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导读：这是一篇英国Coursework范文，论文讨论了英国的劳动关系。在过去几十年里，英国的劳动关系经历了从自主、对抗到合作的曲折历程。自愿主义是英国的劳动关系体系的一大特色，即国家不干预私营企业的集体谈判，政府留给劳资双方达成协议的自由。政府对雇员罢工或者雇主闭厂的权利会实行一些限制，但是限制非常少。集体谈判的劳资双方几乎都不把谈判视为具有强制性的法律合同，而仅将其视为名义上的约束。 Coursework题目：Labour relations in the UK In the past decades, the UK labor relations have experienced a zigzag course from autonomy, confrontation to cooperation. In the 1950s, most labor disputes in Britain were settled through voluntary consultation. At that time, the economy was mainly labor-intensive with sufficient employment and the scale and scope of labor disputes were relatively small. In the 1970s, when the labor party was in power, the strength of the labor union was growing. With the deterioration of the economy and employment situation, the labor and labor parties began to face each other gradually, and strikes and collective bargaining kept happening. Under the thatcher conservatives in the 1980s, union power was greatly weakened, and strikes and mass collective bargaining were greatly reduced. After the labor party came into power in the 1990s, it emphasized the win-win of labor relations, and the labor and capital began to develop toward the direction of cooperation. 在过去的几十年里，英国的劳资关系经历了从自治、对抗到合作的曲折过程。在20世纪50年代，英国的大多数劳资纠纷都是通过自愿协商解决的。当时，经济主要是劳动密集型，就业充足，劳动争议的规模和范围相对较小。在20世纪70年代，当工党执政时，工会的力量在增长。随着经济和就业形势的恶化，劳资双方开始逐步面对面，罢工和集体谈判不断发生。在20世纪80年代的保守派统治下，工会权力大大减弱，罢工和群众集体谈判大大减少。劳动党在20世纪90年代上台后，强调劳动关系的双赢，劳动和资本开始朝着合作的方向发展。 Compared with the changes of labor relations, the adjustment of labor relations in Britain has maintained the traditional characteristics of voluntarism. "Voluntarism is a feature of the UK Labour relations system, where the state does not interfere in collective bargaining by private companies and the government leaves both parties free to reach an agreement. The government imposes some restrictions on the right of employees to strike or employers to close factories, but very few. The collective bargaining parties hardly regard the negotiation as having a mandatory legal contract, but only as a nominal constraint ". Influenced by the tradition of voluntarism, British labor relations are obviously lack of normative legal system support, and it is very sensitive to external changes. Because of the close relationship between trade unions and politics, the different attitudes of the ruling party towards trade unions directly affect the change of labor relations. The innovation of electronic information technology has triggered a new wave of global new economy, with the change of traditional labor employment and the prevalence of outsourcing business and non-fixed work place, which has brought new difficulties and problems to the traditional workplace-based labor relations management. Britain's Labour market has also changed dramatically, with women entering the Labour force in large Numbers and men increasingly joining the ranks of part-time workers as a result of the decline of traditional manufacturing and the development of emerging industries. Women and part-time workers are mostly non-union members, which undoubtedly weakens the role of collective bargaining in UK Labour relations. As a member of the European Union, the UK's labor relations, from individual rights to collective rights of employees, are affected by eu policies to varying degrees, and the government's role in labor relations adjustment tends to be strengthened. Over the past decade, the UK has enacted and revised many new laws on employment, and the eu's advocacy of collective bargaining has put a lot of pressure on shrinking collective bargaining in the UK. The origins of British trade unions date back to the late 17th century, when, with the development of industry, medieval guilds began to decline, and workers began to organize themselves and employers to set reasonable wages for the industry. The original labor organization, known as chapel, began as a club-like social organization and grew into a trade union organization against employers. During the war between Britain and France, trade unions joined forces with political activism to form a powerful force. In 1800, the government introduced the association law to restrict the development of illegal workers' organizations. Until the act of association was abolished in 1824, association To become a legal right of workers. By the middle and late 19th century British trade unions began to develop on a large scale. In 1868, Britain's first national union of trade unions, the union federation, was proclaimed. After the second world war, British trade unions showed three stages of development. After world war ii, the British government was committed to the construction of the welfare state, and the Keynesian demand management idea was accepted by the government, and maintaining the highest level of employment became one of the economic policies of the government. Parliament has passed a number of bills to give workers employment, wage negotiations and other rights to various systems and legalization. In 1965 the Labour government passed the trade union disputes act, which gave trade union leaders sufficient legal cover to enable them to take action when employment contracts were threatened with tear up. The labor government carried out massive