BUIRA History of Industrial Relations Study Group

BUIRA History of Industrial Relations Study Group

Labour Unrest pre-First World War: Germany and the UK Compared

Tuesday 12 November 2019

3.30pm for 4.00-6.00m (Tea/ coffee from 3.30)

Room tbc, University of Westminster Business School, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS (opposite Madame Tussauds and nearly opposite Baker Street tube)

For further details or to reserve a place, please email Michael Gold (m.gold@rhul.ac.uk) or Linda Clarke (clarkel@wmin.ac.uk). 

Programme:

3.30-3.50pm: Tea/ coffee/ refreshments

3.50-4.00: Welcome: Michael Gold and Linda Clarke (Chairs)

4.00-4.30: Ralph Darlington

Pre-First World War Labour Unrest and Women’s Suffrage Revolt: Never the Twain Shall Meet?

During the years immediately preceding the First World War, Britain experienced social unrest on a scale beyond anything since the first half of the 19^th century. Both the women’s suffrage revolt for the vote (embracing suffragettes and suffragists) and the unprecedented labour unrest of 1910-14 (involving strikes in pursuit of higher wages, better working conditions and trade union recognition) utilised dramatic extra-parliamentary ‘direct action’ forms of militant struggle from below that represented a formidable challenge to the social and political order of Edwardian Britain. This presentation re-examines the historical record to deploy both new and previously unutilised evidence to provide a detailed assessment of the interconnections between the women’s and labour movements in this defining period of British history.

4.30-5.00: Joern Janssen

1910 Eight-week Lockout in the German Construction Industry: a Victory of Labour against Private Property

This presentation analyses the greatest industrial confrontation in German history, which ran from 15 April to 20 June 1910 and ended with the virtually complete defeat of the construction employers’ federation on 16 June 1910 through the verdict of a tripartite court of arbitration. It consolidated a new stage in labour-property relations and the role of labour in the development of anonymous capital. This industrial dispute was about a national framework agreement on collective employment relations and bargaining. It transformed employee organisation and divided the employers’ organisation, benefiting, on the one hand, the central sectoral industrial labour unions to the detriment of trade organisations and, on the other, the anonymous corporations to the detriment of personal ownership of industrial enterprise.

5.00-5.30: General discussion

5.30pm: Close (followed by drinks until 6.00pm)
 

The speakers:

Ralph Darlington is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Salford. He is the author of The Dynamics of Workplace Unionism (Mansell 1994) and Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism (Haymarket 2013), co-author of Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain 1972 (Bookmarks 2001), and is currently researching for a book to be published by Pluto Press on The Labour Unrest 1910-1914.

Joern Janssen, born in Düsseldorf in Germany, studied architecture in the 1950s and worked as an architect from 1960 to 1970. He was awarded his PhD in political sciences (rer. pol.) in 1973 and became a Professor in construction economics at the Fachhochschule Dortmund from 1972 to 1997. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster 1997-2001, and since 1997 has been researching the history of labour-property relations.

16th September 2019

CfP JIR: ‘Old Frames and New Lenses: Frames of Reference and the Field of Industrial Relations’

Journal of Industrial Relations (JIR)

CALL FOR PAPERS

‘Old Frames and New Lenses:

Frames of Reference and the Field of Industrial Relations’

Special Issue: Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol.63(2), April 2021

Special Issue Guest-Editors:

Professor Michael Barry, Griffith University, Australia

Professor Adrian Wilkinson, Griffith University, Australia

• The objective and aim of the special issue

The ‘frames of reference’ has been a guiding and enduring concept since the celebrated work of Fox (1966) (see Heery, 2016). Countless courses that introduce students to industrial/employment relations feature a discussion of the distinctions between the traditional unitarist and pluralist frames as outlined by Fox, and the Marxist/critical frame as articulated for an industrial relations audience by authors such as Hyman (1975). Through dissemination, the frames of reference has been impactful on generations of students who have gone on to become academics and practitioners. Though much used as an instructional tool, and given its wide acceptance appearing as it does in most textbooks on the subject of industrial relations (IR), it is perhaps surprising that there has been limited scholarly research seeking to apply the frames (For an exception see Ramsay, 1974).

Despite the apparent influence of the concept of frames there are issues around the application. Industrial relations academics have been prone to assert that managers’ views of the employment relationship are guided by the unitarist frame, but it is not entirely clear what this means. As Fox noted, unitarism can vary from a soft form of paternalism at one end to an absolute assertion of a right to unilaterally manage the employment relationship at the other end. Unitarism in its soft form may be manifest through welfare provisions, such as high pay and fringe benefits, or though human resource management policies that provide satisfying work and career development (Purcell and Ahlstrand, 1994; Provis, 1996). The soft variant of unitarism simply asserts that conflict can be avoided and that where effective HR policies and procedures apply, unions have no role to play. In this sense unions are not so much excluded as they are rendered unnecessary. Critical here is the role of management to avoid the conditions that would give rise to conflict, such as by providing clear and effective communication.

As similar critique of the traditional frames has been made by Purcell (1987). Purcell argued that the unitarist and pluralist frames, on their own, did not adequately explain variation in the way employers treated workers, which he labelled management styles. Purcell preferred the terms individualism and collectivism, where individualism denoted the extent to which management sought to develop individual workers (and this could range from low to high, with labour control at the low end and extensive employee development at the high end). Similarly, collectivism, scaled, related to the extent to which management supported workers having a collective voice and influence in decision making.

Cullinane and Dundon (2014) argue that while unitarism has been often cited as the guiding ideology of management, there is little evidence on which to base this assertion. They note that ‘Few studies have had empirical access to union-resistant employers, with analysis of unitarism, as a consequence, based on conjecture and inference of a presumed intent.’ Therefore, IR has suffered from an ‘excess of deduction’ and a ‘paucity’ of investigation into the actual views and intentions of management.

As might be expected there has been more research into the pluralist frame of reference given its long standing, mainstream position. Contemporary research on the pluralist frame has focused principally on examining how it has adapted (or indeed failed to do so) to the significant changes affecting work; namely the breakdown of the traditional breadwinner model of male, full time employment occurring in large manufacturing workplaces governed as they were by a prevailing structure of unionised collective bargaining. Ackers (2014) argues that pluralism has failed to move beyond its core assumption of the primacy of unions and collective bargaining, that reflected the system of the 1970s much more than contemporary employment relations, whereas at least through the efforts of authors such as Kelly (1988), Marxist analysis has engaged in some critical self-reflection and revision to reflect modern workplace realities.

The Ackers’ (2002) critique of pluralism centres on how it has failed to account for relations that occur outside the auspices of unionised collective bargaining. His account argues for a need for a new (neo) pluralism that captures the important interactions between work, family and community which have produced a growing disparity in opportunity and outcome. Ackers’ call is for pluralism to re-find its moral and ethical compass, which for him became lost in the preoccupation with rule-making processes and outcomes.

Heery (2002; 2016) has also examined how those in the pluralist academic tradition have responded to changes that cut deep into pluralisms’ core assumptions. Unlike Ackers, Heery’s (2016) overall focus remains more squarely on evolving market and workplace relations, and how pluralism has come under attack from an ascendant unitarism and neo-liberalism. More specifically, Heery (2002), examine the frames of reference through academic research on worker participation and employee voice. Heery notes that worker participation is a heavily contested area of academic analysis, and that the frames of reference offers a way to understand the divergent scholarly views, which offer both analysis and prescription of different forms of participation. In HR (and OB research) there is a strong unitarist prescription for direct participation, with employee participation seen as a means to assist business performance. Other writers have noted this trend as well, with Godard (2014) arguing that this research agenda reflects the influence of psychology on current employment relations scholarship.

