In this article, we identify ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in the UK’s regulatory regime for health and safety at work. The characteristics of Covid-19 presented particular challenges for the risk-based approach to regulation embraced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). We offer a critique and suggest four principal areas for reform. First, it is clear that HSE and other enforcement bodies need an injection of funds to support their inspection and enforcement activities. Second, the regulatory regime itself is in need of modernisation to reduce reliance on criminal law. Third, wider labour law problems such as the distinction between worker and employee, which impact health and safety law, need to be resolved. Fourth, and most importantly, there must be much greater recognition that health and safety is an issue for every person in the workforce. Even if Covid-19 ceases to pose such a significant workplace risk, we consider that there are a variety of other common health and safety issues that would be better addressed by a modified and modernised regulatory strategy.
{"title":"Towards a More Effective Health and Safety Regime for UK Workplaces Post COVID-19","authors":"A. Davies, L. Rodgers","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac034","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article, we identify ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in the UK’s regulatory regime for health and safety at work. The characteristics of Covid-19 presented particular challenges for the risk-based approach to regulation embraced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). We offer a critique and suggest four principal areas for reform. First, it is clear that HSE and other enforcement bodies need an injection of funds to support their inspection and enforcement activities. Second, the regulatory regime itself is in need of modernisation to reduce reliance on criminal law. Third, wider labour law problems such as the distinction between worker and employee, which impact health and safety law, need to be resolved. Fourth, and most importantly, there must be much greater recognition that health and safety is an issue for every person in the workforce. Even if Covid-19 ceases to pose such a significant workplace risk, we consider that there are a variety of other common health and safety issues that would be better addressed by a modified and modernised regulatory strategy.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85445399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
G. Balasubramanian, Surendra Babu Talluri, Santanu Sarkar
The economic liberalisation of the 1990s in India led to calls for increased labour flexibility. As achieving legislative reform proved difficult, the focus shifted to judicial interpretation of existing labour statutes. We present evidence that Indian courts changed their interpretations of labour laws over time, favouring flexibility at the expense of the protective purposes underlying the legislation. Our study is based on analysis of a sample of 196 judgments of senior appellate courts between 1999 and 2019 on protective provisions of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970. The tendency of the Indian courts to support interpretations consistent with the goal of labour flexibility may be said to illustrate the role of the judiciary in promoting market-led economic development, but it also suggests a degree of bias in the courts’ approach to questions of labour law adjudication.
{"title":"The Curious Case of Judicial Interpretation and Labour Flexibility in India","authors":"G. Balasubramanian, Surendra Babu Talluri, Santanu Sarkar","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwad004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwad004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The economic liberalisation of the 1990s in India led to calls for increased labour flexibility. As achieving legislative reform proved difficult, the focus shifted to judicial interpretation of existing labour statutes. We present evidence that Indian courts changed their interpretations of labour laws over time, favouring flexibility at the expense of the protective purposes underlying the legislation. Our study is based on analysis of a sample of 196 judgments of senior appellate courts between 1999 and 2019 on protective provisions of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970. The tendency of the Indian courts to support interpretations consistent with the goal of labour flexibility may be said to illustrate the role of the judiciary in promoting market-led economic development, but it also suggests a degree of bias in the courts’ approach to questions of labour law adjudication.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89043381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal Article Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of VulnerabilityEveryday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labour Law Get access Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability by Vera Pavlou [ Hart Publishing, 2021, pp, ISBN 9781509942374] and Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labour Law by Adelle Blackett [ ILR Press, 2019, pp, ISBN 9781501715754] Manoj Dias-Abey Manoj Dias-Abey University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom manoj.dias-abey@bristol.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Industrial Law Journal, Volume 52, Issue 1, March 2023, Pages 273–277, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac035 Published: 26 March 2023 Article history Accepted: 30 December 2022 Published: 26 March 2023
