Small construction professional services (CPS) firms are recognised as being vitally important to the UK construction industry as much of the professional capacity of the sector resides within these small practices. They rely on the capabilities of small groups of professional employees in delivering their services and so need to ensure their commitment to achieving organisational objectives. Clearly, human resource management (HRM) strategies have a major role to play in managing employee commitment, and yet such strategies have received little attention within the construction management literature. This study investigates the nature of construction professionals commitment within small CPS firms and to develop HRM interventions that foster organisational commitment in small CPS firms. The study adopts qualitative approach to enable gathering of rich data that come directly from the participants involved in the phenomenon. Exploratory interviews with managers of small CPS firms conducted in the early phase of the research helped to identify some of the key strategies and operational challenges related to the management of commitment. Following this, the main data was collected through conducting two in-depth case studies, which included one small quantity surveying practice in the East Midlands, UK, and one small multi-disciplinary practice in the West Midlands, UK. The case studies involve in-depth interviews involving the employer and employees, participation observation and document analysis at the main office of both organisations. Together, these data helped to unravel the nature of the employment relationship within such firms and also to gain a better understanding of how professional employees express their commitment. The findings reveal that professional employees commitment is influenced by a complex range of factors, but that five main HRM levers have a particular influence within such firms. These relate to job design, performance and career management, training and development, reward management and employee involvement. It is clear that a range of factors impinge on the abilities of employers to enact effective HRM strategies. In particular the recent economic crisis and personal problems have both been cited as the main challenges by the employer and employees of both organisations. It highlights the significant importance of managing organisational commitment much more effectively, regardless of the economic climate. Based on the research results a framework for managing professional commitment was developed and validated within a range of small CPS firms. The framework presents a holistic way of accounting for all the issues that influence the development and maintenance of organisational commitment within small CPS firms. Such knowledge is essential to the management of small CPS firms for achieving meaningful improvement in their approach to foster organisational commitment. The key recommendations for the management of small CPS firms is to make sure that every aspect of the job meets the professional employees expectations as well as project requirements and organisational objectives. This includes improving communication by utilising both formal and informal medium of communication, rewarding employees with both monetary and non-monetary rewards and developing employees by providing both on-the-job training and off-the job training. All these HRM practices need to be effectively linked and managed appropriately to collectively foster commitment. In conclusion, the complex nature of organisational commitment raised the importance for the management of small CPS firms to have a structured approach in managing their employees commitment.

This thesis deals with the actual extent of contractual freedom in labor law relations from the theoretical perspective and from the perspective of its specific consequences in labor law as well. Therefore the thesis consists of two main parts. In part one, the thesis defines the legal principle concept and continues with the autonomy of the will characteristic, from which the contractual freedom principle derives, and then it describes its restrictions as a reset of both the principle of equality and the principle of protection of the weaker party to contract. As follows, the thesis deals with the position of labor law within the private law area, its historical development, the influence of the Constitutional Court decision no. 116/2008 Coll. and the adoption of the new Civil Code in terms of the labor law contractual freedom extent. The ending of the first part is dedicated to the modern "flexicurity" system that seeks to reach the balance between contractual freedom on one hand and an employee protection within labor law on the other hand. In its second part, the thesis aims to analyze particular appearances of contractual freedom within chosen labor law aspects as it both, shortly describes them and assesses them in terms of the space that they provide to contractual freedom and the amount of...

The master's thesis focuses on one aspect of labour law in the Czech Republic. Specifically, it provides a thorough interpretation of the Czech legal regulation of dependent labour, including the issue of the so-called švarcsystem. In order to achieve such purpose, the thesis uses information from the Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code, as amended, the Act No. 435/2004 Coll., The Employment Act, as amended, available doctrinal literature and case law of Czech courts and the European Court of Justice. The interpretation is performed by a comparision of the past and present Czech regulation, as well as the theoretical background and practical implications, which is the core of the focus of the master's thesis.