John Budd has added to the work of Fox by introducing the ‘egoist’ frame of reference. The egoist frame is itself aligned to neo-liberalism and is used as a term to summarise a world view in which markets are perfectly competitive and are governed purely by supply and demand transactions. Actors are assumed to be self-interested and rational. In such markets, exit is costless and voice unnecessary because labour is a treated as a commodity. Budd and Bhava (2008) argue the need for the egoist frame as an addition to the other frames, and in particular because the unitarist frame does not properly capture the deregulatory and commodifying features of neo-liberal employment relations.

• • The scope, themes and topics to be addressed by the special issue

A key aim of this proposed special issue is to explore the relevance of frames in the contemporary world of work. Articles for inclusion in the special issue will include research that makes a significant contribution to the literature. Such research includes re-conceptualisation of frames, testing frames, and integrating theories with frames to open new avenues for research. While we invite prospective authors to focus on the questions they consider most relevant to our theme, the following are offered as illustrative questions that are consistent with the spirit of this special issue.

• o Do Frames need revisiting, revising or discarding, and why?
• o Do employees and managers see the contemporary world of work through the same lens or in vastly different ways?
• o How do we test frames in practice, and what role might differences in context (industry, sector, country) play?
• o How do changes in work practices affect the application of frames?
• o In what ways can the frames of reference inform debates around gender, race and ethnicity in employment relations?

Papers should add value both to theory-building and to practice. We welcome empirical and conceptual papers that increase our understanding of frames while developing theory.

The topics listed above are examples of possible research questions and should not be considered an exhaustive list. However, contributions to the special issue must be consistent with the theme outlined in this call for papers.

• • Special issue process:

Abstracts of between 500-1,000 words should be submitted to the Guest Editors (see contact details below) by 1 October 2019. The abstracts should clearly indicate which theme the paper fits within and outline the aims, method and significance of the proposed paper to be submitted for consideration. The organisers aim to advise the authors if their abstract has been accepted by 10 October 2019. Those who are successful will be expected to submit their full paper online to the JIR for peer review by 3 February 2020.

All submitted abstracts will be examined by the Guest Editors for suitability for the special issue. All submitted papers must be based on original material and not under consideration by any other journal or outlet. All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Guest Editors and only those papers that fit within the aims and scope of the special issue and meet the academic and editorial standards of the journal, are sent out for external review. All papers will undergo a full double-blind review process and will be evaluated by the Guest Editors of the special issue and at least two independent reviewers.

• • Special issue timeline:

• o 1 October 2019 – Submission of abstracts to the guest editors
• o 10 October 2019 – Confirmation/acceptance of abstract and invitation to submit full paper
• o 3 Feb 2020 – Full original papers to be submitted online to the JIR for peer review
• o 28 October 2020 – Accepted papers to be finalised/submitted online to the JIR
• ➢ Publication of the special issue, JIR Vol. 63(2), April 2021

• • Contact details:

• o Organisers and Special Issue Guest-Editors:
• − Professor Michael Barry

Griffith University, Australia

Email: m.barry@griffith.edu.au

− Professor Adrian Wilkinson

Griffith University, Australia

Email: adrian.wilkinson@griffith.edu.au

• o Journal of Industrial Relations
• − JIR Editorial Office

Email: business.jir@sydney.edu.au 5

16th September 2019

New and emerging forms of worker collectivism: Resisting the rise of employers’ precarious work in the ‘gig economy’ Saturday, 26 October 11:00 – 2:00pm Djam Lecture Theatre, SOAS, London

16th September 2019

Unions and Social Movements: Institutional Rivalry or Alliance and Cooperation?

Midlands Labour and Employment Relations Society (MLERS) Meeting 

6:30-8pm, 8th October 2019 the Birmingham & Midlands Institute

Heather Connolly, University of Leicester

Unions and Social Movements: Institutional Rivalry or Alliance and Cooperation?

This paper explores the relationship between labour and non-labour movements and whether the relationship is likely to be characterised by institutional rivalry or alliance and cooperation. To what extent are non-labour movements, including community-based, campaigning/single-issue groups and advocacy organisations replacing organised labour as the main dynamic force advancing workers’ interests? There are overlapping interests and methods between labour and non-labour movements but there is also the potential for and evidence of tension and rivalry. Existing research shows that much of the tension and rivalry is a result of institutional barriers rather than fundamental differences in interests and methods.

The paper draws on my research and the work of others to explore the argument that the primary (and potentially most sustainable) way in which labour and non-labour movements have come together is through ‘absorption’, where the labour movement has provided an institutional field upon which other movements can organise and campaign. The paper considers the significance of the ‘gilets jaunes’ in France – a non-labour based movement which emerged in November 2018 initially as a protest against rising fuel prices and which has enjoyed strong support from the wider population. There has been a shift in the movement’s approach from an explicit rejection of any connection with the trade union movement to the adoption of a more conciliatory approach on both sides. This rapprochement has the potential to develop synergies between the organisational capacity of the ‘old’ (the trade unions) and the imaginative spontaneity of the ‘new’ (the ‘gilets jaunes’). Drawing on the strengths of each is an important means to build effective resistance. The emergence of non-labour movements like the ‘gilet jaunes’ has important implications for trade unions reflecting on their role and their strategies for renewal.

Heather Connolly is Associate Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Leicester. Her research in France, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, explores how trade union activists respond to contemporary challenges, particularly the innovative role that unions might play in the social inclusion of migrant workers. Her publications include The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation: Immigrants and Trade Unions in the European Context, published in May 2019 by Cornell University Press.

Join MLERS here: https://mlers.org.uk/join-us/

16th September 2019

ILERA Americas Regional Congress submission deadline is Sept 15

The ILERA Americas Regional Congress submission deadline is Sept 15. In addition to the usual call for research presentations (https://www.ryerson.ca/tedrogersschool/ilera2020/call/), there is also a special call for teaching-related contributions (see https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/tedrogersschool/ilera2020/documents/ILERA2020_mini-conference-teaching-labour-employment-relations.pdf) 

6th September 2019

The impact of work on (un)healthy aging: How to reduce social inequalities?

SEMINAR

Organisational Psychology Group &

Work and Equalities Institute

Tuesday October 22^nd 2019, 6.00pm-7.30pm,

Main Lecture Theatre (Room G.003)

Professor Johannes Siegrist

University of Düsseldorf, Germany

The impact of work on (un)healthy aging:

How to reduce social inequalities?

Epidemiologic evidence indicates that the quality of work and employment has a direct effect on workers‘ health and their aging process. This holds true for material (physical) and psychosocial (mental, emotional) aspects of work. Moreover, this quality is socially graded, with lower levels among workers in lower socioeconomic positions (SEP). In this presentation, new findings on this social gradient and its effects on health are presented and discussed, with special emphasis on an adverse psychosocial work environment, as defined by the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model. High ERI is prospectively associated with elevated risks of a variety of stress-related disorders, and these effects are often particularly strong among working people with low SEP. These theory-based findings can instruct measures towards reducing work-related health inequalities. To improve the quality of work and employment these measures need to be implemented at two levels, the organizational level of worksite health promotion in companies and the national/international level of appropriate social and labor policies.

