• Project Leader: Dr Jenny Rodriguez

The Human Resource Management, Work and Employment (HRMWE) Research Group at Newcastle University Business School, in a collaborative effort with Monash University and Strathclyde University, will be running a series of ESRC seminars exploring the regulation of work and employment.

The seminar series takes an important step in looking at regulation from multidisciplinary, multilevel perspectives, and frames the discussion within the context of an international dialogue as the most appropriate way to have concrete impact on different stakeholders involved in the regulation of work and employment.

Work and employment remain a central concern to people’s livelihoods, wellbeing and identities. Its regulation has always generated debate about the competing demands between economic concerns (eg competitiveness and productivity), and social concerns (eg worker rights, equality and social justice). For governments, policy-makers and inter-governmental agencies this translates into struggles to set the ‘rules of the game’ and the degree of intervention. Most workers and their families, as well as unions welcome regulation as they see it as a key element of decent work, work-life balance and health and safety.

The series aims to address the complexities and dynamics of the forces that give rise to patterns of regulation at local, national, supranational and international levels, looking to contribute to developing understanding of these issues. In doing so this will help to inform policies, strategies and practices of government, businesses and unions.

To register your interest in the series and to be added to our mailing list email esrcseminar@ncl.ac.uk.

The Organising team

Dr Jenny Rodriguez, Newcastle University
Dr Tracy Scurry, Newcastle University
Dr Stewart Johnstone, Newcastle University
Professor Steve Hughes, Newcastle University
Professor Greg Bamber, Monash University
Professor Paul Stewart, Strathclyde University

Background to the series

The regulation of work and employment poses important questions for public policy-makers, organisations and the labour movement in the UK and around the world. Main concerns include the extent to which work and employment should be regulated or deregulated, and how such regulation should be developed and applied in practice. The regulation of work and employment also highlights a key strategic tension between economic concerns (eg competitiveness and productivity), and social concerns (eg worker rights, equality and social justice). Ultimately, it is often viewed as a potential means of reconciling these countervailing tensions. However, the discussion about regulation is controversial at all levels.

At the national level, those who represent the interests of employers, such as the Institute of Directors (2010) and the British Chambers of Commerce (2011), often argue that a high degree of regulation may hinder job creation and discourage multinational enterprises from investing. It is argued that this leads them to countries with a lower degree of regulation.

At the workplace level, managers may be keen to protect their prerogative regarding how to best manage businesses in order to remain sustainable in competitive global markets. However, certain forms of regulation may be welcomed by individual workers and their families as they see it as central to decent work, work-life balance, and health and safety (van Wanrooy et al., 2011; Sanséau and Smith, 2012).

At supranational and international levels, as regulatory processes continue to shift (Martinez Lucio and MacKenzie, 2004; Angel-Urdinola and Kuddo, 2010); it is fundamental to collectively address emerging contradictions. For instance, government discourses of liberalisation and deregulation at national level see their counterpart in the implementation of tight regulation regimes at supranational level. However, regulation has led to contradictions at the organisational level, where the discursive promotion of labour market flexibility coexists alongside the practical implementation of a profound re-regulation of labour relations (Standing, 1997). Nonetheless, there is evidence (eg, Germany) that employment protection and strong economic output can coexist (OECD, 2004).

The CIPD (2011:1) suggests that “the case for or against regulation should be analytically sound and assessed in relation to specific employment or workplace issues rather than pursued as a matter of ideology”. However, there is a disconnection between these different levels of analysis, as well as between policy and practice. The series brings together leading international academic thinkers with key policy influencers in order to advance theory, employment policy and practice.

The Seminar Series

The series comprised of six one-day seminars, which included presentations from:

• leading academic researchers
• policy-makers
• representatives from employers’ organisations
• senior figures from business
• trade union officials
• other stakeholders

Seminar 1

Competing Approaches to the Regulation of Work and Employment 
Aim: To explore regulatory asymmetries, ambiguities, similarities and contradictions in existing agendas for regulation focusing on: “What has changed in the way regulation is understood and used? What underlying assumptions are identified in the ways in which regulation of work and employment is understood and used by different stakeholders (eg, academics, businesses, intergovernmental agencies).

This seminar took place at Newcastle University on 22 January 2014.

Seminar 2

Workplace Regulation: HRM and IR Issues
Aim: To explore the changing dynamics of workplace relations in the context of declining collective regulation and shifts towards individualistic HRM, the role of trade unionism in supporting and resisting regulation, the quest for mutual gains, and the suitability of the proposition to (re)theorise employment relations and HRM practices to account for the impact of supranational level regulations, as well as the reconfiguration of ‘rules’ at the national level.

This seminar took place at the University of Strathclyde in April/May 2014.

Seminar 3

International Regulation
Aim: To explore the diversity of regulatory regimes across geographies focusing on the relationship between regulation and multilayered governance, and the diffusion of political authority. It will contribute to discussions about ‘domestic labour market regulation’ (Häberli et al., 2012).

This seminar took place at Monash University Prato Centre, September 2014.

Seminar 4

Regulation and the Individual Experience of Work
Aim: To explore how regulation intersects with individual differences, such as gender, age and ethnicity, focusing on individual experiences of work (eg, career trajectories, professional identities) and the implications different forms of regulations have for intersectional inequalities and discrimination.

This seminar took place at Newcastle University in February/March 2015.

Seminar 5

Regulation and the Firm
Aim: To explore the impact of regulation on firms; the similarities and differences between MNCs and SMEs, the impact of employment protection regulations on firms’ hiring and firing decisions, and the possibility to harmonise firms’ need for labour market dynamism with workers’ needs for decent, secure jobs.

This seminar took place at Newcastle University in June/July 2015.

Seminar 6

The Future of Regulation
Aim: To explore future agendas and identify core foundations of a collaborative model to advance understanding and practical uses of regulation, and their implications for business and society.

This seminar took place at University of Strathclyde in September 2015.