Documents Ford, Michael 8 results

"The recent vote by the UK electorate to leave the European Union (EU), known as Brexit, has potentially enormous implications for employment rights in the UK, most of which are now underpinned by EU law. At present the vote has no legal effect but if Brexit happens all these rights are legally vulnerable. The article examines how workers' rights informed the debates surrounding Brexit, the history of the UK's attitude to EU employment rights, and how the employment rights and remedies guaranteed by EU law currently affect UK labour law and policy. It analyses the legal mechanism likely to be adopted by the UK to change EU-guaranteed employment rights post-Brexit, and highlights some of the factors likely to contribute to the future form of UK labour law, including UK government policy, the effect of employment tribunal fees, the trading relationship between the EU and the UK, and the position of the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."

"In this introduction to a special issue on the Trade Union Act 2016 (TUA), we consider the background and context in which the new legislation was enacted and then outline briefly the actual provisions which were in fact adopted after the full parliamentary process had been followed. These were by no means identical to the Government's original proposals and involved political compromise in the build up to the Brexit referendum. As the contributions to this special issue demonstrate, the motivations and justifications behind the reforms were multiple, sometimes unexpressed, and far from straightforward. Here, we review the conclusions reached by the authors, and offer some thoughts of our own regarding the new mechanisms for controlling unions in the TUA. We conclude by suggesting strategies that workers and their organisations might deploy in resisting these controls, while conceding the limitations of these responses."

"In July 2015, a Trade Union Bill was introduced by the incoming Conservative Government which seeks to place significant restrictions on UK trade union activity, probably in anticipation of deep budgetary cuts affecting the public sector which are likely to generate protest. The assertion has been made that this legislative proposal is fair and balanced. We contest that claim with reference to the likely effect of the measures on industrial action, pickets and protests. The consultative process was incomplete and the substantive provisions unfairly target union-organised strikes and protests. The proposals are open to challenge on grounds of insufficient justification, impracticability of compliance and violation of fundamental civil liberties. They entail probable breach of UK obligations in respect of International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards and rights arising under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and European Social Charter (ESC). By further restricting the scope of lawful industrial action and pickets, the proposed legislation risks provoking other kinds of protest."

"Approximately 4.2 million Americans suffered nonfatal work-related injuries and 6,000 workers died of fatal work-related injuries in the US in 2005 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2007). Given these numbers, employee safety continues to be a concern in organizations despite engineering advances that have reduced exposures over the past few decades. Many factors contribute to workplace safety. These include characteristics of the physical environment and human behaviour within that environment. Human behaviour on some level plays a role in the vast majority of workplace accidents and injuries. This can include risky behaviour and signal detection failures, as well as a lack of proactive and collective safety behaviours that focus on changing the work environment to increase safety. Although several predictors of safety-related behaviour have been identified, there are some unresolved issues with respect to safety performance in organizations. This article focuses on the behaviours that compose safety performance, the factors that contribute to human safety performance, particularly those related to motivation, and some potential new areas of research in safety motivation in organizations. "

"In R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor (Equality and Human Rights Commission Intervening) the Supreme Court held that fees for bringing claims in the employment tribunal were unlawful both under common law and as a matter of EU law. The judgment has very significant implications for any system in which the enforcement of employment or social rights is left to individual claimants, the paradigmatic model adopted in the UK. Recent government policy has ignored the public function of individual tribunal claims in delivering employment rights at the systemic level, exemplified by the theoretical assumptions and justifications which lay behind the introduction of fees. The Supreme Court's analysis of the rule of law and the common law right of access to justice is in sharp conflict with these policies. I discuss the difference between the common law principles and the parallel principles in EU law and under Article 6 of the ECHR. The article explores the consequences of the judgment for cases rejected, dismissed or not brought owing to fees, and its longer-term implications for impediments to access to courts and tribunals, all the more important with Brexit on the horizon. The judgment represents an important triumph of the rule of law over the increased marketisation of legal rights. "

" A personal service company (PSC) is a form of intermediary with separate legal personality used as a vehicle to provide the labour of the individual who controls the PSC. The rapid growth of PSCs in recent years, and their potential to disguise employment status for tax purposes, have been the subject of much policy and legislation. But their detrimental effect on the employment rights, both individual and collective, has almost been ignored. Evidence shows that PSCs continue to increase at a faster rate than employment, are colonising sectors of the labour market characterised by dependent labour and are often imposed to avoid the duties owed to workers or employees. In this article, I analyse how the existing law might provide a means of protecting the labour rights of individuals who are engaged via PSCs, examining the statutory provisions specific to some legal rights and more general doctrines based on shams, labels and piercing the corporate veil. Although the law provides some protection in some circumstances, PSCs retain their allure as a means of avoiding employment rights. I discuss potential legislative solutions to this problem, which highlights the interaction of tax and employment law and the difficulties caused by relying on the bilateral contract as the keystone of labour rights."