The post‐application labour market consequences of employment tribunal claims

This article examines the post‐application employment consequences for individuals registering complaints to Employment Tribunals following dismissal or redundancy. We consider several pieces of evidence: (a) the probability of finding another job, (b) the time taken to get a new job and (c) the pay/status of the new job. Our results indicate that age plays a significant role in aspects (a) and (c), while those who previously held managerial positions generally took longest to get a new job and found it most difficult to achieve a similar level of pay/status in their current jobs. Long‐term health problems/disability is associated with significantly worse outcomes on all three measures. Respondents whose cases were dismissed by tribunals without hearings fared worst in terms of obtaining a new job and the time it took to do so. There are, however, fewer differences by tribunal outcome in the relative pay/status of the claimant's current job.     

Industrial tribunals: is there an ideological background?

Fred Boothman and David Denham argue that because of the entrenched support for managerial prerogatives in industrial tribunals, the legislation on unfair dismissal for trade union activities has not significantly extended job protection for trade union members.     

Knowledge Concerning Employees’ Legal Rights at Work among Banking Employees in Malaysia

This study was conducted to determine the level of knowledge concerning employee rights under the Employment Act, Trade Unions Act and Industrial Relations Act among banking employees in Malaysia. This study also identified the specific areas of employee rights that employees are most familiar with and compared this level of knowledge by gender, age, tenure, and level of education. The findings revealed that the respondents do not possess sound knowledge of their legal rights. The respondents have the highest level of knowledge on employee basic rights, and have the lowest level of knowledge on rights to termination and dismissal. There was a small difference in the level of knowledge between male and female; however the level of knowledge increases with employes’ age, tenure and level of education.     

Handling dismissal disputes by arbitration

The traditional arbitration process provides an alternative to industrial tribunals for the handling of unfair dismissal cases. In this article, Harcourt Concannon examines the differences between the two approaches using the ACAS experience of unfair dismissal cases taken to arbitration between 1972 and 1977.     

浅谈我国违法解雇期间工资支付法律问题探讨

我国大陆地区对于违法解雇期间的工资支付问题没有一个完善的法律体系,导致出现这一问题时,缺乏相关的法理依据和可借鉴的经验。本文以我国台湾地区为例,借鉴其法理和对事件处理的方法,对我国违法解雇期间工资支付问题进行了探讨。     

Trends and developments in industrial relations and industrial relations law: Trade union discipline and non-strikers

Perhaps the most controversial change introduced in the 1988 Employment Act was the statutory right given to union members not to be disciplined by their unions for continuing to work during lawful industrial action approved by a majority in a secret ballot. Here the authors examine the legal contexts, implications for trade unions and the wider industrial relations and political significance of this important new right.     

Multiple equilibria in a firing game with impartial justice

In this paper, we argue that firms' firing strategies and the judicial strategy of dismissed employees depend to a large extent on labor judges' ability to shed light on the various cases. The model is cast as a sequential game with imperfect information featuring firms, employees and labor judges. The judges' error margin increases with the congestion of the judicial system. The game presents multiple equilibria which differ in the frequency of good workers fired for unfair motives and the frequency of unreliable workers who abusively sue firms for unfair dismissal. The probability that the judge sits with the employee appears to be positively related to the ratio between the severance payment for economic dismissal and the company fine for abusive dismissal.     

Industrial Relations Law Commentary: The Employment Act 1980

An analysis of the proposals leading to the Employment Act was featured in IRJ Volume 11 Number 2 (May/June 1980). Several changes were made to the Employment Bill in its passage through Parliament. Karl Mackie outlines the provisions of the Act in this commentary.     

Employment protection: a preliminary assessment of the law of unfair dismissal

Paul Lewis offers a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of legislation which seeks to give employees protection against unfair dismissal. In assessing the legislation, he analyses the results of actual Tribunal cases.     

Excessive trade union power: existing reality or contemporary myth?

It is now widely believed that trade unions have become too powerful, both in collective bargaining and in relation to government. The Employment Act, introduced by the present government, attempts to regulate these areas of concern—the closed shop, picketing and union decision-making. Brian Burkitt presents a long overdue analysis of trade union power.     