《欧洲的移徙家庭佣工:法律与脆弱性构建:家庭佣工对国际劳动法的跨国挑战》,维拉·帕夫洛著[哈特出版,2021,pp, ISBN 9781509942374]。《家政工人对国际劳动法的跨国挑战》作者:Adelle Blackett [ILR出版社,2019,pp, ISBN 9781501715754] Manoj Dias-Abey Manoj Dias-Abey英国布里斯托尔大学manoj.dias-abey@bristol.ac.uk作者其他著作检索:牛津学术谷歌学者工业法杂志,第52卷,第1期,2023年3月,第273-277页,https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac035出版:2023年3月26日文章历史接受:出版日期:2023年3月26日
{"title":"Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of VulnerabilityEveryday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labour Law","authors":"Manoj Dias-Abey","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac035","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of VulnerabilityEveryday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labour Law Get access Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability by Vera Pavlou [ Hart Publishing, 2021, pp, ISBN 9781509942374] and Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labour Law by Adelle Blackett [ ILR Press, 2019, pp, ISBN 9781501715754] Manoj Dias-Abey Manoj Dias-Abey University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom manoj.dias-abey@bristol.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Industrial Law Journal, Volume 52, Issue 1, March 2023, Pages 273–277, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac035 Published: 26 March 2023 Article history Accepted: 30 December 2022 Published: 26 March 2023","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135185200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article seeks to review the intersection between menopause and employment law, summarising existing protections and analysing key case law. The study finds that existing protections are limited in their efficacy in protecting individuals experiencing menopausal symptoms from detriment and discrimination in the workplace. Indeed, whilst individuals may be able to raise claims for menopausal discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, the lack of clarity as to which of the protected characteristics such a claim should be raised against and the apparent lack of consistency in the case law further serves to undermine the protections which currently exist. Whilst a number of proposals have been put forward as to how the law may be adapted or created to improve protections for those subject to menopausal discrimination, careful consideration will be needed to ensure any such reforms do not inadvertently result in an increased stigmatisation of menopausal women and the undermining of efforts to improve gender equality at work. However, what is clear from an analysis of the law is that menopause is not simply a ‘women’s health issue’, it is also a workplace issue which employers can no longer afford to ignore.
{"title":"Menopause at Work: An Analysis of the Current Law and Proposals for Reform","authors":"Katie Myhill, Kate Sang","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwad003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article seeks to review the intersection between menopause and employment law, summarising existing protections and analysing key case law. The study finds that existing protections are limited in their efficacy in protecting individuals experiencing menopausal symptoms from detriment and discrimination in the workplace. Indeed, whilst individuals may be able to raise claims for menopausal discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, the lack of clarity as to which of the protected characteristics such a claim should be raised against and the apparent lack of consistency in the case law further serves to undermine the protections which currently exist. Whilst a number of proposals have been put forward as to how the law may be adapted or created to improve protections for those subject to menopausal discrimination, careful consideration will be needed to ensure any such reforms do not inadvertently result in an increased stigmatisation of menopausal women and the undermining of efforts to improve gender equality at work. However, what is clear from an analysis of the law is that menopause is not simply a ‘women’s health issue’, it is also a workplace issue which employers can no longer afford to ignore.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135185330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Every Little Helps: Permanent Benefits, Contract Interpretation, and ‘Fire and Rehire’","authors":"Alan L. Bogg, D. Brodie","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac032","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88437423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Equality Act 2010 was intended to extend its cover to perceived discrimination, such as dismissing a turbaned Sikh barista under pressure from customers mistaking him for a Muslim. Such mistakes are rooted in stereotyping, fear and prejudice. Disability discrimination is particularly prone to these attitudes, but the Act’s inadequate drafting renders perceived disability discrimination claims exceptionally difficult. This paper suggests some innovative interpretive solutions, but ultimately recommends statutory reform.
