Labour and employment law

Labour law (American English: labor) or employment law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which addresses the legal rights of, and restrictions on, workers and their organisations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. In some countries (such as Canada), employment laws related to unionised workplaces are differentiated from those relating to particular individuals. In most countries however, no such distinction is made. The labour movement, heavily influenced by socialism, has been instrumental in the enacting of laws protecting labour rights in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The function and origins of labour law

Labour law arose due to the demands of workers for better conditions and the right to organise, and the simultaneous demands of employers to restrict the powers of workers' organisations and keep labour costs low. Employers costs can increase due to workers organising to win better wages, or by laws emposing costly requirements, such as health and safety or equal opportunities conditions. Workers' organisations, such as trade unions, can also transcend purely industrial disputes, and gain political power - certain interests in society may be opposed to this. The state of labour law at any one time is therefore both the product of, and a component of the conditions for, struggles between different interests in society.

For example, workers' and trade union legal rights in the United States are relatively restricted, compared to most European countries. However, the compartmentalization between different laws systems mean that illegal aliens, for example, may work in the same sectors as full citizens (although they most often work in difficult and tiring jobs which natives don't want). As a counter-example, if labor laws are more protective in France, due to social, historic and cultural differences, illegal aliens may not be legally contracted. Thus, they have a more difficult time finding jobs and often work in the underground economy. However, if they do manage to get residency or, better yet, be naturalized, than they will get better labor conditions than US immigrants.

Important issues in labour law

There are two broad categories of labour law. That relating to employees' rights at work, and that governing the activity of trade unions and other workers' organizations. Matters relating to employees rights and obligations in relations to trade unions are best dealt with in the second category.

Trade unions and workers' Organizations

Trade unions (or 'labour unions') are the form of workers' organisation most commonly defined and legislated on in labour law. However, they are not the only variety. In the USA, for example, 'workers' centres' are associations not bound by all of the law relating to trade unions.

Strikes

Strike action is the weapon of the workers most associated with industrial disputes, and certainly among the most powerful. In most countries, strikes are legal under a circumscribed set of conditions. Among them may be that:

The strike is decided on by a prescribed democratic process. (Wildcat strikes are illegal).
Sympathy strikes, against a company by which workers are not directly employed, may be prohibited.
General strikes may be forbidden by a public order.
Certain categories of person may be forbidden to strike (airport personnel, health personnel, police or firemen, etc.)
Strikes may be pursued by people continuing to work, as in Japanese strike actions which increase productivity to disrupt schedules, or in hospitals.

Pickets

Picketing is a tactic which is often used by workers during strikes. They may congregate outside the business which they are striking against, in order to make their presence felt, increase worker participation and dissuade (or prevent) strike breakers from entering the place of work. In many countries, this activity will be restricted both by labour law, by more general law restricting demonstrations, or sometimes by injunctions on particular pickets. For example, labour law may restrict secondary picketing (picketing a business not directly connected with the dispute, such as a supplier of materials), or flying pickets (mobile strikers who travel in order to join a picket). There may be laws against obstructing others from going about their lawful business (scabbing, for example, is lawful); making obstructive pickets illegal. And in some countries, such as Britain, there may be court orders made from time to time against pickets being in particular places or behaving in particular ways (shouting abuse, for example).

Boycotts

A boycott is a refusal to buy, sell, or otherwise trade with an individual or business who is generally believed by the participants in the boycott to be doing something morally wrong.

Unofficial industrial action

Throughout history, workers have used tactics such as the go-slow, sabotage or just not turning up en-masse in order to gain more control over the workplace environment, or simply have to work less [http://www.af-north.org/lordstown.html 1. Some labour law explicitly bans such activity, none explicitly allows it.

Trade unions and their members

The law of some countries place requirements on unions to follow particular procedures before certain courses of action are adopted. For example, the requirement to ballot the membership before a strike, or in order to take a portion of members' dues for political projects. Laws may guarantee the right to join a union (banning employer discrimination), or remain silent in this respect. Some legal codes may allow unions to place a set of obligations on their members, including the requirement to follow a majority decision in a strike vote. Some restrict this, such as the 'right to work' legislation in some of the United States.

Rights at work

Child labour

Equal opportunities in recruitment, pay and treatment

This clause means that discrimination is morally unacceptable, in particular racial discrimination or sexist discrimination.

Minimum wages

There may be law stating the minimum amount that a worker can be paid per hour. Both France, Britain and the USA have a law of this kind, though the figure provided for in the USA is so low as to sometimes be insufficient for the means of a worker's subsistence. This explains the working poor phenomenon. In response to this, Living wage ordinances have been passed by many city authorities in the United States, which define a minimum wage for employees of those authorities, and sometimes for the employees of companies with which the authority contracts. These, therefore, constitute law, albeit not law whch restricts businesses in general.

The minimum wage is usually different from the lowest wage determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market, and therefore acts as a price floor. Each country sets its own minimum wage laws and regulations, and while a majority of industrialized countries has a minimum wage, many developing countries have not.

Minimum wage laws were first introduced nationally in the United States in 1938, France in 1950, and in the United Kingdom in 1999. In the European Union, 18 out of 25 member states currently have national minimum wagesEurostat (2005): Minimum Wages 2005: Major Differences between EU Member States (PDF).