Unfair to whom? Discipline and dismissal in small establishments

This article draws on data collected as part of a project investigating the role of workplace disciplinary and grievance procedures and their influence, if any, on employment tribunal claims of unfair dismissal. It focuses specifically on small firms and small sites of larger firms and examines the question of fairness from two perspectives first, in relation to the managerial treatment of employees in matters of discipline, and secondly, by consideration of whether employment tribunals are unfair to small employers who defend claims.     

Employment flexibility,unions and companies in France

Employment flexibility–eg in relation to easier dismissal and the removal of most restrictions on temporary work–has grown in France during the eighties. This article traces and discusses its consequences for labour relations, collective bargaining and the labour movement.     

An epitaph to CROTUM and CPAUIA

This commemtary reviews the operation of the trade union commissioners abolished by the Employment Relations Act 1999, and the initiative to have new powers to the Certification Officer concerning the regulation of internal union affairs.     

ACAS and the lawyers: some survey evidence

Lawyers have come to play an increasingly prominent role in unfair dismissal cases. In the course of their work, lawyers have dealings with the conciliation function of ACAS. This article reports an interview survey which asked lawyers to recount their experiences, and assessments, of ACAS.     

Unfair dismissal legislation and property rights: some reflections

Starting from the premise that workers have ‘property rights’ in their jobs, this article considers ways in which British unfair dismissal legislation might be said to uphold such rights. The evidence indicates that remedies of compensation and re-employment afford minimal property rights to unfairly dismissed workers.     

Reactions to unjust dismissal and third-party dispute resolution: A justice framework

Little previous research has examined why dismissed workers view their discharge as unjust and how they respond to third-party dispute resolution interventions. This exploratory field study relied upon a justice framework to understand complainant motivations for filing unjust dismissal disputes and their reactions to a voluntary conciliation program. Analysis of archival and interview data suggested that procedural justice principles dominated both motivations for filing claims and reactions to third-party intervention. These findings were consistent with previous justice and labor relations research. Implications for future research, management practice, and third-party dispute resolution are discussed.     

Major EEO issues relating to personnel selection decisions

This paper examines recent EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) case law precedents relating to personnel selection, most notably hiring, training, promotion and downsizing. The statutes referenced include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), Constitutional claims, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (CRA-91), and Executive Order 11246 on Affirmative action. Seven topics are featured, including: (I) disparate treatment theory, (II) adverse impact theory in the ADEA, (III) adverse impact theory in Title VII, (IV) affirmative action based on operational needs, (V) key ADA rulings and the ADA amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), (VI) retaliation, and (VII) mandatory binding arbitration agreements. The case law surveyed reveals costly mistakes employers and HR managers can make, but which can be avoided with proper methods and policies. Some issues may require professional help (e.g., developing and validating selection tests), whereas others (e.g. retaliation), can be addressed in-house with knowledge of policies and procedures recommended by the EEOC to prevent problems from occurring, and to quickly correct them if they occur.     

美国联邦质量责任担保法规

文章通过简要介绍美国联邦质量责任担保法规体系中的3种法律,希望对我国的产品质量安全法律法规体系的建立提供参考借鉴意义。其中迈哥努森-莫斯担保法是管理消费者产品担保的联邦法律,其目的是阻止制造商制定不公平的消费者担保,而且通过裁定律师费用来使得消费者提起担保诉讼在经济上成为可行;统一商业法是管理产品销售合同的主要法律来源,向消费者提供关于柠檬问题的一种可供选择的法律措施;1995年及以后生产的轿车和卡车排放担保是联邦要求排放控制担保可以保护车主以免承担因为与排放有关的某些诸如由材料或工艺上的制造缺陷造成的,或引起汽车超过联邦排放标准故障的修理成本。     

Changes in HRM and job satisfaction, 1998–2004: evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey

This paper examines the relationship between human resource management practices and job satisfaction, drawing on data from the 1998 and 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Surveys. The paper finds significant increases in satisfaction with the sense of achievement from work between 1998 and 2004; a number of other measures of job quality are found to have increased over this period as well. It also finds a decline in the incidence of many formal human resource management practices. The paper reports a weak association between formal human resource management practices and satisfaction with sense of achievement. Improvements in perceptions of job security, the climate of employment relations and managerial responsiveness are the most important factors in explaining the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement between 1998 and 2004. We infer that the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement is due in large part to the existence of falling unemployment during the period under study, which has driven employers to make improvements in the quality of work.