility to conclude collective agreements introducing economic demurrage, reduced working time, equivalent working time combined with prolongation of the settlement period to 12 months and less favourable conditions of employment of employees than those arising from the employment contracts concluded with them. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the above agreements and to try to assess whether they have been given the correct legal shape.

Workload and salary as determinants of pedagogical graduates’ employment by occupation

Introduction. The problem of the effectiveness of the pedagogical education system remains one of the most discussed topics in modern professional discourse. A large proportion of leaders of the educational industry and representatives of the expert community are convinced that graduates of pedagogical universities and colleges are not sufficiently prepared for independent professional activity and deflect from work in their field. The refusal of graduates to be employed by occupation is associated mainly with the poor quality of students’ practical training in universities. Criticising the low attendance rates of young professionals in schools, analysts often ignore the conditions of employment in educational institutions. Meanwhile, the appearance of a new form of statistical observation of OO-1 and OO-2 on open access makes it possible not only to track the results of employment of graduates of the vocational education system in schools across the country, but also to compare them with the conditions for hiring: the current workload on staff and the level of teachers’ salaries.The aim of the present research was to find the dependence of the results of pedagogical graduates’ employment by occupation on the conditions of employment in schools: the level of teachers’ salaries and workload in the regions of Russia.Methodology and research methods. The research methodological framework is a structural approach based on applied research procedures (observation, description, comparison, counting, measurement, modelling, etc.), according to which general scientific (comparative, retrospective analysis, systematisation, generalisation) and statistical research methods (statistical and correlation analysis, etc.) were employed. The analysis of official documents of educational authorities of different levels and educational institutions, scientific publications and forms of federal statistical observation of OO-1 and OO-2 was conducted. The processing of regional educational statistics was carried out using the Online Analytical Processing technology, which makes it possible to obtain OLAP cubes and form analytical slices in accordance with emerging research tasks. The slices were studied in detail using the Analysis ToolPak addin procedures and the statistical functions of the Excel library. In the course of the analysis, the authors performed the calculation of measures of the statistical relationship between the studied variables and their graphic visualisation.Results. This study established a high level of pedagogical labour market segmentation by territorial and qualification-age criteria of employees. The effects of influence on the part of state and public institutions and practices, leading to systematic discrimination of certain groups of educators, were revealed. Regional data provide the examples of discrimination against young teachers in remuneration, both in the process of employment due to the lack of qualification grades, and in the process of work, as a consequence of the inaccessibility to payments from the incentive part of the salary fund of schools. It is shown that the improvement of the results of pedagogical graduates’ employment by occupation is related to the improvement of the wage system, increasing the base rates and reducing the intra-industry differentiation of earnings among workers of different ages.Practical significance. The authors are convinced that this article will clarify the approaches for adjusting the mechanism for distributing the wages fund of schools, develop measures to attract young people to teaching and ensure the elimination of the shortage of personnel in the education system.

Elements of Precarious Employment in the Work of Scientifc and Pedagogical Workers

The paper highlights the problem of the growth of the segment of precarious employment in the work of researchers and the faculty, who work mainly in scientific and educational institutions (scientific and pedagogical workers). Besides the elements of precarious employment characteristic of the category of workers under consideration, the author considers the fixed-term nature of labor relations and the low level of the conditionally constant part of wages in the general structure of wages of scientific and pedagogical workers, which can be attributed to the legal prerequisites for the deterioration (precarization) of their labour regulation. In addition to the acts of federal legislation regulating the labor of scientific and pedagogical workers, the author analyzes the provisions of the relevant acts of social partnership for the period from 2015 untill 2023. The author highlights the problem of increasing the types of work included by the employer in the employment of the “second half of the day” of scientific and pedagogical workers without paying additional wages. The lack of legal regulation of the distribution of types of work performed by a scientific and pedagogical worker within a 36-hour working week is also noted by the author among the legal preconditions that, with appropriate law enforcement, worsen the conditions of employment of such workers due to the significantly increasing proportion of time that workers spend on achieving performance indicators and efficiency determined by the employer. In the conclusion of the paper, the author justifies amendments to the legislation in terms of regulating a fixed-term employment contract, establishing the share of guaranteed wages in the overall structure of wages, regulating the types of work included in the working hours of scientific and pedagogical workers at the level of a by-law, which cumulatively will promote sustainability of employment conditions for employees and improve their legal status.