Johannes Siegrist is Senior Professor of Work Stress Research at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Duesseldorf, Germany. Trained as sociologist at the University of Freiburg i.Br. he held Professorships at Marburg University (1973-1992) and Duesseldorf University (1992-2012) and Visiting Professorships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, USA (1981) and Utrecht University, The Netherlands (1993). His main research area is social determinants of health, with a focus on stressful psychosocial work environments, being the author of the internationally established effort-reward imbalance model. In addition to extensive, long-standing scientific research he has been –and continues to be – involved in policy-oriented collaboration, in particular with WHO and ILO. Among other distinctions he is a member of Academia Europaea (London) and a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

6th September 2019

Inclusive Growth in Cities: Theory, Evidence and Practice Conference

Inclusive Growth in Cities: Theory, Evidence and Practice

The first academic conference on inclusive growth in the UK

University of Manchester 19th / 20th November 2019

Call for Abstracts

We welcome papers on a wide range of topics related to inclusive growth, both conceptual and empirical. The central focus is on the level of the city or city-region, but relevant findings may be drawn from other larger and smaller spatial scales. Themes could include, but are not limited to: 

 Inclusive growth: theories and concepts

 Measurement of inclusive growth, at city, neighbourhood and project level

 Labour market trends and inclusive growth

 Building Inclusive Economies (e.g. community wealth building, municipal companies, building the social economy, procurement, anchors)

 Inclusive innovation

 Politics and governance of inclusive growth, including citizen engagement

 Planning, housing and transport

 Finance, investment and appraisal models for inclusive growth

 Employment support programmes and employer/business engagement

 Education and skills

 Innovative actions at neighbourhood level

 The role of welfare states in inclusive growth

 Inclusive growth, sustainability, health and well-being

 Migration and inclusive growth

If you would like to present at the conference, please submit your abstract of 250-300 words toigau@manchester.ac.uk . Please include your name, title and institutional affiliation and indicate whether you are an early career researcher, and if so whether you would like to apply for bursary support.

Abstracts should be submitted by Monday 9th September 2019 and participants will be notified of acceptance by Friday 20th September at the latest.

Conference registration will be open from mid August. Details will be circulated via mailing lists. If you do not wish to submit an abstract but are interesting in attending, please email

igau@manchester.ac.uk to receive a direct email when registration opens. A modest conference fee (£40-50 for two days, or 1-day equivalent, to cover administration and site visits) will be payable on booking.

6th September 2019

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 40 (2019) will be published later this month

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 40 (2019) will be published later this month. Length is over 100,000 words; subscriptions remain low.

All subscriptions are now handled by Liverpool University Press –  

Email: suscriptions@liverpool.ac.uk

Tel: 0151 795 1080 (Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm; UK time).

Contents

Noel Whiteside

Casual Employment and its Consequences: An Historical Appraisal of Recent Labour Market Trends

Ester Stern

Australian Unions during the Formative Years of Federal Arbitration: ‘Cogs in a bureaucratic machine’?

Stephen Mustchin

Right-Wing Pressure Groups and the Anti-Union ‘Movement’ in Britain: Aims of Industry, Neoliberalism and Industrial Relations Reform, 1942–1997

R. H. (Bob) Fryer

Reforming Trades Union Governance: The Reorganization of the National Union of Public Employees

R. H. (Bob) Fryer and Steve Williams

Latecomers to Trade-Union Democracy: The Emergence, Growth and Role of Union Stewards in the National Union of Public Employees

Steven Daniels

The Thatcher and Major Governments and the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, c. 1985–1992

 Huw Beynon

After the Long Boom: Living with Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century

Jim Phillips

Review Essay: The Moral Economy and Industrial Politics in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s

Steve Jefferys

Review Essay: The Neoliberal Convergence of European Industrial Relations since the 1970s: An Economic Inevitability or the Result of European Political Choices?

Book Reviews

6th September 2019

Midlands Labour & Employment Relations Society (MLERS)

MLERS exists to develop an in-depth understanding of the politics of work among academics, trade unionists, managers, and the general public in the Midlands.

We organise monthly meetings which are addressed by internationally renowned researchers of the world of work.

Our meetings currently take place on the second Tuesday of the month during term time at the Birmingham & Midlands Institute (walking distance from New Street) at 6:30-8pm. 

At the first meeting on the 8th Oct Heather Connolly (University of Leicester) will discuss 'Unions and social movements – can they ever be brothers and sisters in arms?' see https://mlers.org.uk/events/ for more details. 

6th September 2019

Disrupting technology: contextualising continuity and change in technology, work and employment

1. The state, regulation and new technology
2. Historical research on the introduction of new technologies of work
3. Management, resistance, organization, and technology
4. Occupations, skills, professions, and technology
5. Inequalities (race, gender, (dis)ability) and technology
6. Methods for studying work and technology – towards a research agenda

3rd September 2019

William Arthur (Willy) Brown, 22 April 1945 – 1 August 2019

It is with great sadness that we convey the news that Emeritus Professor Willy Brown passed away unexpectedly on Thursday evening at his home near Cambridge.

Willy’s achievements in the industrial relations and labour economics fields were exceptional. For many decades Willy was an eminent scholar in these fields, not only in the United Kingdom but also internationally. He was arguably one of the most influential academics of his generation in both research and policy formulation. 

Willy was Emeritus Master of Darwin College and Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Cambridge. He was previously the Director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at the University of Warwick, which gained an international reputation for excellence and influence under his leadership, before becoming the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Cambridge from 1985 to his retirement in 2012. 

Willy provided academic leadership through various senior administrative roles at Cambridge. He also served as President of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association from 1986 to 1989 and as a member of the Executive of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (formerly the International Industrial Relations Association) from 1989 to 1995.

Willy held a number of significant government appointments in the UK including foundation member of the Low Pay Commission from 1997-2007 and as a senior member of the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service Council and Panel of Arbitrators.

Willy was the author of many seminal journal articles and books including Piecework Bargaining (1973), The Changing Contours of British Industrial Relations (1981), The Evolution of the Modern Workplace (2009) and The Emerging Industrial Relations of China (2017). In 2002 he was made Commander of the British Empire for services to employment relations.

Willy was an Honorary Professor at Renmin University in Beijing and was instrumental in bringing together international and Chinese scholars to examine developments in Chinese employment relations. In 2015 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sydney in recognition of his significant contributions to industrial relations scholarship and policy in Australia and internationally.

Notwithstanding Willy’s considerable academic accomplishments, his greatest impact may have been through his personal connections and friendships. Willy strived to make the world not only a better place but also a fairer place. In this respect he lived by example. Willy was a truly magnificent person with a unique capacity to speak with anyone on equal terms. He was so selfless, so humble, so generous, and so kind. Willy was greatly loved and will be sorely missed.

- Willy’s former doctoral students

4th August 2019

Executive committee election results

Elections to the two vacant places on the BUIRA Executive Committee took place at the association's Annual General Meeting earlier this month in Newcastle. 

Eleanor Kirk (University of Glasgow) and  Yvonne Rueckert (Portsmouth University).

21st July 2019

Change in BUIRA Stewardship Team

Following a successful conference hosted at Newcastle University, we're pleased to announce that a team from the University of Birmingham have become the BUIRA Stewards.