The Labor Pension Act¡]LPA¡^was passed by the Taiwan Legislative Yuan on June 11, 2004 and the implementation date is July 1, 2005. The significant difference between the existing Taiwan Labor Standards Law (TLSL) and LPA is that LPA is a portable defined contribution (DC) type of scheme. Employers shall contribute on a monthly basis to the Labor Pension Fund by contributing maximum 6% of monthly wage into the individual pension fund accounts. The raised staffing cost is foreseeable and was expected to turn into a heavy burden to employers. To decrease the cost of staffing and the turnover rate, this study focuses on the reactions that enterprises would plan to take and response to. However, the new LPA was not carried out officially during the study period, we conclude the exploratory findings through the questionnaire to understand what type of flexibility practice that employers¡¦ plan to take and what kind of impact on organizational performance will be made. We selected the sample companies from manufacturing, services and financial industries from¡m2003 CommonWealth Magazine Top 1600 Enterprises Ranking¡n. In all, 137 of 630 HR managers to whom we sent surveys returned the questionnaires, this yielding a response rate of 21.75%. The findings are summarized as follows: 1.The larger scale of organization, the more tendencies toward numerical flexibility and financial flexibility practice. 2.Organizations that plan to exercise numerical flexibility practices e.g., layoff, severance, downsizing etc, expect the negative effects on organizational performance. 3.Organizations that plan to exercise functional flexibility expect the positive effects on organizational performance. Organizations plan to adopt job-rotations expect the enhancement of organizational performance. 4.Organizations that plan to exercise financial flexibility do not expect the noticeable positive effects on organizational performance. Among financial flexibility practices, organizations that plan to adjust current fringe benefits expect the negative effect on organizational performance. 5.Organizations that plan to execute the improved HRM exercises expect the improvement of the organizational performance. 6.Organizations that plan to exercise the numerical and financial flexibility expect to lead to tense relationships between workers and employers in the future.

Prior to the Constitutional Court's decision in the Sidumo and another v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd and others (2007) lACC 22 the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration applied the "reasonable employer"–test to determine whether a specific sanction, issued by an employer, was fair. The "reasonable employer"–test provided a lot of flexibility to employers to dismiss employees for misconduct, as employers' decisions to dismiss were "protected" from scrutiny by the CCMA. The Constitutional Court replaced the "reasonable employer"–test, which required a measure of deference to the decision of the employer, with that of the "reasonable decision maker"–test, which required an answer to the question whether the decision reached by the commissioner was one that a reasonable decision maker could not reach? This meant that in the event that the decision reached by the commissioner was one that a reasonable decision maker could not reach, that the decision of the commissioner will be overturned on review. The change in test from a "reasonable employer" to that of a "reasonable decision maker" had significant implications for employers who are instituting disciplinary action against their employees and subsequently imposing the sanction of dismissal, as commissioners are no longer allowed to "defer" to the decision imposed by employers. The Sidumo test also have implications for employers who are seeking to take decisions of the CCMA on review, as londo JP held in Fidelity Cash Management Service v CCMA 2008 29 ILJ 964 (LAC) that it will not be often that an arbitration award is found to be one that a reasonable decision maker could not have made. / Thesis (LL.M. (Labour Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Prior to the Constitutional Court's decision in the Sidumo and another v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd and others (2007) lACC 22 the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration applied the "reasonable employer"–test to determine whether a specific sanction, issued by an employer, was fair. The "reasonable employer"–test provided a lot of flexibility to employers to dismiss employees for misconduct, as employers' decisions to dismiss were "protected" from scrutiny by the CCMA. The Constitutional Court replaced the "reasonable employer"–test, which required a measure of deference to the decision of the employer, with that of the "reasonable decision maker"–test, which required an answer to the question whether the decision reached by the commissioner was one that a reasonable decision maker could not reach? This meant that in the event that the decision reached by the commissioner was one that a reasonable decision maker could not reach, that the decision of the commissioner will be overturned on review. The change in test from a "reasonable employer" to that of a "reasonable decision maker" had significant implications for employers who are instituting disciplinary action against their employees and subsequently imposing the sanction of dismissal, as commissioners are no longer allowed to "defer" to the decision imposed by employers. The Sidumo test also have implications for employers who are seeking to take decisions of the CCMA on review, as londo JP held in Fidelity Cash Management Service v CCMA 2008 29 ILJ 964 (LAC) that it will not be often that an arbitration award is found to be one that a reasonable decision maker could not have made. / Thesis (LL.M. (Labour Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

