This edited collection is the culmination of a comparative project on 'Voices at Work' funded by the Leverhulme Trust 2010 - 2013. The book aims to shed light on the problematic concept of worker 'voice' by tracking its evolution and its complex interactions with various forms of law. Contributors to the volume identify the scope for continuity of legal approaches to voice and the potential for change in a sample of industrialised English speaking common law countries, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA. These countries, facing broadly similar regulatory dilemmas, have often sought to borrow and adapt certain legal mechanisms from one another. The variance in the outcomes of any attempts at 'borrowing' seems to demonstrate that, despite apparent membership of a 'common law' family, there are significant differences between industrial systems and constitutional traditions, thereby casting doubt on the notion that there are definitive legal solutions which can be applied through transplantation. Instead, it seems worth studying the diverse possibilities for worker voice offered in divergent contexts, not only through traditional forms of labour law, but also such disciplines as competition law, human rights law, international law and public law. In this way, the comparative study highlights a rich multiplicity of institutions and locations of worker voice, configured in a variety of ways across the English-speaking common law world.
This book comprises contributions from many leading scholars of labour law, politics and industrial relations drawn from across the jurisdictions, and is therefore an exceedingly comprehensive comparative study. It is addressed to academics, policymakers, legal practitioners, legislative drafters, trade unions and interest groups alike. Additionally, while offering a critique of existing laws, this book proposes alternative legal tools to promote engagement with a multitude of 'voices' at work and therefore foster the effective deployment of law in industrial relations.
INTRODUCTION: THEORIZING VOICE 1: Alan Bogg and Tonia Novitz: The Purposes and Techniques of Voice: Prospects for Continuity and Change IDENTITIES OF VOICE 2: L. J. B. Hayes: 'Women's Voice' and Equal Pay: Judicial Regard for the Gendering of Collective Bargaining 3: Rae Cooper: Low-paid Care Work, Bargaining, and Employee Voice in Australia 4: Janice Fine: Migrant Workers and Labour Movements in the US and UK 5: Paul Roth: Indigenous Voices at Work 6: A. C. L. Davies: 'Half a Person': A Legal Perspective on Organizing and Representing 'Non-Standard' Workers INSTITUTIONS OF VOICE 7: Alan Bogg and Cynthia Estlund: Freedom of Association and the Right to Contest: Getting Back to Basics 8: Anthony Forsyth and Sara Slinn: Promoting Worker Voice through Good Faith Bargaining Laws: The Canadian and Australian Experience 9: Gordon Anderson and Pam Nuttall: The Good-Faith Obligation: An Effective Model for Promoting Voice? 10: Virginia Mantouvalou: Democratic Theory and Voices at Work 11: Breen Creighton: Individualization and the Protection of Worker Voice in Australia 12: Tess Hardy: The Evolution of Employee Voice and Enforcement in Australia LOCATIONS OF VOICE 13: K. D. Ewing: The Importance of Trade Union Political Voice: Labour Law Meets Constitutional Law 14: John Logan: The Movement to Eliminate Labor's Political Voice: Proposition 32 and 'Paycheck Protection' in the United States 15: Stephen Bach and Gregor Gall: Public Service Voice under Strain in an Era of Restructuring and Austerity 16: Douglas Brodie: Voice and the Employment Contract 17: Mark Freedland and Nicola Kountouris: Common Law and Voice 18: Lance Compa: National and International Labour Rights BEING HEARD-OBSTRUCTING AND FACILITATING VOICE 19: John Howe: Regulatory Facilitation of Voice 20: Andrew Johnston and Wanjiru Njoya: Employee Voice in Corporate Control Transactions 21: Shae McCrystal and Phil Syrpis: Competition Law and Worker Voice: Competition Law Impediments to Collective Bargaining in Australia and the European Union 22: Tonia Novitz: Information and Communication Technology and Voice: Constraint or Capability? 23: Eric Tucker: Can Worker Voice Strike Back? Law and the Decline and Uncertain Future of Strikes
Alan Bogg is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Oxford. Alan's research focuses predominantly on theoretical issues in domestic, European and International labour law. His book 'The Democratic Aspects of Trade Union Recognition' was published in 2009 by Hart Publishing. It was awarded the SLS Peter Birks' Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship in 2010. Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol. She is a member of the editorial board of the UK Industrial Law Journal, with special responsibility for the Recent Legislation section. She writes on UK labour law, international labour standards, EU social policy, EU external relations, and mechanisms for the protection of human rights.
Reviews for Voices at Work: Continuity and Change in the Common Law World
From evaluative descriptions of existing voice-related mechanisms, to theoretical engagements with the purpose and methods of securing workers rights to speak and contest, the book offers a richly textured set of chapters that engage with worker voice in multifaceted ways. Claire Mumme, University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal
