Adjudicating Employment Rights: A Cross-National Approach

276 Pages·2014·1.06 MB·English

by  Susan Corby, Pete Burgess (auth.)

Adjudicating Employment Rights
AlsobySusanCorby
RETHINKINGREWARD(withStevePalmerandEsmondLindop)
WORKINGFORTHESTATE(withGrahamSymon)
EMPLOYEERELATIONSINTHEPUBLICSECTOR(withGeoffWhite)
Adjudicating Employment
Rights
A Cross-National Approach
Susan Corby and Pete Burgess
UniversityofGreenwich,UK
Chapters1–6,8–13©SusanCorbyandPeteBurgess2014
Chapter7©DanielaComandè2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-26919-5
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Contents
ListofFiguresandTables vi
Acknowledgements vii
AbouttheAuthors viii
1 Introduction:IssuesandOverview 1
2 EmploymentAdjudication:ComparisonsandAnomalies 20
3 France 44
4 Germany 61
5 GreatBritain 80
6 Ireland 96
7 Italy 114
DanielaComandè
8 TheNetherlands 129
9 NewZealand 143
10 SouthAfrica 160
11 Sweden 175
12 UnitedStatesofAmerica 188
13 Evaluation:ApplyingYardsticks 206
Notes 227
References 238
Index 252
v
Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Employmentrightsadjudicationatfirstinstance 10
1.2 Thecompositionoffirst-instancelabourcourts 12
1.3 Appellatesystems 14
4.1 StructureofGermanlabourcourts 67
5.1 GreatBritain’scourtstructure 81
6.1 Ireland’scurrentadjudicationandcompliancestructure 99
6.2 Ireland’sproposedadjudicationandcompliancestructure 106
9.1 AdjudicationinNewZealand 147
10.1 AdjudicationinSouthAfrica 168
12.1 FederalcourtstructureintheUnitedStates 196
Tables
1.1 Tradeuniondensity 2
1.2 Processforresolvingnon-discriminatoryunfair
dismissaldisputes 16
2.1 Employmentrightsadjudicationandexplanatorymodels 26
2.2 Labourcourtsandlegalorigins 32
2.3 Labourcourtsandnationalbusinesssystems/varieties
ofcapitalism 33
2.4 Labourcourtsandindustrialrelationssystems 34
2.5 NLMsandlegalorigins 34
2.6 NLMsandnationalbusinesssystems 35
2.7 NLMsandtheindustrialrelationssystem 37
3.1 Votescastforworkerlayjudgesbyeachtradeunion 52
5.1 GBtribunals’legitimacy 89
13.1 Feesforemploymentadjudicationatfirstinstance 209
13.2 Timelimitsforfilingaclaimatfirstinstance 212
13.3 Employmentlitigationratesbasedonclaimssubmitted 214
13.4 Litigationratebasedonadjudicatoryjudgments 215
13.5 Voluntarysettlementsobtainedthrough
conciliation/mediation 216
13.6 Averagelengthofproceedingsforemploymentdismissal
casesatfirst-instancecourts 218
13.7 Appellateregimesforemploymentrightscases 219
13.8 Legalformality 223
vi
Acknowledgements
TheauthorswouldliketogiveabigthankyoutotheBusinessSchool,Uni-
versity of Greenwich, London, for providing funding for this study and to
Dr Daniela Comandè, University of Milan for contributing the chapter on
Italy.
We are grateful to our numerous interviewees in several countries who
were generous in their time and often candid in their assessments of their
nationalsystems.
The authors would also like to thank Andrew Levy, Andre van Niekerk,
Mary Stacey, Susan Mackenzie, Alistair Dumbleton, Kevin Duffy, Michael
Koch, Nadine Zeibig, Frédéric Turlan and Josee Lamers who commented
on draft chapters, although interpretation and errors remain the authors’
responsibility.
vii
About the Authors
Susan Corby is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of
Greenwich, UK. Formerly a trade union official, she has been a lay mem-
ber of the first-instance and second-instance labour courts in Great Britain
and is currently an arbitrator for a government agency (the Advisory
Conciliation&ArbitrationService).
Pete Burgess is a Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich, UK. He
hasabackgroundinboththeacademicandprivatesectors,ininternational
employment research and consultancy, and in particular comparative law,
industrialrelationsandinternationalhumanresourcemanagement.
DanielaComandèholdsaPhDinEuropeanlabourlawfromtheUniversity
of Catania, Italy, and currently works as an assistant professor at the Uni-
versity of Milan. Before then she was a post-doctoral research fellow at the
EuropeanUniversityInstitute,SanDomenico,Italy.
viii
1
Introduction: Issues and Overview
Ourremit
In all developed countries, workers are protected by statutory and/or
contractual employment rights, and there are institutions for adjudicating
between workers and employers should disputes arise. This book focuses
solely on the organisation and operation of these institutions. We do not
examineworkers’employmentrightsassuchorhowthoserightsarepubli-
cised,althoughsuchprovisionscontributetotheabilityofthelawtoresolve
disputes. Nor do we look at workplace institutions that provide scope for
such disputes to be resolved before they enter the judicial domain, except
wherethereisadirectandprescribedlinkbetweentheworkplaceandexter-
nal adjudication. We leave that to other books. We define ‘adjudicating’
broadly to include decisions by a court, by an arbitral body, by an admin-
istrative body or by an enforcement body and we restrict our attention to
individual disputes of rights, not of interests, although in some countries
thereisanoverlapintermsoftheinstitutionsused.
We begin by explaining our rationale, including our rationale for mak-
ing comparisons. We then discuss our methodology before providing an
overview of the many institutions covered in this book. The chapter ends
byoutliningthebook’sstructure.
Ourrationale
Why are adjudicatory institutions important today in the employment
sphere? Traditionally, one of the key roles of trade unions has been to pro-
tectindividualworkersandresolveworkplacedisputes.Duringthelasthalf
century, however, there has been a decline in trade union density across
all developed economies, although within this trend there are substantial
national variations with Sweden experiencing only a slight decline com-
paredwithafallofmorethanahalfintheUnitedStatesandNewZealand
(seeTable1.1onp.2).Thishasbeenparalleled,althoughnotdirectly,bya
1