Rights to consultation, fair treatment, and against unfair dismissal

Convention n°158 of the International Labour Organization states that an employee "can't be fired without any legitimate motive" and "before offering him the possibility to defend himself". Thus, on April 28, 2006, after the unofficial repeal of the French First Employment Contract (CPE), the Longjumeau (Essonne) conseil des prud'hommes (labor law court) judged the New Employment Contract (CNE) contrary to international law, and therefore "unlegitimate" and "without any juridical value". The court considered that the two-years period of "fire at will" (without any legal motive) was "unreasonnable", and contrary to convention n°158, ratified by France. .

Hours of labour and holidays

Before the Industrial Revolution, the workday varied between 11 and 14 hours. With the growth of capitalism and the introduction of machinery, longer hours became far more common, with 14-15 hours being the norm, and 16 not at all uncommon. Use of child labour was commonplace, often in factories. In England and Scotland in 1788, about two-thirds of person working in the new water-powered textile factories were children ^* .

The eight-hour movement's struggle finally led to the first law on the length of a working day, passed in 1833 in England, limiting miners to 12 hours, and children to 8 hours. The 10-hour day was established in 1848, and shorter hours with the same pay were gradually accepted thereafter. The 1802 Factory Act was the first labour law in the UK.

After England, Germany was the first European country to pass labor laws; Chancellor Bismarck's main goal being to undermine the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1878, Bismarck instituted a variety of anti-socialist measures, but despite this, socialists continued gaining seat in the Reichstag. The Chancellor, then, adopted a different approach to tackling socialism. In order to appease the working class, he enacted a variety of paternalistic social reforms, which became the first type of social security. The year 1883 saw the passage of the Health Insurance Act, which entitled workers to health insurance; the worker paid two-thirds, and the employer one-third, of the premiums. Accident insurance was provided in 1884, whilst old age pensions and disability insurance were established in 1889. Other laws restricted the employment of women and children. These efforts, however, were not entirely successful; the working class largely remained unreconciled with Bismarck's conservative government.

In France, the first labor law was voted in 1841. However, it limited only under-age miners' hours, and it was not until the Third Republic that labor law was effectively enforced, in particular after Waldeck-Rousseau 1884 law legalizing trade unions. With the Matignon Accords, the Popular Front (1936-38) enacted the laws mandating 12 days (2 weeks) each year of paid vacations for workers and the law limiting to 40 hours the workweek (outside of overtime).

Health and safety

Other labor laws involve safety concerning workers. The earliest English factory law was drafted in 1802 and dealt with the safety and health of child textile workers.

By location

International labour law and the International Labour Organisation

See the article International Labour Law or the whole Globalization and Workers' Rights section at the Actrav Distance Learning Project of the International Labour Organization.

Australian labour law

British labour law

British Labour Law is more commonly know as UK Employment Law. The vast majority of Employment Law pre 1960 was based upon the Law of Contract. Since then there has been a significant expansion primarily due to the Equality movement and the European Union.

The first significant modern day Employment Law Act (or Parliament) was the Equal Pay Act of 1970. This came into effect in 1972. This was followed by the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975 and the Race Relations Act of 1977.

The Factory Acts (first one in 1802, then 1833) and the 1832 Master and Servant Act were the first laws regulating labour relations in the United Kingdom.

Canadian labour law

In Canadian law, 'labour law' refers to matters connected with unionised workplaces, while 'employment law' deals with non-unionised employees.

European labour law

The European Working Time Directive limited the maximum length of a working week to 48 hours in 7 days, and a minimum rest period of 11 hours in each 24 hours. Like all EU Directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. Although the directive applies to all member states, in the UK it is possible to "opt out" of the 48 hour working week in order to work longer hours. In contrast, France has passed more strict legislation, limiting the maximum working week to 35 hours (but optional hours are still possible). The controversial Directive on services in the internal market (aka "Bolkestein Directive") was then passed in 2006.

French labour law

In France, the first labor laws were the Waldeck Rousseau's 1884 laws. Then, the Popular Front (1936-38) enacted the law mandating 12 days (2 weeks) each year of paid vacations for workers and the law limiting to 40 hours the workweek (outside of overtime) — see Matignon Accords (1936). The Grenelle accords (Accords de Grenelle) negotiated on May 25 and 26 in the middle of the May 1968 crisis, reduced to 44 hours the workweek, created trade union sections in each enterprise (section syndicale d'entreprise, December 27, 1968 law), and increased by 25% the minimum wages (Salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti). Lionel Jospin's government then enacted the 35-hour workweek (instead of 39 hours) in 2000. Five years later, conservative prime minister Dominique de Villepin enacted the New Employment Contract (CNE) law. Addressing the demands of employers asking for more flexibility in the French labour law, the CNE sparked criticism from trade unions and opponents claiming it was favorizing contingent work (or precarity). In 2006, he then had the First Employment Contract (CPE) voted (in emergency procedures), but that was met by students and unions' protests. President Jacques Chirac finally had no choice apart of repealing it, which he unofficially did while simultaneously proclaming it (he proclaimed it and then declared that it would'nt be applied - sic).

Mexican labour law

United States labour law

In the United States, employers generally accepted the 8-hour day as of 1912. The Wages and Hours Act of 1938 set the maximum standard work week to 44 hours, and in 1950 this was reduced to 40 hours. The green card entitle legal immigrants to work permits, although illegal alien may often work in the States because of compartmentalization of various bureaucratic entities.

References

External links

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