What's the issue?

What is the role of labour law in promoting a more equal and democratic society? By a more equal society we mean one in which the current inequalities of income and power are greatly diminished. By a more democratic society, we mean one in which citizens as workers are integrated through their trade unions in the decisions that affect their working lives.

It is a well-worn aphorism that democracy does not begin and end at the ballot box every five years or at the whim of an incumbent Prime Minister. It is a principle that applies to all aspects of life, but most especially to working life, where we are subject to the governance and rules of others. Where there is disparity of power it needs to be confronted and redressed.

For most people it is the employer who has the greatest power over their lives, although we do not discount the power of the state or the landlord. But it is employer power that determines not only the rules of the workplace, but also the quality of life for workers and their families outside work. The employers’ power to determine pay determines where we live, what we can spend our free time on, and whether, where and how often we go on holiday.

The challenge for labour law is how to give workers voice – in government, in industry and in the corporation – in a way that socialises power through participation in decision-making. This political dimension – empowerment and equal participation – of the case for labour reinforces what we readily acknowledge to be the social and economic case that has already been made effectively by scholars in other disciplines.

Analysis

Socialising industry

The starting point is a new social agenda for industry, by the reordering of collective bargaining on a sectoral basis. Sectoral collective bargaining is a practice that we are very familiar with in the UK, having been actively promoted by governments from the 1930s until the 1970s. Its main effect is to raise the levels of collective bargaining coverage – more workers are covered by a collective agreement as a result, with workers’ terms and conditions improved accordingly.