Trade union recognition law as an aid to freedom of association?

This study examines the distinct approaches taken by legal jurisdictions in the United Kingdom and Australia to the question of how their citizens might exercise freedom of association rights in employment, forming representative bodies – principally in the form of trade unions – that can muster collective strength and bargain with employers to secure the economic and social well-being of their members. The German-born British scholar Otto Kahn-Freund transmitted his observations of employer-employee relations that he made during the mid-20th century into a theory that acknowledged an almost complete retreat by the law from - and embraced a role for the state as a mere facilitator within – the UK’s industrial relations. His notion of a ‘collective laissez-faire’ kind of approach to the settlement of the terms of employment still resonates with labour lawyers and provides a framework within which effective analysis of contemporary industrial relations issues can continue to take place. Governments both in the UK and Australia have, over recent decades, attempted to exert more influence over the manner in which these relationships are conducted through tighter regulation of trade union activity and by shifting the emphasis of labour law away from the collective kinds of approaches that have traditionally been used to resolve workplace conflict to one that has promoted and significantly enhanced the individual’s "personal" employment rights and entitlements at work with consequent effects on their respective legal provision for recognition of trade unions.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mphil

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Nottingham Trent University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Crosby, RD

Language dc:language

en