Employment legislation in the United Kingdom from before 1970 to the 1990s has changed and with it collective bargaining in higher education. Industrial relations before 1970 were treated as a voluntary activity virtually unregulated by law. Then the Remuneration of Teachers Act 1965 set up the Burnham Committees, which until 1987 were the forum…

The "at-will" rule in American law is defined as the right of a private sector employer to dismiss an employee without a contract for virtually any reason. The rule has thrived since the nineteenth century and is still a major factor in the employer-employee relationship. However, recent court decisions have fashioned common law…

This book describes the structure, operations, and influences of teacher unions, especially the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). There is a belief that an NEA/AFT merger will take place in the 1990s, and that the emergence of strong teacher unions is an important development in education, the…

This newsletter on collective bargaining in higher education and the professions devotes nearly all this issue to an analysis of a recent Supreme Court decision ruling that licensed nurse practitioners are supervisors who are therefore excluded from collective bargaining protection. The "National Labor Relations Board, Petitioner versus…

Most employees in the United States are employees at will--they can be fired for any or no reason. In one exception to this rule, however, federal or state statutes protect employee expression, most significantly in the area of private employee testimony. The protective schemes developed by Congress and the state legislatures are of two types:…

Changes in production systems have altered the interdependence between workers and management. New patterns of interdependence brought new responses, e.g., workers formed unions, and management turned to the human relations movement to secure voluntary employee cooperation. When voluntary compliance proved inadequate, collective bargaining and…

Employee ownership through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) was first mentioned in federal legislation in the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973. Since then, at least 19 pieces of federal legislation have been enacted that deal with employee ownership in some way, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and tax…

Analysis of court cases, employment law, and events in higher education yielded information about tenure as a contract, use of credentials as evidence, and due process in orderly tenure procedures. Academic, legal, and ethical perspectives are considered. Guidelines for social work faculty in dealing with these issues are offered. (Author/MSE)

This report summarizes a review of the literature on employee benefits. It indicates what is known and not known about the effects of providing benefits on both employees and employers. Following an introductory discussion on the problems and prospect of employee benefits, the report is organized in 11 sections. The first four sections indicate…

This collection of articles focuses on the negative impacts that deindustrialization has had on the American labor market, on American workers, and on the U.S. economy. The introduction, by Donald Kennedy, traces the development of the trend toward and negative impacts of deindustrialization, outlines some of the policy issues raised by…

Since the 1960s, the number of strikes by public employees, especially local government employees, has increased, and the number of employees belonging to unions or associations has about tripled. Recently, attention has been focused on strikes by public employees as a result of the strike in 1981 by air traffic controllers and their subsequent…

This chapter of "Principles of School Business Management" looks at the law affecting collective bargaining by public employees (with particular emphasis on the schools), reviews the methods used to resolve disputes before and after agreements are signed, and considers the responses that management can make to issues raised during negotiation. The…

The 1980s have been a period during which important private experiments with innovations have occurred in employee participation, work redesign, and the introduction of new technologies and new systems of production. It is now time to move beyond the experimental stage. The following four interrelated policy initiatives should guide public efforts…