Statutory employee protection against unfair dismissal has operated in the United Kingdom for over two decades. Despite deregulation in other areas of individual legal rights during the 1980s, protection against unfair dismissal has emerged virtually intact. In order to help explain its survival, this article draws on empirical research to explore what the law in operation has meant for employees, unions, employers, and the state. Although offering some protection to workers against arbitrary or most unreasonable employer behavior, the law has operated in a way sensitive to employer needs and interests, and managerial prerogative has been supported.
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References
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This code replaced The Code of Industrial Relations Practice (London: HMSO, 1972).
9.
9. The judicial committee of the House of Lords has found that the hours-per-week qualifying threshold, which excludes from protection many part-time workers (who are predominantly women), is incompatible with European Union equality law. Changes to the legislation are thus expected.
10.
This contrasts with a much higher dismissal rate in the United States. For an analysis, see Jack Stieber and Robert Rodgers“Discharge for Cause: History and Development in the United States,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
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In the United States, some have argued that this is desirable. See Fox and Levin's recommendations for increased use of personnel (human resources) functions under a due process system of workplace justice. James Alan Fox and Jack Levin, “Firing Back: The Growing Threat of Workplace Homicide,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
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