The Impact of the European Union on British Employment Relations - Essay Example

Critically Evaluate the Impact of the European Union on British Employment Relations Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Critical Evaluation of the Impact of European Union on Employment Relations in Britain 3 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction In the present day era, the term ‘employee relations’ has been used in a wider context of an organisation that indicates the relationship between an employee and an employer in a workplace environment. The term ‘employee relations’ is considered as a replacement of industrial relations. The definition of employment has gained wider importance in the prevailing business environment. The subject of employment relationship has been established with the help of an interdisciplinary method through conceptions and ideas that have been determined from sociology, psychology and history. Employee relations can be of an individual dimension which is based upon belief of every employee or can be of collective dimension that is based upon the relationship between the management of an organisation and the trade unions. Employment relationship in Britain has had a significant impact on the European Union. The employment relationship in Britain defines the rules and regulations that have to be followed in the workplace by the employee and the employer (Marinaş & Condruz-Băcescu, 2010). The main objective of the study is to critically evaluate the impact of the European Union on the British employment relations. Critical Evaluation of the Impact of European Union on Employment Relations in Britain It has been observed that there is a long history regarding the Britain’s employment relations that is considerably affected by the European Union (EU). Britain has witnessed a reduction in the trade unions. For instance, in the year 1979, there were 475 trade unions which reduced to 221 in the year 2000 and in the year 2001 the number of trade unions reduced to 206. These figures reveal that there has been a significant reduction of trade unions in the recent years. The EU has led to an influential change in the labour law of Britain in relation to socio-economic, socio-demographic and managerial changes. Emphasis has been given to the quality of work amid the unions and the employers due to which there has been a decline in the quality of labour. There has been a rise in problems relating to the work life balance due to which the EU directives have taken the initiative to improve this balance through egalitarianism, physical well-being, security and social dialogue (Rose, 2004). Employers have revealed that there has been an upsurge in the level of stress for the employees due to the increase in the qualitative requirements of the product and high competition. The EU legislation has not established any specific policy to provide the trade unions a greater power for negotiation (Marinaş & Condruz-Băcescu, 2010). The EU has taken a strong action in order to encourage the participation and involvement of the employees in an organisation. The EU passed the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations of 1999 in the UK, wherein the European Works Council Directive engaged the employers to develop an employee forum in order to facilitate the employees to share information and consult management regarding their interest. However, this directive did not have an adverse impact in the UK as the employers had the tendency of avoiding the establishment of the employee forum. The UK in the year 2005 actually implemented these regulations in various organisations that created the requirement for employees to be informed and referred with regard to various employment matters (SAGE Publications, 2010). The ‘employment relations’ in the UK has been quite complicated. The EU has actively been involved in order to encounter the common trend of employment relations in the UK. The EU legislation states that in order to enhance the employee relations employee forum must be established that provides accountability for the decisions made by employers. However, the British government has been resilient to the EU involvement pertaining to the employee relation; therefore it will be quite problematic for the UK to persist being a member of the EU if employee forums are not established in the organisations. The EU directives have provided a major contribution to increase the rights of the employees in Britain which is based on a belief that the employees and the trade unions have the right to get information about various proceedings occurring in the work place and the right to get advice regarding various issues along with interests of the employees. The EU also introduced certain set of policies that provides the requirement for the non-union organisations to elect a personnel or a representative to deal with the issues relating to the employees physical wellbeing and security in an organisation, consultation for redundancy, consultation regarding the concerns of business transfer and information regarding the changes in the organisation along with changes in the employment contract. Although these rights have been established by the EU legislation, they are hardly being implemented in the organisations of Britain due to certain reasons. The first reason would be that the employees might be unknown to the fact that they have these rights. The second reason would be that the employers do not have the expertise to provide consultation and information to its employees, due to which the employees develop the tendency of believing that consultation and information are of no value to them. It has also been revealed that there is a huge gap between the employees’ statutory rights for information and consultation and its actual application (Coats, 2010). The EU social regulation regarding employee relations in the companies of the UK was implemented in the year 1991 through Maastricht Treaty which actually came into practice on May 1997. However, the varying nature of work cannot be ignored while analysing the transformation of employment relations in Britain. It is further affirmed that technological advancement, work reorganisation and job restructure have aided in reshaping the perception of the employers, trade unions and employees. Moreover, shift in the labour market due to employment growth has provided a major contribution to develop the employee’s relations in various ways. The laws of employee relations stated by legislation of EU had a little impact on the traditional behaviour of organisations as these laws have not been implemented appropriately. In addition, it is considered quite early to claim that Britain would see a complete implementation of employee relations in its organisational system in future. It would be worth mentioning that the employees who are closely linked with the trade unions are expected to have a good employee relation in their respective organisations. However, there is a possibility that organisations in Britain might adopt information and consultation system in future for their employees due to the obligation provided by the EU directives. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that employee forum would be established in British companies as there is a shortage of resources which is very important to establish a successful employee forum. It has been revealed that in order reshape the employment relations an EU agenda of social market model that is legally enforceable in an organisation was initiated in Britain (Taylor, n.d.). Treaty on the European Union (TEU) was introduced in the tear 1993 that changed the name of European Committee (EC) to European Union (EU). The treaty made two vital changes wherein it was asserted that there would be an extension on the employment issues in relation to an organisation. However, the UK objected to this extension due to which there was no change in the social provision that had to be integrated into the Maastricht Treaty. The second change was that the EU provided its full assurance to include the social partners in the mechanism of decision making. Moreover, EU introduced the requirement for mandatory consultation with social partners regarding employment proposals and provided them the option to negotiate with the legal frameworks (Gennard & Judge, 2010). The EU has adversely impacted Britain by passing law through European directives. It introduced Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), in Britain through European directives. The main objective to introduce this legislation was to provide protection to the rights of the employees if a company gets merged or changes its ownership. According to TUPE, if the works of an employee gets shifted to a new employer, the right of the employee under the new employment contract remains the same (Novella, n.d.). Figure1: Employment Relations under Regulating Laws (Novella, n.d.). Initially, the European Union did not provide much of an influence to the states of Britain, but due to the introduction of certain legal entities, there was a huge impact on the states as the EU introduced certain mandatory laws for the employment relations and trade unions. As these laws were passed, the British government was greatly impacted by the EU. Nonetheless, the European law has to be passed through the parliamentary system of Britain due to which the EU is considered as a part of the state. The Labour government was elected in the year 1997 due to which the intervention of the states was given a major emphasis. This intervention was aimed to promote social justice among employees that was combined with an economic agenda. It was observed that there was a huge support given to the European-style social mode wherein the employers had to provide employment rights to the employees. This meant that actions of the employers in Britain were controlled to a huge extent by the EU legislation which restrained the actions of the employers and provided protection to the employees. It would be worth mentioning that employers and the trade unions have the ability to influence the states of Britain. For instance, British Trade Union Confederation (BTUC) is associated with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) that encourages and organises the interest of the European trade union. It can be ascertained that the ETUC and the Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe (UNICE) can combine together to introduce a framework that would include a negotiable contract at the European level. Hence, if these frameworks are adopted by the Council of Ministers in Europe, this contract would be regarded as legislation substitute and finally turn into a part of the code of practice that is applied in Britain (Novella, n.d.). Conclusion From the analysis of the impact of the employee relations in Britain through EU legislation, it can be ascertained that the legislation framed by EU changed the employee relations in Britain with regard to socio-economic, socio-demographic and managerial changes. However, there has been an increase in the issues related to work life balance thus the EU directives took the responsibility of improving this balance. In Britain, ‘Transnational Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations’ was introduced in which the EU directives developed the requirement for employers to provide the employees every facts necessary and advice regarding their interest. The EU legislation is aimed to improve the employee relations by establishing employee forums in an organisation. To a certain extent, the British employers were controlled by the directives of EU and provided adverse protection to the rights of the employees in their employment tenure. Thus, it can be ascertained that EU directives and its legislations resulted in a significant impact on the employee relations in Britain. References Coats, D., 2010. Time to Cut the Gordian knot – The Case for Consensus and Reform of the UK’s Employment Relations System. The Smith Institute, pp. 1-125. Gennard, J. & Judge, G., 2010. The Importance of the European Union. CIPD, pp. 134-176. Marinaş, C. & Condruz-Băcescu, M., 2010. Comparative Analysis of Labour Relations in Different European Countries: Great Britain and Germany. Review of International Comparative Management, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 870-880. Novella, No Date. The Role of The State In Employment Relations. Chapter 6, pp. 167-206. Rose, E., 2004. Employment Relations. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. SAGE Publications, 2010. Employment Relations. HRM in Practice, pp. 275-306. Taylor, R., No Date. The Future of Employment Relations. Future of Work Publication, pp. 1-19. Read More