Virginia's New Ban on Public Employee Bargaining: A Case Study of Unions, Business, and Political Competition

This article explores the reasons why the Virginia General Assembly passed a law prohibiting public employee bargaining some 16 years after the Virginia Supreme Court had clearly ruled that such bargaining was impermissible absent express statutory authority. The impetus for this legislation apparently was a series of actions by Governor L. Douglas Wilder's administration involving payroll deductions for state employees. The Virginia case is compared and contrasted to the findings of recent aggregate quantitative studies of the determinants of public sector labor relations legislation, illustrating the relative influence of organized business interests over those of labor.     

A Response to the British Journal of Industrial Relations Symposium on the Human Rights Watch Report: A Minimum Program for Promoting Collective Bargaining Rights as a Human Right

The publication of Unfair Advantage, a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), documents and analyzes how employers routinely violate international human rights standards by depriving U.S. workers of their legal right to organize. In a recent symposium on Unfair Advantage published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, 7 essays analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the HRW report from a variety of ideological and theoretical perspectives. Although the scholars who wrote these essays raised a number of important issues concerning Unfair Advantage, they failed to provide any concrete or practical methodologies for using this report to promote the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers in the early years of the twenty-first century. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to critique these symposium papers as well as to propose a minimum program, on the basis of Unfair Advantage, for advancing the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers.     

Labor education as a method of enhancing employee rights and responsibilities

University-based labor education programs conduct classes designed to provide union members with the skills necessary to perform their organizational and civic responsibilities and to provide union members with opportunities for personal growth and development. In conducting these programs, university labor educators enhance the protection of employee rights and the fulfillment of employee responsibilities. This article describes the manner in which labor education enhances collective and individual rights and responsibilities within unions, vis-à-vis employers and within the larger society.     

Integration of collective bargaining and formal worker participation processes: Boon or barrier to worker rights?

Many employers are extending workplace rights by allowing for more employee voice in decision making. Numerous unionized organizations have established formal worker participation processes to help achieve this end and to improve organizational performance. Based largely on theory, such processes are normally designed to operate independently from the bargaining process. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation and bargaining processes, and the effect of this relationship on workplace satisfaction. A total of 712 Midwest union officials were surveyed, and the results indicate that the processes tend to become integrated in the workplace. Further, union officials' workplace satisfaction was greater where formal worker participation is institutionalized within the bargaining process.     

Unit determination: National Labor Relations Board rule making in the health care industry

This article reviews the events leading up to the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) historic decision to engage in substantive rule making over appropriate bargaining units in the health care industry. It describes the rule-making process and outcomes, and the reaction of hospital unions and management to the rules. Finally, the potential for the use of rule making for other issues facing the NLRB is analyzed. This analysis uses a cost/benefit framework from the agency's perspective to predict the likelihood of future rule making. The article concludes that rule making is sufficiently costly to make extensive use in other situations unlikely.The order of the author's names was determined randomly and should not be interpreted as implying an unequal contribution.     

Understanding continuity in public sector HRM through neo‐institutional theory: why national collective bargaining has survived in English local government

Most HRM research over recent decades has concentrated on ‘change’, charting ever more fragmented, individualised and unitarist employment relationships. This is equally true of public sector HRM, where the emphasis has been on neo‐liberalism and marketisation. However, in many countries and sectors, collective, pluralist approaches to HRM and industrial relations have proved remarkably resilient. This article uses Neo‐Institutional theory to explain the ‘continuity’ of one such HRM system: national collective bargaining in English local government (1979–2007). We argue that this survives because it manages the political and managerial processes that link central government and central–local relations and acts as a conduit between institutional stakeholders to deliver services to the public. By understanding the ‘passive consensus’ that holds the collectivist HRM system together, we can anticipate the forces that might pull it apart.     

Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the termination of collective bargaining contracts

In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled that employers can unilaterally break an existing collective bargaining contract upon filing a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. This ruling changed both the contractual responsibilities of the employer to honor the collective bargaining agreement and the rights that workers have under the National Labor Relations Act. The purpose of this article is to show the conditions under which a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding will lead to the termination of a labor contract. Our results suggest that (a) legal rulings that reduce the costs of bankruptcy will increase the number of contractual dissolutions and (b) a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is more likely to occur when a firm operates in a climate of uncertain expectations.     

The management of variable pay in European banking

Banking is a major employer in most large European countries, facing common pressures in terms of competition and technological change. Traditional pay systems have been revised in response to changing business objectives and new forms of work organisation. This paper examines variable pay schemes (VPS) in banking in four countries with very different institutional contexts: Austria, Norway, Spain, and the UK. It finds extensive use of VPS in each case and shared managerial objectives in terms of performance management and cost control. Forms of VPS vary, with Norwegian banks in particular favouring collective forms of bonus, but overall there is a common drive towards individual (merit) pay and multiple bonus arrangements providing increased scope for management discretion. In broad terms, what the case of pay-setting in banking suggests is a course of fading path dependency at national level.     

The determinants of pay settlements: the influence of the national context

This article studies the influence of national context and collective bargaining on the factors taken into account when adjusting wages. Using data from Spanish and British manufacturing establishments, we examine the relative importance of the cost of living, the ability to recruit or retain employees, the financial performance of the organisation and the industrial relations climate on wage adjustments of manual workers at the establishment level. Our findings show that there are significant differences on the importance given to these factors in both countries. In part, these are related to differences in the incidence of collective bargaining.     

“开放性”课程教学模式实践探讨——以山东工商学院《劳动关系与劳动法》课程改革为例

"开放性"课程教学模式是把教学系统与社会系统、课堂内与课堂外系统进行有机结合,实现理论与实践之间、学生与教师之间、学生与专家之间、同学与同学之间进行系统融合的现代化教学模式。本文以作者近8年来从事《劳动关系与劳动法》课程教学模式改革与创新的经历,以"开放性"教学模式为研究主题,从教学思想、教学过程、教学内容、教学空间、教学手段、考核评价等6个方面进行了改革与探索。     

Decomposition of Structural Change into Technology and Price Components: Turkey, 1973–85

The purpose of this paper is to report on an approach to the analysis of intertemporal change in input–output tables in terms of the components of this change with time. We define two alternative forms of decomposition: additive and multiplica tive. The multiplicative form is found to have advantages over the additive form: it is not affected by the choice of price-adjusting mechanism and it enables us to define summary measures in the line of, for example, direct backward linkages. We apply the methodo logy to input–output tables for Turkey for 1973 and 1985, and compute the components of total change for 1973–85. We illustrate that, in economies where price changes across industries vary to a great extent, studying structural change first requires the removal of the relative price effects. Otherwise, misleading conclusions regarding the real or tech nological change are very likely.     

中国出口企业的生产率优势及其来源识别

出口企业的生产率优势既可能源于出口学习效应,也可能源于自我选择效应。本文利用工业企业数据库和海关贸易数据库的匹配数据,对中国出口企业的生产率优势及其来源进行了定量识别。研究发现,中国出口企业的生产率优势总体上来源于出口学习效应和自我选择效应,但是出口学习效应的贡献要明显高于自我选择效应;此外,生产率较高的出口企业从出口学习效应中获益相对更大。除外资及港澳台企业外,这一结论对于不同行业、不同技术水平、不同规模的企业均是稳健的。大量存在的加工贸易企业是导致外资及港澳台企业产生“出口-生产率悖论”的重要原因。     

Entry and Technological Performance in New Technology Domains: Technological Opportunities,Technology Competition and Technological Relatedness

Entry and success in new technology domains (NTDs) is essential for firms' long‐term performance. We argue that firms' choices to enter NTDs and their subsequent performance in these domains are not only governed by firm‐level factors but also by environmental characteristics. Entry is encouraged by the richness of opportunities for technology development, while technology competition by incumbent firms discourages entry and render entries that do take place less successful. Firms are expected to be positioned heterogeneously to recognize and capitalize on technological opportunities, depending on the presence of a related technology base. We find qualified support for these conjectures in a longitudinal analysis of entry and technological performance in NTDs by 176 R&D intensive firms. While opportunity rich technology environments attract entries by firms even if these NTDs are distal from firms' existing technologies, firms require related technological expertise in order to exploit technological opportunities post‐entry.     