Many thanks to Jo McBride, Ana Lopes, Stewart Johnstone, Stephen Procter and Michael Brooks for their hard work running the association.

The Birmingham team is as follows:

Tony Dobbins  – President

David J Bailey – Membership Officer

Genevieve Coderre-LaPalme – Events and Conference Officer

Andy Hodder – Secretary

Paul Lewis – Treasurer

Alex Wood – Communications Officer

21st July 2019

Conference schedule (link fixed)

Dear members

The latest schedule is available here.  Please check as there have been some minor adjustments.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Newcastle on Monday.

The Organising Team

27th June 2019

2019 Conference schedule

The 2019 Conference schedule is now available online

https://bit.ly/2WMP5Qu

11th June 2019

Vacancies on the BUIRA Exec

NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS

The BUIRA Executive Committee will have 2 vacancies as from July 2019.

As discussed and agreed at the AGM in Leeds 2016, the voting system for vacancies on the Executive Committee will be conducted differently.

We now invite all members to forward their interest in becoming a member of the BUIRA Exec Committee to BUIRA admin to Kay Pryer and Susanne Laidler at admin@buira.org.

All members are welcome to apply regardless of career stage i.e. early, senior etc

However, we would strongly encourage women to apply for these positions as they remain to be under-represented on the Committee.

Of course this does not remove open competition and the selection process is still via the membership at the AGM, not the Stewardship or the Executive Committee.

Please include a short biography of no more than 300 words and your reasons for applying for the vacant position.

7th June 2019

Call for papers: Flexible Work Patterns Study Group Meeting Ilera European Congress 2019

From Study group 10

Call for papers: Flexible Work Patterns Study Group Meeting Ilera European Congress 2019

ILERA European Congress 2019 Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany 5–7 September 2019

The Flexible Work Patterns Study Group will meet Thursday, 5 September 2019, 9:30-11:00am before the official opening of the congress. The group covers all aspects of flexible work issues including part-time work, telework, home working, shift work, flexible hours, compressed working week, zero hours contracts and other temporary and flexible arrangements.The meeting brings together scholars working in this area to network and discuss work in progress, or recently completed, in an informal setting. Papers from doctoral students are very welcome.

Abstracts of papers to be presented at the study group are invited on any aspects of flexible working and may be at the macro, organisational or individual level; theoretically based; or on empirical research that is country, region, sector or organisation specific. 

Abstracts should be about 500 words and include:

Paper title

Name(s) of authors, institutional affiliation and contact details

  Aim

Theoretical/Research framework

Method

Findings

Discussion/Conclusion

Please send the abstract as a word file to c.edwards@kingston.ac.uk; clare.kelliher@cranfield.ac.uk; R.Croucher@mdx.ac.uk; by Monday July 1 2019 at the latest. Authors selected to present at the Study Group will be notified as soon as possible.

Note early bird tickets are available until 31 May 2019.

https://ilera2019.giraweb.de/content/registration

Please get in touch if you need further information.

We look forward to receiving your papers,

Best wishes,

Coordinators

Professor Christine Edwards Kingston University Business School Kingston Hill, Kingston Surrey KT2 7LB United Kingdom E-mail: c.edwards@kingston.ac.uk

5th June 2019

University of Manchester, Work and Equalities Institute (WEI) Research Seminar

University of Manchester

Work and Equalities Institute (WEI)

Research Seminar

Financialization, work and inequalities: the case of Italy

Dr Angelo Salento (Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy)

Date: Wednesday 12^th June 2019

Time: 15:30 - 17:00 Hrs (coffee and tea at 15:15)

Venue: Alliance Manchester Business School, Room G.013 (view campus map here: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/maps/interactive-map/?id=26)

Abstract

The contemporary dynamics of inequality are not only a consequence of the ineffectiveness of the redistribution devices: they are primarily connected to the imbalances in the distribution of income “at its source”. The processes of financialization – i.e. the tendency of business to pursue financial accumulation strategies, or anyway to pursue the maximization of return on capital for investors in the short term – enrich financial and managerial elites, promoting a “wealthification” of income, whilst they trigger a reduction of labour costs, and a decline of wages. The analysis presented, specifically referred to the Italian case, considers both the accumulation strategies of large non-financial firms, and the effects of the “short-termist turn” of economic players in the foundational economy, which additionally operates as a regressive taxation, entailing a growing difficulty for working classes to access basic goods and services.

About the Speaker

Angelo Salento is associate professor (senior lecturer) of Economic and Labour Sociology in the Università del Salento (Lecce, Italy), where he teaches Economic and Labour Sociology, Sociology of Organizations, and Sociological Analysis of Development. His background is in labour law and economic sociology. He has done research on the regulation of economy, financialization, local and rural development, the foundational economy. In 2014 he was a visiting researcher in CRESC, University of Manchester. He is currently visiting the Alliance Manchester Business School.

5th June 2019

Special Offer: Historical Studies in Industrial Relations

Special Offer: Historical Studies in Industrial Relations

HSIR is losing its storage facilities at Keele so we are offering back-issues for sale at the bargain price of £1 per single issue, numbers 1–22 (1996–2006), and £2 per double issue/annual, numbers 23/24–31/32 (1997–2011) and 33–37 (2012–2016), plus postage and packing. This is a one-off sale as afterwards we will have to dispose of most copies. Single issues are approximately 60,000 words in length; double-issues and annuals, 110,000.

HSIR was established to provide an outlet for research on the history of industrial relations. This includes research on contemporary issues, which often lack a historical foundation. A few examples of articles:

William Brown, ‘The High Tide of Consensus: The System of Industrial Relations in Great Britain (1954) Revisited’. 4: 135–49.

Peter Dorey, ‘Weakening the Trade Unions, One Step at a Time: The Thatcher Governments’ Strategy for the Reform of Trade-Union Law, 1979–1984’. 37: 169–200.

John Edmonds, ‘Positioning Labour Closer to the Employers: The Importance of the Labour Party's 1997 Business Manifesto’. 22: 85–107.

Paul Edwards, ‘The Analytical Heritage of Alan Fox’s History and Heritage (1985). 14: 139–58.

Keith Ewing, ‘The State and Industrial Relations: ‘Collective Laissez-Faire’ Revisited’. 5: 1–31.

Nina Fishman, ‘“A Vital Element in British Industrial Relations”: A Reassessment of Order 1305, 1940–1951’. 8: 43–86.

Colin Hay, ‘The Trade Unions and the “Winter of Discontent”’. 36: 181–203.

Bob Hepple, ‘Wedderburn’s The Worker and the Law: An Appreciation’.

34: 215–28.

Sian Moore, ‘Gender and Class Formation: Women’s Mobilization in the Industrialization of the Bradford Worsted Industry, 1780–1845’. 35: 1–31

Jim Phillips, ‘UK Business Power and Opposition to the Bullock Committee’s 1977 Proposals on Worker Directors’. 31/32: 1–30.

John Saville, ‘The Trade Disputes Act of 1906’. 1: 11–45.

Rebecca Zahn, ‘German Codetermination without Nationalization and British Nationalization without Codetermination: Retelling the Story’. 36: 1–27.

Bill Wedderburn, ‘History of British Labour Law’. 17: 127–38.

See the HSIR website for more authors and articles.

