Linda Dickens

The Business Case for Women′s Equality

Outlines women′s continuing pay and employment disadvantage in Britain. Discusses limitations of the legal compliance approach to equal opportunity. Examines critically the business case for EO (that it serves organizational competitiveness). Argues there is not a business case but a series of business rationales which are contingent. Organizational and managerial receptiveness to them is uneven, and they lead to only selective action. Argues that the business case “carrot” shares a similar weakness to the legal compliance “stick”. Calls for action beyond the individual organization in a multi‐pronged approach requiring state action, in which equality legislation and business case rationales each have a part to play.

The Road is Long: Thirty Years of Equality Legislation in Britain

This article critically reflects upon the development of British employment equality law, tracking a positive yet hesitant, uneven and incomplete trajectory from anti-discrimination towards equality, and from piecemeal and patchwork coverage towards inclusiveness, integration and intersectionality. It argues that the opportunities provided by the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights and the proposed Single Equality Act should be taken to address remaining weaknesses in the legislative equality package and the limitations in enforcement approaches which the article highlights.

Selling the Case for Gender Equality: Deregulation and Equality Bargaining

This article explores the implications of deregulation for gender equality. Comparative, outcomes-based analyses suggest that deregulated systems are characterized by inequality. A critical case study of British Gas is used here to evaluate the prospects for equality bargaining, that is the use of voluntary, joint regulation to further equality, in the wake of radical deregulation. Responsibility for equality in the workplace is found to have been privatized. The State as regulator has stood back and managers have reclaimed equality policy within managerial prerogative. Action on inequality has become conditional upon the existence of a business case, an approach that is insufficient for the task. Some re-regulation is required to help bargainers exploit fully the potential of joint regulation for equality

Gender, Race and Employment Equality in Britain: Inadequate Strategies and the Role of Industrial Relations Actors

❒ Linda Dickens is a Professor at Warwick Business School and a member of the Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick. * My brief for this paper was to deal with both gender and race and I have attempted to do so although this coupling is not unproblematic. There are common issues, but these groups (and indeed sub groups within these broad categories) require separate and distinct consideration which cannot be done within the confines of this article. My own research has dealt mainly with gender questions and I am aware that this may affect the balance of the article. Terminology is also problematic in this area. ‘Ethnic minorities’ is used to refer to those of Afro-Caribbean and Asian descent and other visible minorities. Some writers use the term ‘black’ for this. The Labour Force Survey now defines ‘black’ as Black Caribbean, Black African, Black ‘other’ including Black British. The working age population in Britain includes around 6% from ethnic minority groups, predominantly Asian and Black on the LFS definition. ‡ The focus here is on employment but this is but one aspect of a broader complex picture of discrimination and disadvantage in society. Further, although I am focusing on the ‘key actors’ in industrial relations as commonly defined this is not intended to place women and ethnic minorities in a passive position (nor to cast them as victims). There is much evidence of resilience and resistance, of striving against injustice.

Gender Equality and Trade Unions: A New Basis for Mobilisation?

The promotion of employment equality by trade unions is especially important in the UK. Although legal regulation of the employment relationship has increased, the individualised, private law model characteristic of the UK means legal rights can often remain merely formal entitlements. In the absence of a general labour inspectorate for monitoring and enforcing legal protections, the UK system largely leaves employers and trade unions to translate statute and case law voluntarily through collective bargaining. The recent history of such equality bargaining, and the prospects for it, are the core themes of this chapter.

Individual statutory employment rights since 1997: constrained expansion

This article explores developments in statutory individual employment rights since the election of the Labour Government in 1997. It also discusses the mechanisms for the adjudication and enforcement of individual employment rights. There have been changes in the institutions and dispute settlement processes and procedures, although I argue that an opportunity for a radical re‐think was missed. There are continuities with Conservative thinking, as well as departures from it. Part of my argument is that policy is being based on a problematic representation of “the problem” of increased exercise of individual rights. There is also a neglect of the inter‐relationship between individual employment rights and collective representation at the workplace. The weakening of individual employment rights under previous Conservative Governments was achieved in part by weakening collective organization. Although the Labour Government has addressed the former by strengthening and expanding individual statutory rights, I argue that achievements are constrained by its seeming ambivalence towards the latter.

The British experience under a statute prohibiting unfair dismissal

Statutory protection against unfair dismissal was introduced in Britain in 1971. This article examines the origin, nature, and effectiveness of that statute, which is enforced by publicly funded, tripartite tribunals. The authors show that only a minority of dismissed employees enter claims under the statute; only a minority of claimants win any relief; and only a minority of successful claimants win re-employment, most receiving instead relatively small sums of money. The authors offer explanations for that pattern and describe the reaction of British unions and employees to the statute.

The Coalition government's reforms to employment tribunals and statutory employment rights—echoes of the past

The current Coalition governments reforms of Employment Tribunals (ETs) and statutory rights echo the articulated rationale and argument, the underpinning deregulation ideology and the content of reforms initiated by Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s. The changes, while generally adverse for workers, are not necessarily positive for employers and risk adding to, rather than alleviating, the regulatory ‘burden’. A declared emphasis on alternative dispute resolution and workplace dispute settlement distinguishes the current reform agenda, but the potential this offers is unlikely to be realised given the short-term policy focus on cost reduction, an emphasis on suppressing and deterring legal actions rather than on improving workplaces and the absence of such facilitating features as workplace representation and institutions, a continuing legacy of the 1979–1997 period.

Part‐time Employees: Workers Whose Time has Come?

Part‐time workers (a quarter of all employees in Britain) are one section of the “atypical” workforce singled out for attention by the EC Commission. Examines directives on atypical workers issued as part of the Social Charter′s Social Action Programme. Assesses the likelihood of directives′ provisions being adopted. Discusses the decisions of the European Court of Justice, which may have a profound impact on part‐time work, whether or not the directives are adopted, and outlines developments in employer and union policy on part‐time workers.

Introduction: equal opportunities and collective bargaining in Europe — a major research project:

The importance of equal opportunities and the importance of collective bargaining and social dialogue have previously been widely (but separately) recognised. The novelty of the European Foundation project on &dquo;Equal Opportunities and Collective Bargaining&dquo; was in seeking to combine these two areas of concern. In dealing with equal opportunities and collective bargaining in combination, the project sought to make a link which, as Yota Kravaritou noted in her overview of the first national reports, appeared novel in a number of national contexts, both practically and in academic discourse. This novelty posed particular challenges for the researchers but also underlined the importance of the research. As Kravaritou puts it: