Employment Legislation Publications

Federation News: The need for a Trade Union Freedom Bill

Executive Editors Keith Ewing and Carolyn Jones

Published in October 2006

To celebrate the centenary of the introduction of the Trade Disputes Act 1906, this edition of Federation News is dedicated to the 2006 campaign for a new Trade Union Freedom Bill. Six general secretaries of unions representing nearly 4 million workers, outline why they believe restrictive trade union laws should be replaced by positive trade union freedoms.

Labour Law Review 2006

By Jenny Eady QC and Betsan Criddle

Published in September 2006

This year’s edition of Labour Law Review is a timely reminder of how far our framework of law has developed in recent years and how far we still need to go before fairness at work can be achieved. As usual, the authors concentrate on those cases which they believe have made a significant difference or which provide useful guidance for workers and their representatives.

Federation News - Pensions post Turner

Published in April 2006

This edition of Federation News coincided with the publication of the final report from the Turner Commission and with a period of industrial unrest, as local government workers took action against unilateral changes to their pension entitlement.

There seems general consensus around the two main themes developed by the Pensions Commission. First state pensions should be more generous, less means-tested and linked to earnings rather than prices. Second, there should be automatic enrolment into a National Pension Saving Scheme, administered through PAYE with contributions from workers, employers and the state through tax relief.

But as ever the devil is in the detail and despite the general consensus, concerns remain, not least about the lack of additional money for today’s pensions suffering from the impact of past government policies and employer pension holidays.

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Information and Consultation Regulations: Whither Statutory Works Councils?

by Roger Welch

Published in February 2006

In an era when more and more workers face so called "Rice Krispy redundancies" and "termination by text", it was widely hoped that the European Information and Consultation Directive (2002) and the implementing Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations (2004) would put a stop to such abuse. It was also expected that for the first time in the UK, employers would be legally obliged to inform and consult employees at workplace level on a whole range of issues. So how successful have the Regulations been and what can we expect in the future?

The impact of contracting out on employment relations in public services

_by Sanjiv Sachdev_ As part of the New Labour agenda for renewing better funded public services, there has been a sharp increase in the role of the private sector in public services delivery. Areas of the public realm once almost exclusively undertaken by the public sector – such as defence and criminal justice - have seen the private sector play an increasingly prominent role. Indeed, according to this report 93% of workplaces are outsourcing four or more services previously done by their own employees. So what are the implications for workers? Despite the large numbers of employees affected, the employment relations implications of contracting out have been seriously neglected. This report aims to set that right and the conclusions are worrying.

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Labour Law Review 2005

By Jenny Eady QC and Rebecca Tuck

Published in September 2005

Following the election of an historic third term Labour government, this year’s edition of Labour Law Review is a timely reminder of how far our framework of law has developed in recent years and how far we still need to go before fairness at work can be envisaged.