The State and Employment Relations

1
The State and Employment Relations

• From Voluntarism to New Labour

2
Issues The Role of the State

• In any aspect of public life, who decides what
  role the state should play?
• Do some groups in civil society have more
  influence than others, and if so why?
• How do the roles of the state vary between
  countries? What role does national culture and
  tradition play?
• Is the states influence withering away?
• Can the state be resisted?

3
What is the state?

• A set of institutions, comprising the
  legislature, the executive, central
  administration, the judiciary, the police and
  local government (it) is the institutional
  system of political domination with a monopoly
  over the legitimate use of violence and over
  taxation and money supply
• (Hill 1981 239)
• Note also growing importance of pan-national
  state initiatives EU (Employment Strategy)

4
What is the State?

• The State has the monopoly of physical
  violence in society (Castells 2000)
• As well as underpinning relationships of power
  through this and through legislation it embodies
  symbolic violence through ideology conditioning
  human values and shaping perceptions and notions
  of legitimacy (Gramsci and hegemonic power)
• View of the state as a machine of repression
  (Althusser 1971)

5
The State and the Employment Relationship

• The state influences the relationship between
  employer and employee directly and indirectly
• Directly through legislation, dispute
  resolution and for some, as employer
• Indirectly providing important context
• Rules of engagement in employee relations
  boundaries of acceptability and legitimacy
• Shaping climate and priorities in employee
  relations
• Best practice in employee relations setting
  an example

6
The State

• Specific interests and objectives of the State in
  employee relations more complex at various
  times
• Maintenance of order and stability
• Protection of employees at work in the absence of
  alternatives
• Maintenance of parity of bargaining power between
  the main parties
• Control of earnings and inflation incomes
  policies
• Economic growth - Productivity and earnings
• Skills acquisition and low unemployment

7
The State Objectives in Employee Relations

• Achieved through multiple roles
• As legislator
• As peacekeeper
• As economic manager
• As employer
• Ideological role (hegemonic power)
• Importance of each of these roles has varied over
  time

8
The State
Economic Manager
Legislator
Peacekeeper
Ideology
Employer
Civil Society
Civil Society
9
Contrasting Roles of the State

• Statism State control over major elements of
  employee relations China, Eastern Europe (in
  past), Singapore(?)
• Corporatist/Neo-Corporatist/Bargained Corporatist
  (tripartite arrangements shared
  decision-making) Scandinavia, Netherlands,
  Austria, Ireland, Denmark
• Liberal Collectivism State support for free CB
  and for trade unions (Voluntarism in C20th
  Britain)
• Market Individualism free market model
  (Thatcher 1980s) support for managerial
  prerogative, constraints on market imperfections
  (e.g trade unions)

10
The State
Ideology
Areas of Concern and Activity
Market Individualism
Liberal Collectivism
Laissez- Faire
Market Regulation
Bargained Corporatism
Industrial Conflict
Social Justice
State Corporatism
Corporatism
Statism
Trade Union Power
11
The State and Employee Relations in Britain
Historical Background

• Traditional view limited state role in employee
  relations for much of C20th - voluntarist period
  of collective laissez faire (Ewing 1998)
• State encouraged voluntary collective bargaining
• By 1939, voluntary collective bargaining at
  industry level established in many sectors
• Post war social settlements in Britain and Europe
• By 1960s state concerns with low productivity,
  inflation and the role of unions in restrictive
  practices Royal Commission (Donovan) 1968

12
The State Historical Background

• Donovan argued for voluntary reforms in
  collective bargaining
• State response more interventionist In Place of
  Strife (1969), Industrial Relations Act 1971
  attempts at restrictive labour law but failed
• Mid 1970s - return to support for CB ACAS and
  auxiliary legislation 1974-79 and Social
  Contract.
• 1970s Present day. Growth of
  individual employment rights areas of
  discrimination law, maternity, equal pay.
• Breakdown in 1978/79 Winter of Discontent

13
The State Historical Background

• Recent revisionist work by Howells (2005) argues
• State has played the major role in shaping
  development of employment relations in Britain in
  last 150 years
• Highly interventionist in three key stages
• 1890 1940 and establishment of industry-wide CB
  voluntarism highly interventionist (Ewing
  1998)
• 1940 1979 shift to decentralised system of
  employment relations
• 1979 de-regulation of employment relations
  neo-liberal offensive

14
The State and De-regulation Thatcherism and
Beyond

• Thatcherism - break with post-war consensus and
  social settlement major ideological shift
• See now in France, Germany and much of EU
• Free market ideology and New Right policies but
  strong state in employee relations
  restrictive law until 1997.
• Unions and collective bargaining market
  imperfections - influence curbed.
• Period 1979-97 an attack on the bases of trade
  union power and emphasis on managerial
  prerogative.