To buy back-issues, contact Paul Smith: paulsmithblist@hotmail.co.uk

5th June 2019

BUIRA 2019: Call for Doctoral Papers and Conference Participation

BUIRA 2019: Call for Doctoral Papers and Conference Participation

The British Universities Industrial Relations Association holds 2019 conference at Newcastle University, Monday 1- Wednesday 3 July 27th July, 2019.

The PhD session is planned to hold on last day of the conference, Wednesday 1^st July 2019. The session will have two main features (PhD paper presentations and panel discussions).

Panel Discussion ‘Life after PhD: Hopes and Impediments’

Panels will offer discussions on opportunities and challenges for new PhDs, exploring the highways and cul-de-sacs in academia.

Panels will include senior academics, Mid-Career, and Early Careers. A representative from the University and College Union UCU is expected to be in the panel. Details of panel will be confirmed in weeks to come.

Paper Presentation

Invitation is hereby extended to PhD colleagues who are researching in the field of Industrial/Employment Relations, to submit abstracts for doctoral papers.

Abstracts could be on any work in progress paper (WIP), or from sections of ongoing PhD work- the idea of this is to offer a platform away from main BUIRA conference paper sessions, where critical, but friendly feedback could be offered by doctoral peers and from established academics.

This call for abstracts opens from Tuesday 8th May to Friday 14th June. Please send abstract of 250 words to: buiraphd@outlook.com

Venue: Newcastle University Business School, 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Registration: Click Here to Register.

Accommodation:  the official accommodation page. 

22nd May 2019

The BUIRA International & Comparative Employment Relations Study Group will be holding the following seminar in May:

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22nd May 2019

EFES NEWSLETTER - MAY 2019

22nd May 2019

Central London BUIRA Seminar: Labour law and sustainability

Labour law and sustainability

with Professor Tonia Novitz (University of Cardiff) Labour standards and social sustainability, and Dr Ania Zbyszewska (University of Warwick) Work regulation and environmental sustainability: Moving beyond the discourse of conflicting rights

Friday 31 May 2019, 10.30am – 12.30pm, followed by buffet lunch

University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS

(opposite Madame Tussauds and nearly opposite Baker Street tube)
Room C279

For further details and to reserve a place, contact Linda Clarke (clarkel@wmin.ac.uk)

This regular monthly seminar is focused on the ever more urgent question of how labour law can address climate change and sustainability issues and we are fortunate to have two expert speakers.

Tonia Novitz is a Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol and will discuss the emergence of recognition of social sustainability under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She will outline the partial acknowledgement of certain facets of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) decent work agenda in this context in substantive terms within, for example, SDGs 5 and 8. She will also discuss the potential significance for labour standard setting and enforcement of procedural entitlements related to sustainable decision-making under SDG 16, alongside the challenges of global policy coherence envisaged in SDG 17. Her analysis draws on experience as a participant in the European Union (EU) funded Horizon 2020 project Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART): see https://www.smart.uio.no/. A list of her publications is available at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/tonia-a-novitz/index.html.

Ania Zbyszewska is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick School of Law. She will talk about her research on the interface of work and environmental regulation, which focuses on legal contestations and conflicts produced by jurisdictional boundaries and legal dis/articulation, but also probes the possibilities inherent in more ecologically-attuned forms of work regulation and governance. She is currently involved in a European Commission-funded project entitled aGREENment, which investigates the role of European, including UK-based, labour unions in negotiating such forms of governance through the means of collective bargaining. 

This seminar is an opportunity to air and discuss these issues in an open forum and consider their implications for industrial relations. Anyone interested is welcome to attend this event. These meetings can be full though so, if you would like to attend and to help forecast catering provision, please Contact: Professor Linda Clarke,  clarkel@wmin.ac.uk or 020350 66528

22nd May 2019

Work and Equalities Institute Second Annual Lecture

Lindsay Endell, Work and Equalities Institute Manager

Work and Equalities Institute

You can subscribe to our mailing list by emailing us.

Alliance Manchester Business School | The University of Manchester | AMBS 6.037 |

Booth Street West | Manchester M15 6PB | +44 (0) 161 275 0556 | lindsay.endell@manchester.ac.uk

www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk

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22nd May 2019

Work & Equalities Institute Policy Discussion Panel

Lindsay Endell, Work and Equalities Institute Manager

Work and Equalities Institute

You can subscribe to our mailing list by emailing us.

Alliance Manchester Business School | The University of Manchester | AMBS 6.037 |

Booth Street West | Manchester M15 6PB | +44 (0) 161 275 0556 | lindsay.endell@manchester.ac.uk

www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk

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22nd May 2019

Modern Working Practices and the Future of Work

22nd May 2019

Andrew Brady book UK Unions & Labour Party

Dear all, In 2017, I examined the Strathclyde PhD of Andrew Brady, a Unite official. Now he has a book out based on this, which I think will be of great interest to IR academics.

It looks at Union influence on Labour Party policy for the Social Contract (1974-79), NMW (1998), ERA (1999) & Warwick (2004). He interviewed many of the key figures of the TUs & LP.

Unions and Employment in a Market Economy Strategy, Influence and Power in Contemporary Britain 

https://www.routledge.com/Unions-and-Employment-in-a-Market-Economy-Strategy-Influence-and-Power/Brady/p/book/9781138489875

Best Wishes, Peter

Visiting Professor in the History of Industrial Relations, Loughborough University 

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/phir/staff/peter-ackers/

Paperback,Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain,https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319341613

On Professor Hugh Clegg: https://youtu.be/zwt_D0IX94o

22nd May 2019

You're invited to the Unions 21 Annual Conference at ITF House on Monday May 21st.

You're invited to the Unions 21 Annual Conference at ITF House on Monday May 21st.

This year, we'll be exploring how to reinvigorate unions, particularly how collective voice can overcome issues workers face now and in the future economy. Bringing together trade unions, politicians, academia and partner organisations to discuss the future of work, we'll be looking at how unions, employers and policy-makers can extend worker voice.

We'll also be discussing the initial findings from our forthcoming new report 'WorksForUs', the first report from the Commission on Collective Voice in 21st Century.

REGISTER here - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unions-21-annual-conference-the-future-of-collective-voice-tickets-57002282361

Working Programme:

9:30 - 11:00: The Future of Collective Voice

11:15 -12:30: Future of Digital in Trade Unions

12:30 - 1:30: Lunch

13:30 - 14:45: Innovation in Unions - with sessions on health, public and private sectors

15:00 - 16:00: Future of Work: How do unions and policy-makers respond?

2nd May 2019

BUIRA Conference Hosts 2020

BUIRA Conference Hosts 2020

We are advertising for hosts to organise the BUIRA Annual Conference 2020.  This particular year is extremely important for BUIRA’s history as it will be the 70^th Anniversary of BUIRA. 

Any willing parties, please contact us at BUIRA admin  -  Kay Pryer and Susanne Laidler at admin@buira.org

We look forward to your response.

BUIRA Stewardship

2nd May 2019

NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS

NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS

The BUIRA Executive Committee will have 2 vacancies as from July 2019.

As discussed and agreed at the AGM in Leeds 2016, the voting system for vacancies on the Executive Committee will be conducted differently.

We now invite all members to forward their interest in becoming a member of the BUIRA Exec Committee to BUIRA admin to Kay Pryer and Susanne Laidler at admin@buira.org.

All members are welcome to apply regardless of career stage i.e. early, senior etc

However, we would strongly encourage women to apply for these positions as they remain to be under-represented on the Committee.

