The 2023 issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations will be published soon, first on the journal’s website, followed by the print version. Liverpool University Press restricts access to the PDFs, which makes the print version attractive, especially as the price is low for a book-length journal of some 120,000 words.

President of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association Professor Peter Turnbull, University of Bristol, presented the 2023 Foenander Public Lecture at the University of Melbourne, on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.

More info here

You can watch the lecture here

Edmund Heery, Deborah Hann, David Nash

This book presents a case study of the campaign to promote the voluntary or ‘real’ Living Wage, a labour standard developed by the community organizing network Citizens UK which has been adopted by more than 16,000 employers. The book is only available in hardback or ebook at present but the publisher, Oxford University Press, is currently offering a 30 per cent discount. To make use of this offer, order through the OUP website (https://global.oup.com/academic/) and use the discount code: ASFLYQ6.

One of the chapters is also currently available on open access. Chapter Three of the book, The Campaign for the Living Wage, describes the linked organizations that have developed the campaign, Citizens UK and its sister-body the Living Wage Foundation. It also describes the methods that they have used: a sometimes, awkward combination of community organizing and promotion of the standard to receptive employers. To access this chapter, use the following link: https://academic.oup.com/book/46807/chapter/413830648.

Speakers: Catherine Barnard (University of Cambridge) and Jonathan Hayward (UNITE the Union)

Tuesday, 23 January 2024, 17.30-19.30 (UK time) (Zoom seminar)

Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, the UK finally left the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2021. The repercussions on economic growth, patterns of migration, trade and a battery of other areas are extensive and ongoing. For trade unions, the effects of Brexit on the operation of European works councils (EWCs) are particularly concerning, as EWCs – under the terms of directives dating from 1994 and 2009 – provide the framework for transborder information and consultation rights for workers in many multinational companies across the EU. To what extent are these companies using Brexit to roll back workers’ rights? How are the effects being felt in the UK, and other EU member states? How are unions in the UK and in the EU reacting?

In this on-line seminar we welcome Catherine Barnard and Jonathan Hayward, two internationally-known experts on EWCs, to address these issues and to lead a discussion on the legal and practical challenges.

To register, please use the Eventbrite link below:

https://www.historyandpolicy.org/events/event-listing/eu-works-councils-the-effects-of-brexit

Programme:

17.30 Michael Gold (Chair): Introduction

17.40 Catherine Barnard: Brexit and the Legal Challenges facing European Works Councils

Catherine will address the main legal challenges that confront European works councils following Brexit, particularly those located in UK multinational companies. These include their changed status under UK legislation, as well as the effects that UK withdrawal has on the calculation of company size thresholds that trigger inclusion under the term of the EWC Directives.

18.10 Jonathan Hayward: Brexit and the Practical Challenges facing European Works Councils

Jonathan will consider the main practical challenges that Brexit has created for the functioning of EWCs, particularly for the continuation of those based in UK multinationals, the continued participation of UK employees within the scope of EWCs, challenges for UK employees/reps in the future and the responses from Unite and its European allies.

Discussion: 18.40-19.30

19.30 Close

Our speakers:

Catherine Barnard has been Professor of EU Law and Employment Law at Trinity College, Cambridge, since 2008. She is the author of European Union Law (2020) and The Substantive Law of the European Union: The Four Freedoms (2019), among many other publications, and Senior Fellow in the UK in a Changing Europe project. She is a regular contributor to radio and television programmes on the impact of Brexit.

Jonathan Hayward is an experienced International Officer in UNITE the Union who has an extensive level of knowledge in the area of European industrial relations and European works councils. Jonathan is a recognised lead expert negotiator in EWC negotiations and has negotiated EWC agreements under various EU member state laws and more recently under Irish law due to the impact of Brexit. He also acts as trade union expert/coordinator to a number of EWCs on behalf of the European Trade Union Federations, including International Airlines Group (IAG), GE Aviation and Swissport.

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The ESRC’s Work, Education and Skills (WES) team are exploring the potential shape of a new research agenda in our portfolio space.

We are very keen to hear from the academic, policy, business, and third-sector communities about what you think will be the big persistent and future challenges over the coming decades in the following priority areas:

• Work: a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable labour force and market
• Education: societal impacts on educational provision, educational inequalities, special education needs and disability, and skills for life.

For full details and the opportunity to submit your ideas, please go to our online survey ‘ESRC horizon-scanning survey: Work, Education and Skills’ hosted on the UKRI Engagement Hub.

