The Future of Labour Law

Abstract

Have we reached the 'end' of labour law? The disbandment of the Department of Employment in July 1995' and the announcement by the last Secretary of State for Employment that the 'step by step' reform of labour law which began in 1980 has been completed, will be seen by some in this way, just as Fukuyama proclaims the 'end of history'. In this vision, the framework of decollectivized, deregulated, and deinstitutionalized neo-liberal labour law is here to stay because it matches the basic needs of a globalized capitalist market economy and of liberal democracy. Yet at the very moment of its apparent triumph, individualized market labour law faces political, industrial and judicial challenges. The leader of new Labour assured the TGWU Conference in July 1995 that a Labour government would make a number of important changes in labour legislation, including new rights of trade union representation, restoration of trade union rights at GCHQ, giving part-time workers the same rights as full-timers, and 'signing the EC Social Chapter': The TUC has launched a campaign for 'a new legal framework which combines the best traditions of British collective bargaining with new rights under European law'. The European Court of Justice's ruling has forced the Government to bring forward legislation to provide for the designation of workers' representatives for the purposes of consultation under the directives on collective redundancies and transfers of undertakings. The Government has also had to amend thresholds in UK legislation which the House of Lords found to be