大数据时代计算机远程网络通信技术变革分析

随着科技的发展,大数据时代已经来临,计算机远程通信技术必须与时俱进地发展,才能在大数据时代发挥作用,计算机远程通信经过多年的运营出现了一些问题,在大数据背景下可以利用大数据技术发展计算机远程通信。     

Review of no-fault absenteeism cases taken to arbitration, 1980–1989: A rights and responsibilities analysis

No-fault absenteeism control programs represent an emerging counterpoint to traditional misconduct-based approaches. By altering the policies governing absence in the work place, the rights and responsibilities of both the employee and employer may be modified. This article examines the arbitral standards applied in the disposition of grievances arising under no-fault absenteeism plans. Arbitration cases from 1980 to 1989 are analyzed; a taxonomic structure for reviewing arbitrator rulings on the unilateral imposition of no-fault programs, as well as discipline and discharge arising under no-fault policies, is developed. While advocates of no-fault plans have asserted that arbitrators will embrace these plans, the results of this analysis indicate that arbitrators will infuse standard elements of reasonableness and just cause into no-fault policy. Trends in arbitral standards in absence cases, policy-making strategies for managements and unions, as well as implications for the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers are outlined.     

强制更换会计师事务所对审计质量的影响——对企业更换中天勤等事务所的实证分析

中天勤、沈阳华伦等5家会计师事务所2001年未通过年检被取消执业资格,他们的原有客户不得不改聘其他会计师事务所.该事件为强制更换会计师事务所提供了研究背景.以非正常性应计利润(DA)来衡量审计质量发现,在强制更换会计师事务所以后,这些公司的非正常性应计利润不降反升.进一步分析的结果显示,在正DA组,后任会计师没有调低那些公司的非正常性应计利润;而在负DA组,这些公司的非正常性应计利润在更换会计师以后反而增加了.研究显示,在中国这样一个极度分散的审计市场中,强制更换会计师事务所并没有带来大家预期的效果.     

Cultural value orientations of the former communist countries: a gender-based analysis

This article argues that there is a trend towards enterprise unionism in a number of countries. The authors begin by defining enterprise unionism and developing a framework of analysis in terms of activities, governance, and resources. Utilizing this framework, six countries – Japan, US, France, Germany, UK and Australia – are examined. The trend towards enterprise unionism is best seen in terms of collective bargaining and joint consultation. The authors then consider various explanations for this tendency, including unions and their members, the state, and employers in their market context. This is followed by a discussion of the implications, which may be drawn, and the research gaps, which need to be filled.     

The evolution of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom: Extending countervailing power

The concept of countervailing power has been used to suggest that the power of unions explains the origins and development of employers' organisations (EOs). However, unions have declined since the 1970s, but EOs continue to play an important role in employment relations. If pressure from unions is not sufficient to explain continuing employer organisation, what does account for it? This article pursues this question by examining the evolution and activity of UK EOs between the 1960s and 2016. Our countervailing power argument goes beyond a sole focus on unions to include changing pressures and demands on EOs caused by the state such as individual rights legislation and campaigns by civil society organisations. The changing force exerted by these societal pressures helps to explain the shift of EOs' focus from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of EOs, to lobbying, provision of services, legal support, and training.     

劳动合同服务期之探讨

劳动合同服务期不同于一般的劳动合同期限,两者在适用前提以及违约后果等方面都存在一定区别。服务期规定的出台体现了《劳动合同法》平衡劳动关系双方当事人权利义务的立法理念,适应了不同人群的需要,但服务期条款也存在规定不甚具体、内容不甚明确的缺陷,因而需对其作进一步探讨,厘清相关问题,以发挥服务期条款的应有作用。