Has The Employment Legislation Brought In By Labour Governments Since 1997 Led To A Fundamental Change In The British Employment Relations System?

Has The Employment Legislation Brought In By Labour Governments Since 1997 Led To A Fundamental Change In The British Employment Relations System?

Introduction

This article explores developments in statutory individual employment rights since the election of the Labour Government in 1997. Such rights have become more extensive: there are more rights ? including in areas previously unregulated by law in Britain ? and the coverage of them has widened to include many people previously excluded from protection. Much of this expansion results from the Labour Government ending the UK's “opt-out” from the European social dimension ? but some is driven by domestic agendas. The extent to which this expansion of rights indicates a marked difference in approach to statutory employment rights on the part of New Labour when compared to Conservative predecessors is questioned: there is a willingness to articulate different rationales but some echoes too of previous ideology.

The article also discusses the mechanisms for the adjudication and enforcement of individual employment rights. There have been changes in the institutions and dispute settlement processes and procedures ? although I argue that an opportunity for a radical re-think was missed. Again ? there are continuities with Conservative thinking ? as well as departures from it. Part of my argument is that policy is being based on a problematic representation of “the problem” of increased exercise of individual rights. There is also a neglect of the inter-relationship between individual employment rights and collective representation at the workplace. The weakening of individual employment rights under previous Conservative governments was achieved in part by weakening collective organization. Although the Labour Government has addressed the former by strengthening and expanding individual statutory rights ? I argue that achievements are constrained by its seeming ambivalence towards the latter.

More rights and greater coverage

In contrast to the slight adjustments to the law regulating industrial action and trade union governance ? there has been considerable development in the area of statutory individual employment rights since 1997 ? largely through the Employment Relations Act (ERA) 1999 and Employment Act (EA) 2002 and associated regulations. This stands in contrast to de-regulation under the Government's Conservative predecessors where those individual statutory rights which were not underpinned by European law ? generally were weakened and the remaining protection reduced (Dickens and Hall ? 1995).

When the Labour Government was elected in 1997 ? statutory individual rights included the following:

minimum period of notice of termination;

statement of principal terms and conditions of the contract of employment and of discipline and dismissal procedures;

right to receive an itemised pay statement;

right to a statement of reason for dismissal;

right not to be unfairly dismissed;

right not to unfairly discriminated against on grounds of race ? sex ? disability;

right to maternity pay and the right to return to work after leave for childbirth;

rights to time off for various public and trade union and representatives duties ? and for ante natal care;

a right to equal ...