Of course this does not remove open competition and the selection process is still via the membership at the AGM, not the Stewardship or the Executive Committee.

Please include a short biography of no more than 300 words and your reasons for applying for the vacant position.

BUIRA

2nd May 2019

Call for Nominations for Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS)

Call for Nominations for Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS)

BUIRA is a member organization of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), the body that exists in the UK to promote the social sciences.

As part of its membership, BUIRA is able to make nominations for the conferment of Fellowships of the Academy.

The BUIRA Executive would therefore like to invite BUIRA members to nominate individuals who might be put forward for this honour.  Not only would this recognise the contribution of the individuals concerned, it would raise the profile of employment relations in the broader social science arena.

More on AcSS can be found at: https://www.acss.org.uk/

And details of the nomination process are at:

https://www.acss.org.uk/membership/making-nomination-fellow/

You will see from this that the 'paramount requirement' of a successful nomination is 'evidence of eminence and impact of the nominee’s contribution to social science'.  Formally, this requires a statement of justification and a brief CV.

Could any nominations be sent to BUIRA (admin@buira.org) by Friday 24 May.  This will allow the Executive to meet AcSS's next deadline of 7 June.

If you have any queries about the process, please contact the BUIRA Treasurer, Stephen Procter (stephen.procter@newcastle.ac.uk)

2nd May 2019

BUIRA Conference 2019 - Accommodation and Registration Open

Please remember to register for the conference https://www.buira.net/conference/12/register

Information on accommodation can be found here https://ngcb.hotelplanner.com/Event/14df/

Further information on the city is availabled here https://www.newcastlegateshead.com/

2nd May 2019

The BUIRA International & Comparative Employment Relations Study Group

The BUIRA International & Comparative Employment Relations Study Group will be holding the following seminar in May:

Professor Guglielmo Meardi, Warwick Business School

'Brexit, migration and labour market policy: comparative lessons from Canada, Switzerland and Norway'

Time and location: 29th May 2019, 2-4pm in Darwin Building DW0.29/0.30, Keele University

For further information, please contact Carola Weissmeyer at Keele University (c.weissmeyer@keele.ac.uk, 01782 733603)

1st May 2019

University of Manchester's Work & Equalities Institute - Research Seminar: " Psychic Income: Working for Nothing in the Creative Industries "

University of Manchester

Work and Equalities Institute (WEI)

Research Seminar

Psychic Income: Working for Nothing in the Creative Industries

Professor Irena Grugulis (Leeds University Business School)

Date: Wednesday 8^th May 2019

Time: 15:30 - 17:00 Hrs (coffee and tea at 15:15)

Venue: Alliance Manchester Business School, Room 3.009

Abstract

Psychic income, the intrinsic satisfaction that people get from work, is traditionally used as an explanation for low pay and seen only in its negative form, as compensation. There is little understanding of what constitutes psychic reward, nor of how and or whom it benefits. This article challenges that. Psychic rewards are positive attributes in their own right. They are also variable, just as financial rewards are, so people can be exploited psychically as well as financially. Drawing on detailed qualitative research into film and TV production it argues that psychic rewards in the form of creative and interesting work was important and often featured in contractual discussions, but that it was the established professionals who were most capable of negotiating for creativity. Here the idea of individual bargaining power is combined with that of psychic reward to distinguish between bargains at different stages in professionals’ working lives. Novices experienced exploitation, those developing skills found work intensified, and established professionals negotiated for earnings and creativity. All professionals were prepared to accept low (or no) pay in exchange for a ‘good credit’, but most of the positive aspects of psychic reward were reserved for the established professionals.

About the Speaker

Irena Grugulis is Professor of Work and Skills at Leeds University Business School.  Her research focuses on skills, particularly the way people learn in and at work and the ways in which work may either limit or encourage that learning.  Her work has been funded by the ESRC, EPSRC and EU and has been published in Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Work, Employment and Society and Human Resource Management Journal. She has also published two sole-authored textbooks, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Human Resource Management (Sage, 2017) and Skills, Training and Human Resource Development (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).  Irena is an ESRC/AIM Services Fellow, an Associate Fellow of SKOPE and an Academic Fellow of the CIPD. She served on the Academic Advisory Panel of the UKCES and contributed to a number of governmental skills enquiries including the Leitch Review and the National Skills Task Force as well as advising the Singaporean Government.  She has been both Editor and Joint Editor in Chief of Work, Employment and Society and currently chairs the journal’s Editorial Board.

17th April 2019

Debating the Future of Work: Challenges and Future Prospects

Hilton Hotel Sheffield, 28-29 May 2019

This two-day conference is being organised by the Centre for Decent Work (CDW) at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The recent report by the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work Commission, which represents the culmination of the ILO’s centenary initiative on the future of work, describes ways in which the world of work might be improved. The conference will bring together leading academics and ILO officials to discuss issues raised by the report and other matters that are of central importance to the future of work and the future research agenda. The themes to be addressed will include:

• Labour market transitions, skills and lifelong learning;

• New forms of employment and the future of social protection;

• Diversity and inclusion;

• Ageing, caring and wellbeing;

• Work organisation, technology and job quality;

• Governance, labour administration and social dialogue

• Work and the environment;

• The future research agenda.

 The conference will feature invited contributions from researchers based at universities in various countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, the USA and UK, providing opportunities for international sharing of knowledge and experience and also network building. Confirmed speakers include Marian Baird (Sydney), Burt Barnow (George Washington), Nelarine Cornelius (Queen Mary), Pauline Dibben (Sheffield), Janet Fast (Alberta), Anne-Marie Greene (Leicester), Damian Grimshaw (ILO), Christopher King (Texas at Austin), Janine Leschke (Copenhagen), Seamus McGuinness (ESRI), Kirsty Newsome (Sheffield), Peter Nolan (Leicester),  Jonathan Payne (De Montfort), Dean Stroud (Cardiff), Jill Rubery (Manchester), David Uzzell (Surrey), Maria-Luz Vega (ILO), Colin Williams (Sheffield), Alex Wood (Oxford), Ryuichi Yamakawa (Tokyo), Susan Yeandle (Sheffield).

Information about how to register can be found at:

http://management.sheffield.ac.uk/events/59751972759/

17th April 2019

EFES NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2019

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http://www.efesonline.org/EFES NEWS/2019/EFES NEWSLETTER - 4-2019 EN.htm

Subscribe  /  Unsubscribe  /  Membership                                                        EFES NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2019 New Record Year for Employee Share Ownership in Europe JUST RELEASED The new "Annual Economic Survey of Employee Share Ownership in European Countries" is just released More information   in partnership with New Record Year for Employee Share Ownership in Europe New record year for employee share ownership in Europe, with nearly 400 billion Euro held by employees in their company or 3.11%. More and more European companies are organizing employee share plans. In 2018, 87.3% of all large European companies had employee share plans of all kinds, while 52.3% had "broad-based" plans for all employees. Their number increased by 3 to 4% on average each year since 2006, a solid growth. The rise is back for the number of employee shareholders, with 7.5 million people in large European companies; if we add one million employee shareholders in SMEs, the total figure reaches 8.5 million. However, the decline in the democratization rate of employee share ownership has still to be stopped. Following the crisis, some European countries (including the UK) had chosen for stronger incentive policies, promoting employee share ownership and long term savings as an investment for the future. Instead of that, some other countries (including France) had chosen to reduce public spending and to support household consumption, while incentives for long term savings and for employee share ownership were sacrificed. This had a strong impact on the democratization rate of employee share ownership in Europe (the proportion of employee shareholders amongst all employees), leading to a divorce between continental Europe and the UK. A sharp drop below 20% was observed on the continent. On the contrary, the democratization rate had risen to more than 25% in the UK. After the negative phase from 2009 to 2013, policy decisions are positive again in most European countries. This led to a rebound of the democratization rate to 38% in France  following the "Macron Law", illustrating the high elasticity of employee share ownership to fiscal incentives. However negative factors are still prevailing in some countries. Germany gives the picture of the dramatic impact of such policies on the democratization rate of employee share ownership, with less than 13%. On the other hand, the UK and France are the only European countries showing a recent but significant positive dynamics of the majority-employee-owned sector. The number of such companies increased from 36 in the UK in 2014 to 80 in 2018, mainly due to the impact of the new Employee Ownership Trust scheme implemented in 2014. In France, it is mainly due to the multiplication of combined Management and Employee Buy-Outs. Press Review We have a selection of 22 remarkable articles in 8 countries in March 2019: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, USA. Belgium: EASI is employee-owned and for the fifth time in a row "Best Place to Work". Canada: Canadian government will cap the use of the preferential tax treatment on stock options. France: How the new "Pacte Law" will impact employee share ownership and savings schemes. Employee share ownership for start-ups. First employee share plan for Iliad. New workers co-operative linked to rescue plans. Germany: 300.000 employee shareholders for Siemens through free share awards. Italy: First employee share plan for Generali. Poland: New employee share plan for XTPL. UK: British Airways unions call for the re-introduction of an employee share ownership scheme. New firms sold to Employee Ownership Trusts. John Lewis cuts staff bonuses to lowest level in 65 years. USA: New companies sold to ESOPs. Colorado launches initiative to boost employee ownership of businesses, "looking to make Colorado the Delaware of employee ownership". The full press review is available on:               http://www.efesonline.org/PRESS REVIEW/2019/March.htm    Your support Why? Amount in Euro: 5.00 2.00 10.00 20.00 50.00 100.00 200.00 500.00 1000.00 A political roadmap for employee ownership in Europe The EFES needs more members. Download the EFES membership form What's new on the EFES website? EFES NEWS distribution: 200.000    With best regards         Marc Mathieu Secretary General EFES - EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP FEAS - FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DE L'ACTIONNARIAT SALARIE Avenue Voltaire 135, B-1030 Brussels Tel: +32 (0)2 242 64 30 - Fax: +32 (0)2 791 96 00 E-mail: efes@efesonline.org Web site: www.efesonline.org EFES' objective is to act as the umbrella organization of employee owners, companies and all persons, trade unions, experts, researchers, institutions looking to promote employee share ownership and participation in Europe.

17th April 2019

Next Manchester Industrial Relations Society meeting

Dear all

The next meeting of the Society, which is the Shirley Lerner Memorial Lecture will be Professor Damian Grimshaw, Director of the Research Department at the ILO who will be giving a presentation on The ILO and social justice at work: Reinvigorating its century-old mandate at 6pm on 16^th May 2019.

Please find attached the flyer and a map of the venue.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes,

Stephen Mustchin

Secretary

Manchester Industrial Relations Society

17th April 2019

Visions of the workplace:

Visions of the workplace:

missing from the record

Britain at Work (B@W) 1945-95 in association with British Universities’ Industrial Relations (BUIRA) IR History Group and Oral History Society (OHS)

Saturday 11 May 2019, 11am – 16.450pm

University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS

(opposite Madame Tussauds and nearly opposite Baker Street tube)

Room C279 (lunch C287)

For further details and to reserve a place, please email Michael Gold (m.gold@rhul.ac.uk) or Linda Clarke (clarkel@wmin.ac.uk)

This year’s, Britain at Work Oral Labour History Day, will focus on the visual and remembering, asking and answering questions about images of work and activism in film, photography and the theatre. Changing technology means that opportunities to record working lives are now available immediately and with the potential of greater democracy. In recent decades, some photographers and workers in film and theatre have pushed at the boundaries recording and disseminating, engaging directly with working people. In this year’s Oral Labour History Day, we are inviting people known for visualising the workplace and struggle to reflect on how their experience links to oral history. There will also be an accompanying exhibition, Cuban Notebook, by Larry Herman, photographer, on display.

B@W is an initiative to capture the memories of people at work between 1945 and 1995, many of which can be found at the TUC Library Collections held at London Metropolitan University, accessible at: (www.unionhistory.info/britainatwork)..

Programme

About the speakers:

Sarah Boston, award winning documentary film maker, author of the book Women Workers and Trade Unions and trade union member (ACTT/BECTU) since 1967, writes: “Over the decades I have interviewed people on film about their lives. The interviews have included women who had been chain makers in the 1910 strike (BBC 1976): the daughters in Dorothea Lange’s iconic photograph the migrant mother (C4 1989) and four women- Hortensia Allende; Joan Jara; Joyce Horman and Angela Jeira Bachelet - whose husbands were murdered by the Pinochet regime (2005 Fuse Films). Actually seeing and hearing people adds to our multi layered understanding of history. To illustrate. I will use short clips from the above documentaries.”

Dr Susan Croft is Director of Unfinished Histories, a major initiative to record the history of Alternative Theatre in Britain through oral histories and to preserve archives of the alternative theatre movement from the 1960s to the 1980s (see www.unfinishedhistories.com). In 2013-14 she led the HLF-funded project Unfinished Histories Company Links, which culminated in the exhibition and publication Re-Staging Revolutions: Alternative Theatre in Lambeth and Camden 1968-88, as well as curating 15 accompanying events. From 1997-2005 Susan was Senior Curator (Contemporary Performance) at the V&A Theatre Museum, working on the National Video Archive of Performance and curating four major exhibitions. She also established a range of initiatives recording the history of Black and Asian theatre in Britain.

Nick Jones: After a career reporting industrial conflict, former BBC correspondent Nicholas Jones reflects on the changing nature of photo-ops and Vox Pops. More than ever workers in conflict understand that a picture tells the story. But are their voices being heard? Jones fears lazy journalism and editorial cuts are limiting the chances of working people to argue their case through the news media.

Pam Schweitzer has spent the last thirty years developing reminiscence arts work, especially original reminiscence theatre productions, professional and amateur. She founded the Age Exchange Theatre Trust and the Reminiscence Centre and was its Artistic Director from 1983 to 2005. She directs the European Reminiscence Network (1993 to the present), specialising in international reminiscence festivals and conferences, and co-ordinates Europe-wide projects on reminiscence in dementia care, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Dementia Care Awards 2014. At the University of Greenwich, which awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2017, she is developing the Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website as well as working with students on Reminiscence Theatre and Theatre-in-Education projects. Pam will talk about moving from recorded story into theatre, especially verbatim theatre based closely on interviewees' words. With the example of 'What did you do in the war, Mum?', a show, a book, an exhibition and a website, she will show how the writer, director and cast gather together the interview material and look for a structure to reflect and contain it, transforming it into a professional production seen by thousands on national and international tours. She will describe how students of drama today make original plays of their own from the same interview material recorded 40 years previous.

