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There exists a considerable body of evidence to suggest that older workers are increasingly being excluded from the workplace in the UK and elsewhere. Commonly, such exclusions are viewed as being due, at least in part, to the use of discriminatory practices by employers towards older workers and jobseekers. Many previous writers have sought to explain age discrimination in employment as the result of the cognitive biases of individual employers (e.g. Warr & Pennington, 1993) or as the outcome of inequitable social structures which favour younger workers over older workers (e.g. Phillipson, 1982). Recent measures promoted by the UK Government to address age discrimination in the workplace (DfEE, 1999) have accordingly rested on the promotion to employers of the principles of diversity and equal opportunities in employment. Drawing on work which has examined the explanatory power of age itself (Bodily, 1991; 1994) and on recent work within discursive psychology, I argue in this Thesis that age diversity and equal opportunities in employment can be usefully understood as discursive resources available to and used by participants within everyday social interaction. Adopting such a perspective allows discrimination against older workers to be viewed as ongoing social practice. Here, I analyse data obtained from written equal opportunities policies of employers, from focus groups and from interviews conducted with employers and older jobseekers. Employers, while making claims which appear to be inclusive of workers in general and older workers in particular, describe their workforce and recruitment practices within reference to the numbers of older workers employed. When challenged, they account for the apparent marginalisation of older workers within their organisations in terms of factors outwith their control and in ways which make such practices less visible and less open to public scrutiny.

Despite significant increases in female labour market participation and educational achievement in the EU in recent decades, women still trail men in terms of employment rates, earnings and occupational attainment. This thesis is about the interplay between the characteristics of individuals associated with productivity, labour market returns to these characteristics, and country-level work/family reconciliation policies in influencing female employment and gender inequalities in the labour market in the enlarged EU. It explores variations in the ways EU member states support individuals in combining work and family life and the extent to which these policies promote gender equality in the labour market in terms of pay and occupational attainment. The approach of the thesis is quantitative and comparative, based on the secondary analysis of micro social datasets and comparable policy indicators, using advanced statistical techniques. It is also multi-disciplinary, drawing on the literature and methods from the fields of labour economics and comparative social policy. Results from the study suggest that the existing work-family reconciliation policies in the EU have not caught up sufficiently with the dramatic advances in women’s labour market position. To various extents, they retain elements of the traditional male breadwinner model. Even in the Nordic countries, which rank highest on most measures of gender equity in work/family reconciliation policies, women tend to earn less than men, on average, and to work in a narrower range of occupations than their male counterparts. At the other extreme, Eastern-European and Mediterranean countries tend to have more traditional gender-role attitudes and a policy environment less compatible with the dual-earner/dual-carer model of the family. However, women who work, particularly those who work full-time, typically enjoy more equality with men in terms of their wages and occupational attainment.

The Liverpool dockers' dispute 1995-98 exemplifies the type of environment many workers' faced during the 1990s. The British experience provides a particularly relevant paradigm due to the specific interactions that developed between economic restructuring, political deregulatory processes and trade union responses after the 1979 election which saw Thatcher's government embark upon a complete overhaul of this relationship. The Liverpool case brings together all those issues. The thesis draws on a wide range of materials, both oral and archival, which have been previously unstudied, presenting the first fulllength academic study of the dispute and its background. The focus of the thesis examines how workers articulate solidarity in the new environment marked by economic restructuring and political deregulation. It does so by proposing three analytical categories: (1) economic restructuring and political regulatory processes, (2) trade union strategies and (3) workplace and community experience and popular historical memories. The thesis argues that the interaction between these three categories is what shaped the different political articulations of solidarity and their successes and failures, during the 1990s. The analysis of this interaction suggests that the organisational dynamics that developed during the dispute, exemplify a tension between centralising processes of trade unionism and searches for organisational autonomy by particular groups of workers. These dynamics are not necessarily specific to that period, but rather rooted in their remembered historical experience. Thus, a conceptualisation of the political articulation of solidarity as a contested arena can provide an indication of workers' organisational capabilities in particular periods.

The influence of corporate governance on labour management is one of the key topics of the contemporary academic debate. In particular, there is a growing interest in better understanding the employment effects of takeovers. We investigate this issue in four empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter shows that acquired firms’ prior performance is the key variable in explaining post-takeover workforce adjustments: acquired firms’ poorer performance leads to greater workforce reductions post-merger. Industry relatedness also leads to higher levels of workforce adjustments. However, the results show that hostility does not lead to higher workforce reductions after controlling for other relevant variables. In contrast to prior research conclusions, the results show that high premiums do not induce workforce reductions. These results imply that workforce reductions are undertaken for efficiency improvement purposes. The second empirical chapter shows that acquiring firms’ performance decline may also induce workforce reductions post-merger. At the same time, the results show that workforce reductions are inversely associated with subsequent performance change. This implies that post-merger workforce reductions positively affect firm performance. The third empirical chapter shows that takeover announcement shareholder gains do not explain job losses and wage cuts, although there is some evidence of rent expropriation after hostile and cash-paid acquisitions. In contrast, there is a strong positive association between acquirers’ long-run abnormal returns and post-merger employee wealth concessions. This association suggests that post-takeover jobs and wage growth depends on value created by takeovers: if shareholders gain from takeovers, then employees also benefit from such transactions; if shareholders lose from takeovers, then employees also suffer from them. Finally, the fourth empirical chapter shows that mergers reduce demand for labour. A contribution of this chapter is that it confirms that decline in labour demand is larger after acquisitions that involve layoffs than after acquisitions that do not. This greater decrease in labour demand in layoff-involving acquisitions may justify workforce reductions post-merger. The general conclusion of the thesis is that mergers do not always negatively affect labour and that post-merger employee layoffs are usually undertaken for efficiency improvement purposes.

This study examines the phenomenon of temporary employment agency working in two areas of the UK, Leeds and Telford. Recent debates on the changing nature of the employment relationship have focused on purported moves towards non-standard working, and have increased the need for a closer examination of individual forms of employment. The temporary employment agency is one of a number of contemporary and historical forms of labour market intermediary, and this thesis starts by attempting to identify the distinctive features of this particular form of working. Analysis then focuses on the unique nature of the employment agency industry in the UK. The distinction is made between agencies that found employment relationships and then step out of the picture and agencies, such as temporary employment agencies which can potentially ‘remain in the picture’ for some time, building relationships with workers and firms. The custom in the UK of carrying out temporary help and permanent placement from the same agency is also discussed. A comparison of legislation pertaining to agency working across Europe reveals the diverse interpretations that have been given to the role of the temporary employment agency. The empirical focus of the thesis is on two of the three parties in the employment agency relationship, the employment agency worker and the employment agency itself. Through large-scale survey analysis, the conduct of an original questionnaire to agency workers in two areas of the UK, and in-depth interviews with agency workers and managers an attempt is made to assess the significance and implications of this form of working. A central aim is to explore the implications of the intervention of the temporary employment agency between worker and firm, and to investigate the relationships which emerge as a result of this intervention. At an empirical level, these aims are realised via the identification of the personal and employment characteristics of agency workers in the UK and a comparison of these characteristics with other groups of employees. The experience of agency working is examined from the perspective of the agency worker, focusing on both tangible and attitudinal measures of this experience. An assessment is made of the nature of the relationships between the three parties in employment agency working. Such an analysis allows insight into a number of issues, including : the nature of agency working; the role of the employment agency in shaping developments in the industry; the reasons for recourse to agencies by firms and workers; and the impact of local labour market characteristics on the above issues.

The central objective of the thesis has been to present an account of the industrial relations of industrial restructuring and plant closure. Whilst there are many portrayals of the circumstances of plant closure and particularly the implications for victims and survivors, academic interest has rarely focused on the whole process. Hence a key consideration has been the exploration of the full life cycle of plant closure: the complex dynamics of the processes of industrial restructuring, framed by historical, geographical and political contexts and the social and industrial relations processes therein. Included here is the attempt by one trade union to develop a post closure strategy of community unionism. The context for the study is that of the UK steel industry and specifically the Corus restructuring exercise that took place in 2001 and 2002. The research strategy took the form of a qualitative, embedded case study. Hence although the closure of the Ebbw Vale steelworks was the focus for detailed investigation, the research encompassed the wider corporate organisation and also the community of Ebbw Vale. The findings show that the crisis that engulfed Corus in 2001 was the result of the combination of historical, financial and political factors. The ability of the organisation to respond to crisis was almost fatally damaged by the power of the banks and tensions between Dutch and UK managementA. t national level, unions were also divided by internal divisions. At this level, there was no rapprochement betweent he representatives of labour and capital. Once,however, the requirements of restructuring moved to plant level and the reality of closing a site over a protracted period of time, the financial and human crisis of restructuring produced a different dynamic. There was a shift in the balance of power towards labour and constructive engagement between unions and management occurred. The findings also show that an organic link with industry and community might be a necessary but not sufficient condition for the success of attempts by unions to retain membership and influence post plant closure. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate how industrial restructuring and plant closure are subject to different and distinct phases of negotiation shaped by wider political,managerial and union strategies. The interplay of different forms of employee participation, the ebb and flow of power relations and the balance between conflict and cooperation are the key dynamics highlighted in this thesis.

This thesis explores the implications of the internet for the politics and processes of trade unionism. Michels' classic formulation on the "iron law of oligarchy" and its grounding in a communications based theory of leadership domination is presented as a heuristic devise for uncovering the significance of Information Communication Technologies for trade unionism. The present relationship of trade unionism and the internet in the United Kingdom is characterized and the potentialities for union democratization are presented. A set of concrete case studies of rank and file union internet activism are investigated. This thesis seeks to extend analysis beyond formal decision making processes and to situate communicative pathways, structures and protocols, so that the task of grasping the full significance of Information Communication Technologies for trade unionism can begin. Arising from the presentation of case study materials, new institutional patterning, politics and processes are revealed and uncovered. Established is a communicative network model of union communication, one that challenges traditional bureaucratic top down information models of union communication. With the supplementary powers revealed by the availability of distributed communication technologies leadership practices are challenged within the new context of a distributed discourse. The thesis looks forward to a collective solidarity which may be beyond the structure and shape of the present institutional form of trade unions and draws out the perils, opportunities and dilemmas that the future may bring.

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No description available.