nationalization measures, and the implementation of the all-member membership system greatly promoted the growth of the number of union members and strengthened the power of the union. In 1951, British union membership reached 9.289 million; By 1978, membership had reached nearly 12 million. At this stage, under the influence of a series of favorable policies, the power and influence of the trade union increased greatly, and the trade union carried out a wide range of strikes to increase wages and various work benefits. In contrast to the rising power of workers, the decline in Labour productivity in the UK, now known as the "sick man of Europe". By the mid-1960s, labor unions had become the dominant force in British political life, and labor relations became the focus of national attention. The union reshuffled the country's political forces and became an important pole in the "three partnerships". No matter which party is in power, it should negotiate with the trade union on the relevant policies. In a sense, the smooth implementation of the policies of various governments and even the success of the ruling party in the general election depend on the support and cooperation of the trade unions. The Labour relations act, enacted by the conservative government in 1971 to regulate collective bargaining, union representation and strike action in the American way, was fiercely opposed by unions, and the conservatives lost the general election because of their crackdown on the miners' strike in 1974. The union's strength was sustained by the subsequent abolition of the bill by the ruling Labour party. A series of strikes in Britain's public sector, called the "winter of discontent", intensified popular suspicion of union rights, and attacks on union privileges became one of the keys to the conservatives' victory in 1979. After the conservative Mrs. Thatcher came to power in 1979, she pushed hard for non-nationalization, making privatization the core of her economic policy. The thatcher government believed that the strength of trade unions was an obstacle to the improvement of economic efficiency of enterprises. Therefore, it abandoned the previous policy of negotiation, negotiation and compromise adopted by the government on trade unions, and the government and trade unions were no longer equal "partnership". The government adopted a tough policy to weaken the power of trade unions, and abolished the all-member membership system. The employment law and the trade union law were passed successively to abolish the universal legal immunity enjoyed by trade unions, suppress workers' strike, limit the ability of labor union leaders to act, and narrow the scope of the legality of labor conflict. The collapse of the miners' strike in the mid-1980s left the unions discredited, and they barely made it into government after the public sector was privatised. By the late 1980s British trade unions were no longer as influential in national political life as they once were. At this stage, the development of British trade unions is at a low and difficult stage. Union membership declined sharply, from nearly 12 million in 1979 to 7,117,000 in 1997. Recognition of unions plummeted, falling to 64 percent in 1980 and 42 percent in 1998, according to a series of surveys on workplace employee relations. Private-sector recognition of unions has fallen particularly sharply, from half in 1980 to just 25% in 1998. At the same time that union recognition has fallen, some employers have begun to withdraw their recognition, in an attempt to push the union out of the management of Labour relations. Management one revokes recognition of a trade union on the grounds that its membership has declined or that its activities have ceased to exist; The second is to adopt a gradual strategy to make the weak trade unions gradually decline in the organization, and at the same time adjust the strong trade unions, especially the important strategic position in the organization production process, so as to finally abolish the trade unions. The approach includes restructuring layoffs, introducing incentives to encourage employees to sign individual contracts, and reducing employees' need for collective bargaining.#p#分页标题#e# To stem the decline of unions, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, unions launched a series of campaigns aimed at boosting membership and targeting groups where unions did not represent their interests well. Recruiting new members is an important part of the union's response to the decline in membership, and while total union membership fell by nearly 40 percent between 1979 and 1997, some unions still recruit large Numbers of new members. Britain's then largest union, the transport and general workers' union, recruited 245,000 members in 1988 alone. Metcalf argues that there is still room for unions to grow in some sectors where union density is low or is prone to change. In addition to recruiting members in their traditional areas, unions try to recruit members in new areas by offering new services to increase their appeal, resist attempts to withdraw recognition, enter into a single trade union agreement, or initiate union consolidation. But overall, membership in the union continued to decline throughout the '80s and' 90s. Trade union positioning has also changed due to changes in internal and external environments. At its 1992 annual meeting, the trade union federation proposed the goal of "social partnership," in which unions strive to achieve high wages while also working for economic growth, productivity improvements, and actively support the improvement of workers' skills. The deepening development of economic globalization and scientific and technological revolution has remade the balance of rights between capital and labor. In the context of significant changes in the balance of power between employers and employees, the new Labour government, the Blair government, emphasized in the 1998 labor relations reform plan that the goal of labor relations adjustment was to achieve the partnership between employers and employees. The employment relations act, drafted in January 1999, proposed the establishment of a legislative process to make trade unions recognized by employers and realize collective bargaining between them. Labour did not abolish Labour laws and policies that had restrained trade unions during the conservative years. The Blair government adjusted labor relations by increasing the legal rights of individual workers rather than strengthening the collective rights of labor unions. The only difference is that the Blair government offers more legislative protection to those who take part in legal industrial action. Although Mr Blair's government has largely inherited attitudes towards thatcherism, the state of the union is still somewhat better than it was under the tories. The Labour party achieved its commitment to a national minimum wage, a legal voice for trade unions and Britain's membership of the European Union's social charter. The employment relations act of 1999 introduced legal provisions for the recognition of trade unions, which took effect on 6 June 2000. The traditional path of recognition is for the union to seek the approval of the employer. The employer's recognition of the union is voluntary, and it can be accepted or rejected. The employment relations act allows employers to recognize unions through legal procedures, and unions can apply to the government for registration. Unions have a recognized initiative that helps them gain leverage with employers and achieve a balance of power between employers and employers. With the implementation of the statutory recognition of trade union regulations in June 2000, the rate of the recognition of trade union by employment organizations has increased significantly. From January 1997 to February 1998, the average number of trade union recognition agreements reached per month was 5.8. After the implementation of the statutory trade union recognition regulations, the average number of trade union recognition agreements reached per month from November 2000 to October 2001 was 39.2. Of those cases, 94 percent were consensual, according to the trade union federation. The agreement includes recognition for collective bargaining on issues such as wages, hours of work, holidays, employee representation and absenteeism from union affairs. The introduction of this regulation has led to an increase in the number of recognition agreements reached voluntarily by both parties. Of course, voluntary agreements were reached not only because of the attraction of legal recognition, but also partly because of the union's efforts to develop new members and secure recognition. British unions at this stage are actively exploring the road to revival. Unions continue to organise large Numbers of recruits in industries, employment sectors or professions where membership is likely to increase, and some are even able to reverse the overall trend of declining membership between 1979 and 1997. The royal college of nursing, for example, had 160,000 members in 1979 and 334,000 in 2001. On the basis of the previous social partnership, the trade union proposed a more operational cooperation agreement. The cooperation agreement is regarded as an effective way to promote the development and increase the number of union members. This cooperation is based on the willingness of both the management and the union to commit themselves to the successful development of the employment organization. The federation of trade unions believes that the union's membership and recognition status can be effectively improved by working with employers. The trade union federation has set up a collaborative agreement institute to help promote workplace partnerships. To help employers and unions understand the theoretical basis for this approach, the trade union federation has also identified six core principles of the cooperation agreement: a common commitment to the success of the enterprise; Clarify their respective legitimate interests; A commitment to the safety of employment; Focus on quality of work life; Transparency and information sharing; Common gains and added value. The cooperative agreement, with its particular emphasis on Shared benefits, differs from the more traditional forms of union recognition and collective representation, as well as from the single union agreements that began in the 1980s. Of course, it will take time for such cooperation agreements to be realized and successful. |
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