17th April 2019

The Winter of Discontent: Myth, memory and history’

Dear all

On 19 June Manchester Industrial Relations Society in conjunction with the Work and Equalities Institute at the University of Manchester will be holding a seminar focused on the 1978/9 ‘Winter of Discontent’ strike wave. Stephen Mustchin will introduce the seminar and then Tara Martin Lopez will give a talk based on her book ‘The Winter of Discontent: Myth, memory and history’ (see https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781781380291/ )

Synopsis:

Britain’s “Winter of Discontent, 1978-1979” is shrouded in a potent and politically charged myth, one aspect of which revolves supposed “trade union bully boys” bringing down a sympathetic Labour Government and ushering in the era of Thatcherism with their excesses. This discussion, based on research published in Tara Martin Lopez’s The Winter of Discontent: Myth, Memory, and History, will approach this myth in a threefold way. First, the talk will define the term “myth” and provide background to the essential elements of the myth of the Winter of Discontent. Second, the discussion will then look at how oral histories from the workers themselves, especially women and Black workers, provide a potent source of “counter-memory” that challenges this myth. Three, it will then conclude by exploring the power of marginalized groups’ remembering and participation in key historical events and the implications of this for the historiography of Britain in the late 20th century.

The seminar will be at 4pm-6pm on 19 June in room 3.006a in Alliance Manchester Business School – if you are coming please arrive 10 minutes early and ask for directions at reception.

I hope to see some of you there

Best wishes

Stephen Mustchin

13th April 2019

Register now for BUIRA 2019 confererence in Newcastle

Members are advised that registration is now open for the 2019 conference here and that accommodation can also now be booked through the following link here.

4th April 2019

Debating the Future of Work Hilton Hotel Sheffield, 28-29 May 2019

Debating the Future of Work

This two-day conference is being organised by the Centre for Decent Work (CDW) at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The recent report by the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work, which represents the culmination of the ILO’s centenary initiative on the future of work, describes ways in which the world of work might be improved. The conference will bring together leading academics and ILO officials to discuss issues raised by the report and other matters that are of central importance to the future of work and the future research agenda. The themes to be addressed will include:

• Education, skills and lifelong learning;

• New forms of employment and the future of social protection;

• Diversity and inclusion;

• Ageing, caring and wellbeing;

• Work organisation, technology and job quality;

• Governance, labour administration and social dialogue

• Work and the environment;

• The future research agenda.

The conference will feature invited contributions from researchers based at universities in various countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the USA and UK, providing opportunities for international sharing of knowledge and experience and also network building.

Further information, including how to register, will be available soon.

2nd April 2019

BUIRA Member Conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

BUIRA Member Conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

The BUIRA Executive would like to offer their congratulations to Professor Mark Stuart, who this week was amongst the 73 leading social scientists conferred as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS).  Professor Stuart is a member and former President of BUIRA, and, as the Fellowship recognises, he has made major contributions to research in employment relations and in social science more widely.

The full announcement made by the AcSS can be found here.

As a constituent learned society of the AcSS, BUIRA is able to make nominations for Fellowships.  The deadline for the next round of nominations is June 2019.  A call to all BUIRA members to propose nominees will be made in April, but anyone wishing to discuss a nomination informally before then should contact the BUIRA Treasurer, Stephen Procter (stephen.procter@newcastle.ac.uk).

1st April 2019

Call For Papers: Inequality and Organizations: Paper Development Masterclass for Early Career Academics and Doctoral Students

Call For Papers: Inequality and Organizations: Paper Development Masterclass for Early Career Academics and Doctoral Students

September 20^th, 2019, The York Management School, University of York, UK

Inequality and social justice are long standing concerns in academic research and public policy, affecting individual and collective wellbeing, diminishing growth and productivity and undermining trust in key societal institutions. Organizations, their structures, practices and strategies act both as potential barriers and solutions to this.

This master class, supported by the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies in association with The York Management School’s Justice, Ethics and Inequality theme, invites papers of 7,000-10,000 words by 21^st June 2019 looking at the relationship between inequality and organizations, their structures, practices and strategies.  Themes include but are not limited to: poverty, social mobility, diversity management, precarity, international inequality, corporate social responsibility, employee participation, and industrial democracy.

Participants will present their research to leading scholars in the field and receive detailed critique of their work as well as attending a faculty-led plenary session to provide guidance on researching and publishing work on inequality in world class management journals.  Panelists have editorial experience at leading journals including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, Sociological Quarterly and Work, Employment and Society, as well as extensive publication, editorial board and peer reviewing experience.

Travel bursaries of up to £175 will be given to successful applicants, intended to include second class travel and hotel costs if necessary. There will also be an optional dinner in York on the 19^th September.  York is a pleasant cathedral city in the north of England and well worth visiting, while the university campus is in a pleasant out of town location conducive to academic thought and discussion.

Please send any enquires as to suitability to Dr Kevin Tennent (kevin.tennent@york.ac.uk), Dr Joyce Jiang (joyce.jiang@york.ac.uk) or Professor Daniel Muzio (Daniel.muzio@york.ac.uk).

Decisions as to acceptance will be communicated by 31^st July 2019.

Masters/Panelists:

Dr Louise Ashley (Royal Holloway)

Professor Penny Dick (University of Sheffield)

Professor Kevin Leicht (University of Illinois)

Professor Jacqueline O’ Reilly (University of Sussex)

Professor Ro Suddaby (University of Victoria and University of Liverpool)

Please send submissions and inquiries to: SAMSMasterClass2019@gmail.com

1st April 2019

Vacancy at UCD

For more information see:

http://www.ucd.ie/adastrafellows/

29th March 2019

BSA Early Career Regional Forum:

BSA Early Career Regional Forum: 

Theorising worker-employer relations in the new world of work  

4th April 2019, 9:00am-5:00pm

Provisional Programme

This event, sponsored by the British Sociological Association and the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC), University of Leeds: theorising worker-employer relations in the new world of work brings Early Career Researchers(ECRs) with leading academics to consider contemporary theoretical and empirical understandings of the worker-employer relationship. To see the provisional programme and register for this event, please click  here BSA Leeds ECR Forum 4th April 2019 Event Page  A small number of bursaries are available to support attendance. For further information, please contact the event organisers, Dr. Jo Cutter (j.cutter@leeds.ac.uk)  or Dr. Simon Joyce (s.joyce1@leeds.ac.uk).

29th March 2019

The Palgrave Handbook of Workers’ Participation at Plant Level Editors: Berger, Stefan, Pries, Ludger, Wannöffel, Manfred (Eds.)

• An historical and comparative examination of plant-level workers' representations and models of social partnership 
• Considers both European and non-European case studies, adding important insight on global trends
• Suggests future directions for sustainable and long-term innovation and growth in the knowledge era.

Comprising the study, documentation, and comparison of plant-level workers’ participation around the world, this volume meets the challenge of offering a global perspective on workers’ participation, representation, and models of social partnership. Value chains, economic life, inter-cultural exchange and knowledge, as well as the mobility of persons and ideas increasingly cross the borders of nation-states. In the knowledge age, the active participation of workers in organizations is crucially important for sustainable and long-term growth and innovation. This handbook offers lessons from historical, global accounts of workers’ participation at plant level, even as it looks forward to predict forthcoming trends in participation.

https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137481917

29th March 2019

Public Sector Pay and Employment

8th March 2019

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19th September 2016