1 Employment contract and the establishment of an employment relationship Abstract This diploma thesis deals with an employment contract and the establishment of an employment relationship. The aim is to provide a comprehensive outlook on the issue of employment contract and the establishment of an employment relationship, analyze the current legislative framework including the case law and point out some challenges regarding the application in practice. The thesis is divided into four main chapters that are further segmented. The first chapter provides a basic overview of the labor law, its function, and position within the legal framework. Next, it analyzes the relationship between the labor law and the civil law post recodification, labor law relationships, and their basic principles and the dependent work as a subject matter of the individual employment relationship. The second chapter is devoted to an employment contract. It first analyzes the process before the employment relationship is established. Next, it deals with the establishment of the employment relationship itself, appointment and the issue of the so-called factual employment relationship. The third chapter is devoted to the employment contract in general. It provides the characteristics of the employment contract, which is one of the basic...

This thesis focuses on the institute termination of employment from the legal and economic point of view. From a legal perspective, it is mainly about the presentation of the most common ways of termination of employment, including acquainting the reader with a steady legal interpretation. From a microeconomic point of view, the termination of employment relates to the consequences for employers and employees and from a macroeconomic perspective, with consequences for the whole society. This is followed by a practical part which connects the foregoing and the current example of OKD Inc., which employs nearly 10 thousand employees and currently finds itself in serious financial difficulties, the state estimates the costs associated with the mass redundancies at different alternatives. These variants are bankruptcy or reorganization provided financial assistance to the state. At the conclusion of the two calculations are compared and outlines a list of partial measures to mitigate the effects of similar events in the future.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / In the early 1990s, South Africa (SA) entered its democratic transition, which created expectations of a dramatic turnaround in the country’s economy.1 The readmission of SA to the global arena introduced the economy to concepts such as globalisation. Globalisation came with some implications and impact that have been widely debated.2 The democratic transition brought a significant change to the job spectrum, generating an increase in Temporary Employment Service (TES) and a decrease in permanent employment.3 The reasons leading to this increase are that subcontracting is beneficial to employers in that this process results in the transferral of social risks to the subcontractor, reducing direct exposure to labour legislation.4 Regarding the pertinence of this issue, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the biggest union federation in the country, and the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), have long called for the elimination of labour brokers.5 COSATU, in its presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Labour in 2009, argued that labour brokers act as intermediaries to access jobs that allegedly exist, and which in many cases would have existed previously as permanent full time jobs.6 On the other hand, political organisations, such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), Congress of the People (COPE) and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), have called for the regulation of labour brokers.7 These organisations argued that competition among businesses has increased over the past few decades. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, it is imperative to enhance technology and to adopt flexibility regarding human resource processes to minimise costs and to allow companies to broaden their investment based on the positive turnover that will occur. The continuing point of view of the opposition political coalitions has been to boost the corporate.

This diploma thesis provides the legal regulation of termination of employment by agreement in the Czech Republic. This diploma thesis focuses on the definition of the basic concepts of civil and labor law in the Czech Republic, which are related to the legal institute of Mutual agreement of termination of employment and interprets the fundamental judicial decisions of the Czech case law concerning the subject of this diploma thesis. This diploma thesis also analyses the comparison of the Czech legislation and the legislation of Great Britain. Název práce v anglickém jazyce The termination of employment by agreement Klíčová slova v anglickém jazyce (key words) Employment law, Employment relationship, Termination of employment by agreement