15
The State and De-regulation Thatcherism and
Beyond

• Legal regulation dominant post-1979 supplants CB
• Six major pieces of legislation 1980-1989 curbed
  trade union power and influence.
• Different notion of model employer in public
  sector GCHQ, changes to ACAS remit

16
New Labour and Employee Relations

• Concerns with fairness but also competitiveness
  as a route to culture change in employment
  relations
• Fairness reflected in
• NMW, statutory recognition procedure, reduction
  in qualifying period for many employment rights
  and social chapter
• Floor of rights from EU and from NMW
• Emphasis on social partnership win/win employee
  rels
• Competitiveness in
• Britain still the most lightly regulated labour
  market in EU (Blair 1997 in preface to Fairness
  at Work White Paper)
• Retention of most of Conservative governments
  trade union laws and resistance to some EU law

17
New Labour and Employment Relations

• Some specifics
• largely supply-side initiatives to improve
  workings of the labour market
• Family-friendly initiatives
• Training and the labour market IT learning
  centres, learning accounts
• Assistance to job seekers and long-term
  unemployed
• Anti-discrimination legislation (from EU)
• Changes to unfair dismissal legislation
• Statutory union recognition procedures

18
New Labour and Employment Relations

• Individual labour law extended to areas
  previously untouched by statute law wage
  levels, hours of work, holidays
• Efficiency wage thesis higher labour costs
  force employers to use labour more efficiently
• Business friendly has made changes but emphasis
  on flexibility and anti EU initiatives that
  impose undue burdens on business (IC)
• Blair sees the New Labour project as nothing less
  than a culture change in employment relations
  is he right?
• New employment relations for a modern (knowledge)
  economy

19
New Labour and Employment Relations

• Recent assessment (Dickens and Hall 2006)
  suggests pursuit of Fairness but only up to a
  point contingent on business concerns
• Others, less generous (Smith and Morton 2006)
  many of the claimed benefits are rarely attained
  in practice
• Anna Pollert (2005, 2007), highlights continuing
  problems faced by unorganised workers
• Many unaware of their rights but even when they
  are, unable to defend them through lack of
  effective representation.

20
The State and Employee Relations Some
Reflections

• Role and influence of the state in employment
  relations considerable
• Sets the rules of engagement, establishes
  climate and context and sets an example.
• Influence on the issues and conduct of employment
  relations greater than is commonly assumed.
• Often does this by appearing to do very little
  collective laissez-faire can be a distant
  observer at the ringside but intervenes when
  necessary.
• At times a more interventionist stance
  Industrial Relations Act, Miners Strike,
  Firefighters dispute.

21
The State and Employee Relations Some Reflections

• Globalisation threat to power of nation state but
• Continuing evidence that national institutions
  matter (Boyer 1999)
• National systems of regulation continue to exert
  influence even in EU (Rubery et al. 2008)
• Legal regulation in nation state continues to be
  dominated by the laws of that state
• Many employee relations institutions remain
  firmly located within the nation state

22
The State Further Reading

• Dickens, L., Hall, M. (2006) Fairness up to a
  point. Assessing the impact of New Labours
  employment legislation, Human Resource
  Management Journal, Vol. 16 (4)
• Ewing, K. (1998), The State and Industrial
  Relations Collective Laissez Faire Revisited,
  Historical Studies in Industrial Relations Vol. 5
• Howell, C. (2005) Trade Unions and the State,
  Oxford, Princeton University Press
• Pollert, A. (2007), Britain and Individual
  Employment Rights Paper Tigers, Fierce in
  Appearance but Missing in Tooth and Claw,
  Economic and Industrial Democracy Vol. 28(1)
• Rubery and Others (2008) Surviving the EU? The
  future for national employment models in Europe,
  Industrial Relations Journal Vol. 39(6)
• Smith, P., Morton, G. (2006), Nine Years of New
  Labour Neoliberalism and Workers Rights,
  British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 44
  (3)