{"title":"Perceived Disability Discrimination and the Deficient Equality Act: Interpretive and Legislative Remedies","authors":"M. Connolly","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Equality Act 2010 was intended to extend its cover to perceived discrimination, such as dismissing a turbaned Sikh barista under pressure from customers mistaking him for a Muslim. Such mistakes are rooted in stereotyping, fear and prejudice. Disability discrimination is particularly prone to these attitudes, but the Act’s inadequate drafting renders perceived disability discrimination claims exceptionally difficult. This paper suggests some innovative interpretive solutions, but ultimately recommends statutory reform.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76496857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The courts have done little to ameliorate the harsh ‘austerity’ reforms pursued by the government since 2010, adopting a highly deferential approach towards human rights claims in the social security context. This article identifies the two key moves to achieve this result: adopting the manifestly without reasonable foundation standard of justification and treating indirect discrimination claims on suspect grounds as not ‘real’ discrimination claims. It shows nonetheless the untapped potential of Convention rights, since even within this framework strong arguments were still available to the courts, based on the functioning of the social security system, which should have rendered two of the harshest reforms, the two-child limit and especially the benefit cap, Convention incompatible. The cap, which limits the subsistence benefits of unemployed families, is justified as a work-incentive policy, yet through Universal Credit the state also independently assesses families affected by the cap as doing all that they reasonably can to find work.
{"title":"Social Security Reform and the Untapped Potential of Human Rights Law","authors":"C. Rowe","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac038","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The courts have done little to ameliorate the harsh ‘austerity’ reforms pursued by the government since 2010, adopting a highly deferential approach towards human rights claims in the social security context. This article identifies the two key moves to achieve this result: adopting the manifestly without reasonable foundation standard of justification and treating indirect discrimination claims on suspect grounds as not ‘real’ discrimination claims. It shows nonetheless the untapped potential of Convention rights, since even within this framework strong arguments were still available to the courts, based on the functioning of the social security system, which should have rendered two of the harshest reforms, the two-child limit and especially the benefit cap, Convention incompatible. The cap, which limits the subsistence benefits of unemployed families, is justified as a work-incentive policy, yet through Universal Credit the state also independently assesses families affected by the cap as doing all that they reasonably can to find work.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83498980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trade Union Activities, Industrial Action and the Human Rights Act","authors":"K. Ewing","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78181164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Redress of Law: Globalisation, Constitutionalism and Market Capture","authors":"Luca Siliquini-Cinelli","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac039","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77437474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In recent years, a number of new style trade unions have emerged which are said to exhibit a more ‘radical’ orientation to social change than more ‘traditional’ trade unions. This has raised questions as to the significance of the willingness of these new style trade unions to mobilise the law in pursuit of that change, and in particular, to engage in so-called ‘strategic litigation’. Through a case study of some of the legal mobilisations of one of the more well-known new style trade unions in the UK, the Independent Workers of Great Britain union (IWGB), drawing on insights from the literature on legal mobilisation, and supplementing this with insights from the Marxist theory of the legal form, this paper will highlight the distinctiveness of these new style trade unions and explain the basis of their radical potential, before showing how that potential is limited, or negated, by the particular way in which they engage with law in practice. The paper will conclude with some observation as to what a more radical orientation to the law might look like for social organisations and trade unions in practice.
{"title":"Legal Mobilisations, Trade Unions and Radical Social Change: A Case Study of the IWGB","authors":"Zoe Adams","doi":"10.1093/indlaw/dwac031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwac031","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In recent years, a number of new style trade unions have emerged which are said to exhibit a more ‘radical’ orientation to social change than more ‘traditional’ trade unions. This has raised questions as to the significance of the willingness of these new style trade unions to mobilise the law in pursuit of that change, and in particular, to engage in so-called ‘strategic litigation’. Through a case study of some of the legal mobilisations of one of the more well-known new style trade unions in the UK, the Independent Workers of Great Britain union (IWGB), drawing on insights from the literature on legal mobilisation, and supplementing this with insights from the Marxist theory of the legal form, this paper will highlight the distinctiveness of these new style trade unions and explain the basis of their radical potential, before showing how that potential is limited, or negated, by the particular way in which they engage with law in practice. The paper will conclude with some observation as to what a more radical orientation to the law might look like for social organisations and trade unions in practice.","PeriodicalId":45482,"journal":{"name":"Industrial Law Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81984471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}