The survey closes on Friday 1^st December.

Link to survey: https://engagementhub.ukri.org/esrc-1/weshorizonscanningsurvey

The next ILERA Council meeting will take place on Friday, June 27 2024 at 4:15pm EST during the upcoming 20^th ILERA World Congress, to be held in person in New York City (at the NYC mid-town Hilton Hotel) between 26 and 29 June.

The Council will elect the next President-elect of ILERA as well as Executive Committee members for vacant positions.

At the conclusion of the 20^th ILERA World Congress, Professor Harry Katz from the US will step down as President of ILERA, and Professor Rae Cooper from the Australia, the current President-elect, will assume the role as President of ILERA.

Nominations are invited for the next President-elect of ILERA.

The next President-elect of ILERA will assume the role as President at the conclusion of the 20^th ILERA World Congress in 2024, and serve a three-year-term and be responsible for the organisation of the 21^st ILERA World Congress in 2027.

In selecting the President-elect, the nominee’s engagement in ILERA and contributions to the field of labour and employment relations is of importance, as well as the capacity to organise a World Congress. Furthermore, geographical rotation and gender equality will be taken into account.

Nominations are invited for members of the ILERA Executive Committee for the period 2024–2027.

There are vacant positions representing the African, Asian and European regions.

The Executive Committee of ILERA is responsible for determining the programme of the Association, subject to such guidance or instruction as it may receive from the Council.

HOW TO NOMINATE
Letters of nominations should be accompanied by the nominee’s résumé/curriculum vitae or by a substantial account of the accomplishments of the nominee, including his/her engagement in ILERA, and should be sent to the ILERA Secretariat at ilera@ilo.org.

Deadline for nominations: 23 April 2024

The Marchington Research Grant supports exceptional early career researchers in HR and related fields. It follows an annual cycle, awarding up to 3 grants of £6,000 each.  Apply by 22 January 2024 to be considered for the 2024 grant.

https://www.cipd.org/uk/get-involved/research-opportunities/marchington-research-grant/

24 November 2023, 10:30am-4pm  

The University of Leicester main campus and via Teams. Free registration at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/futureofwork/1053494

Britain has, over the past year and a half, experienced its highest level of strike action since the 1980s. There have been similar upsurges in industrial action in many other countries, including France, Portugal and the US. This inaugural research event of the new Future of Work research cluster at the University of Leicester, will discuss the implications of the recent rise in strike action for the theory and practice of industrial relations.

The event will consist of two panels and is open to academics and to all those with an interest in work, employment and industrial relations.

Session 1: The strike wave in Britain and its implications (11:00-12:45)  

With Professor Jane Holgate (University of Leeds) and Professor Ralph Darlington (Salford University)

Session 2: Surveying the terrain, strikes in the US, France and beyond (13:45-15:30)  

With Eric Blanc (Rutgers, US) and Kevin Guillas-Cavan (IRES, France), and Lisa Sezer (Leicester) as discussant.

The event will be in a hybrid format: in person on the main campus of the University of Leicester and via Teams online. Once registered, you will be sent venue details or a link for Teams as appropriate.

Speaker details: 

Jane Holgate is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Leeds. She is the author of Arise: Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence (Pluto, 2021) and co-editor of Union Voices: Developing Organizing in the UK (Ithaca, 2012). She has held a number of positions in the trade union movement and has worked on research projects with trade unions, including the GMB, TGWU, CWU, Bectu, Usdaw and the Trades Union Congress.

Ralph Darlington is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations at Salford University, Fellow and Honorary Member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association. He is editor of What’s the Point of Industrial Relations: In Defence of Critical Social Science (BUIRA, 2009), and author of Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism (Haymarket, 2013), Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain 1972 (Bookmarks, 2001, with Dave Lyddon), and Labour Revolt in Britain 1910-14 (Pluto, 2023).

Eric Blanc is an assistant professor of labour studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics (Verso, 2019) and Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire, 1882-1917 (Haymarket, 2022).

Kevin Guillas-Cavan is an economist working in Paris at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (IRES). His studies focus on industrial relations and trade union strategy, especially at the firm level.

Lisa Sezer is a lecturer in work and employment at the University of Leicester School of Business and a member of the Future of Work research cluster.

For further information, please email Joseph Choonara (jc770@le.ac.uk).

https://le.ac.uk/school-of-business/research/future-of-work