Managing the Margins—Gender, Citizenship, and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment–By Leah F Vosko (original) (raw)

Workplace industrial relations in Britain, 1980–2004

Industrial Relations Journal, 2007

small scale surveys and case studies. WIRS80 marked a radical departure in the study of industrial relations for two reasons. First, following in the footsteps of a small number of survey forerunners, it sought to 'map' industrial relations in Britain with nationally-representative large-scale surveys of workplace managers, thus permitting investigation of the incidence of practices and changes over time. Second, it focused on industrial relations institutions and outcomes, linking them to the processes of industrial relations that had been the chief focus of studies up until that point. This paper reflects on some of what we have learned in the five surveys over the quarter century since 1980, focusing selectively on the demise of collective IR, pay determination, union wage effects, variable pay, the climate of employment relations and union effects on employment growth. JEL Classification: J51

THE STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK AND EMPLOYMENT

Everyone who derives an income through work or who becomes involved in the organisation and management of employees at work is immersed in the practice of industrial relations. The overall quality of the employment relationship and changes in industrial relations can have an important effect on the overall performance of an organisation. At the same time, the terms and conditions of employment directly affect the quality of employees' working lives and their capacity to enjoy many aspects of their lives outside of work. These issues of 'efficiency' and 'equity'-the contributions of industrial relations to the wellbeing of work organisations and even the national economy on the one hand, and the consequences of changing industrial relations for employees on the other-are central themes in recent national policy debates, in strategic deliberations in company boardrooms and in more everyday discussions in cafes and around kitchen tables.

The transformation of work and employment relations: Labour and Industry three decades on

Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 2018

This article introduces a Special Issue to mark thirty years of Labour and Industry: a Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work. It briefly contextualises and summarises the invited articles that comprise the Special Issue, four of which are reflections by the author(s) on developments since the publication of their earlier landmark paper by the Journal.

Changes in Collective Bargaining in the UK

2002

Changes in Collective Bargaining in the U.K. * Perhaps no other country in recent years has witnessed greater change in its collective bargaining framework than the UK. This paper describes the dramatic developments and their consequences. Like Gaul, it is in three parts. The first part charts the six major pieces of legislation-conventionally described as 'anti-union'-that were enacted by successive Conservative administrations between 1980 and 1993, and links them to the subsequent decline in unionism and to improvements in firm performance and that of the macro economy. The second part examines the accession of 'New Labour' and reviews its domestic reform agenda, today largely in place. That agenda comprises two general pieces of employment and employment relations law plus a new national minimum wage. At first (and second) blush these changes do not return Britain to the mid-1970s even if they do imply an increase in union membership and rising costs for business. For evidence of more profound change one has to turn to the third part of our story: the social policy agenda of the European Union. Almost immediately upon taking office, New Labour signed up to the social chapter. This means that a slew of new legislation seeking to regulate the employment relation (mostly decided by qualified majority) is now in immediate prospect. Europe is therefore set to impact the theory and practice of British industrial relations. We provide a brief review of recent and prospective legislation.

Institutional change and transformations in labour and employment standards

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2018

Initially employed by lawyers and geopolitical experts, the concept of ‘grey zones’ can be usefully applied to analyse the recent changes on the labour market. It provides a means of bypassing the dualist approaches that contrast waged work and self-employment, insiders and outsiders, or, then again, formal and informal work in a binary way. It provides visibility of the decoherence between the institutions associated with waged status and actual employment practices, and the layering of several different kinds of regulation. The ‘grey zones’ approach thus provides an analytical framework for understanding a wide variety of situations and studying various processes of institutional change, giving the actors of this change their rightful place. Although grey zones are often areas where laws are absent or weak, through these actors they can also give rise to new institutions.