27 July 2017

By Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, Bradford University

UNISON’s victory over the government at the Supreme Court on the issue of the introduction of fees for Employment Tribunal applications is the most recent example of how unions are a ‘public good’. This does not just mean a force for good but a good (as in a service) for, and to, the public at large, covering those who are not union members and may even be antagonist to unions or anti-union.

14 July 2017

By Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of Bradford

It was always likely to happen and now it has - the much awaited publication of The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices called 'Good Work' eschews using serious state intervention to fix the worst excesses of exploitation in the modern neo-liberal labour market in Britain.

11 July 2017

By John Hendy QC, IER Chair

Changes to the law to protect the rights of those who work for a living are essential. It is doubtful if the changes proposed by theTaylor Review are anything like radical enough. They appear to ignore the fact that many gig workers are already 'workers' with rights to a number of employment rights. And the proposals go nowhere near far enough to deal with the problem of zero-hours contracts for the vast majority of the 2.7 million workers on such contracts.

11 July 2017

By Nicola Countouris, Professor of Law at University College London; and Professor Keith D. Ewing, President of the IER

‘A mountain had gone into labour and was groaning terribly. Such rumours excited great expectations all over the country. In the end, however, the mountain gave birth to a mouse’

(Phaedrus, ‘The Mountain in Labour’)

For some, there were great expectations that PM May’s ‘Independent Review of Employment Practices in the Modern Economy’ could offer something more than heart-warming gestures for the millions of workers employed through casual and intermittent contracts, a million or so of them toiling under the permanent insecurity of a zero-hour contract. Unfortunately, after nine long months of gestation, some drama, and a lot of fanfare, the review produced by Mr Matthew Taylor has come up with some seriously underwhelming, where not counterproductive, recommendations.

06 July 2017

By Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, The University of Bradford

Although it’s still early days, the evidence is that the Tory Trade Union Act 2016 is already backfiring as the length of individual strikes increase, creating more days ‘lost’ to striking per strike, as a result of the new tighter regulations. The intention of the Tory government with the Act was to reduce the levels of strike action even lower than they presently are and especially in the so-called ‘essential services’ of transport and education.

30 June 2017

By Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, Open University

Since 2010, the Coalition, then the Tories, have both continued and significantly extended some of the ‘reforms’ initiated by Blair and Brown under the Better Regulation initiative from 2004 onwards; and, significantly, these approaches to regulation in general and to health and safety law and enforcement in particular, have been pursued in the context of austerity and the attempt to shrink the state. The effect of these trajectories has been to unravel the levels of social protection for workers and local communities. Health and safety law is being undone, undermined and is under attack.