The Year of the Nurse during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The year 2020 was established by the World Health Organization as The Year of the Nurse and Midwife to emphasize the importance of this profession to the healthcare system. Strange but true, nurses around the world celebrated it by being frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the phrase “Nursing Now” has become more important than ever. The main aim of this article was to draw attention to the fact that 2020 was the Year of the Nurse and Midwife and, indeed, their role in the fight against the pandemic is difficult overlook. Through the use of available scientific databases, documents and scientific publications related to the subject were collected and analyzed. Nurses are able to fulfill their duties as long as they are properly rewarded and provided not only with support but also better terms and conditions of employment. The investment in nurses should also be treated as an investment in the healthcare system.

DETERMINING THE THRESHOLD FOR ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: THE LEGAL QUAGMIRE FACING MINORITY UNIONS RESOLVED – South African Post Office v Commissioner Nowosenetz No (2013) 2 BLLR 216 (LC)

The issue of organizational rights facing minority unions has been a quagmire since the advent of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995(hereinafter “the LRA”). This quagmire exists, notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution affords every trade union the right to engage in collective bargaining (s 23 of the Constitution, 1996). The acquisition of organizational rights by trade unions plays a crucial rolein as far as collective bargaining is concerned. It is through collective bargaining that unions are able to negotiate with employers regarding the terms and conditions of employment. Commentators have often viewed the LRA as favouring larger unions and as conferring clear advantages on unions with majority support at the industry level. Chapter III of the LRA regulates collective bargaining. Whereas this chapterostensibly promotes a pluralistic approach to organizational rights it is unequivocally biased towards majoritarianism. This is the case despite minority trade unions fulfilling an important role in the current labour system especially when it comes to the balance of powerin the employment arena. In light of the above, the legal quagmire faced by the minority unions in the quest for acquiring organisation rights in terms of the relevant provisions of the LRA is clearly illustrated by the decision in South African Post Office v Commissioner Nowosenetz No ((2013) 2 BLLR 216 (LC) (hereinafter “ the South African Post Office case”)).

8. Variation, breach, and termination of employment

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses variations of terms and conditions of employment. Theoretically, neither employer nor employee can unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of employment. A unilateral variation that is not accepted will constitute a breach and, if serious, could amount to a repudiation of the contract. A repudiation does not automatically terminate a contract of employment. In order to justify summary dismissal, the employee must be in breach of an important express or implied term of the contract.

Discourse analysis of the American working youth communities on the social network Reddit

The article discusses the working conditions and employment of American working youth during the global pandemic (2020) within the discursive space of the online communities of the social network Reddit. The aim of the study was to conduct a discourse-analysis of professional virtual communities of American working youth. The main tasks were to analyze the specifics of the language of online communication of American working youth, to identify the main problems of employment and labor relations relevant to young Americans, to find out how much American working youth identify with the working class, and to study its class interests, class positions and feelings of solidarity. Infrequent (basic) and frequent (additional) content analyses were used to analyze empirical information (143 text and visual posts in 11 communities of the social network Reddit). The results of the study draw conclusions about the presence of a specific language of communication, similar conditions of employment and living standards, the stability of class positions and the high level of virtual solidarity of American working youth. Comparison of the data obtained with the results of our previous study of virtual communities of Russian working youth allows us to tell about the similarities and differences between American and Russian youth. The main common feature characteristic of both (American and Russian) working youth is the presence of their own group identity.