Employee Relations: regulation - Essay Example

an award of compensation), or administrative (e.g. withdrawal of a license or subsidy by the state). (Heery and Noon, 2001). Employment law may be set out in statutes or in a comprehensive labour code or take the form of common law, that is, rules of law that are not based on legislation but on custom and usage and on judicial decisions. (Noon and Heery, 2001; Stone, 2001). The common law of contract is a particularly important feature of employment law in the UK. (Heery and Noon, 2001). Employment law can be subdivided into individual employment law and collective employment law.

Individual employment law is the law governing the relationship between individual employees and their employers. (Heery and Noon, 2001). In the UK, it is composed of two main elements: the common law of contract and statutory employment rights. (Heery and Noon, 2001). Collective employment lawon the other hand is that branch of employment law that regulates the activities and behaviour of trade unions, works councils, and employers' associations and the pattern of interaction between the two sides of industry.

(Heery and Noon, 2001). The employee relationship refers tothe relationship between the parties to a contract of employment. . (Law, 2005). The paper is aimed at critically examining the assertion that employment law has been more successful in resolving individual conflicts than collective disputes. This will be done by examining theories different aspects of employment law, the theories underlying the employee relationship, the sources of conflicts within the workplace, review of some cases of employee disputes and how they are resolved.

The study will now take a closer look at the different regulations that govern the employee relationship. These include unilateral regulation and collective bargaining.Unilateral RegulationUnilateral Regulation refers to the one-sided creation and enforcement of employment rules by either employer or trade unions. (Heery and Noon, 2001). Unilateral regulation by trade unions has become uncommon in modern society today although it had once been an important feature of craft labour markets, where unions controlled labour supply and set wages and working practices.

(Heery and Noon, 2001). Unilateral regulation of work and employment on the other hand by employers on the other hand has increased in importance sine the 1970s as following a decrease in the number of trade unions. (Heery and Noon, 2001). In the United Kingdom, pay and working conditions of employees are set unilaterally by their employers. (Heery and Noon, 2001). Collective Bargaining Collective bargaining is the process through which trade unions and employers negotiate collective agreements that set the rates of pay and terms and conditions of employment of workers.

Collective bargaining is a process of joint regulation. (Heery and Noon, 2001). In the UK, though not in other countries, the