Voices at Work ─ Continuity and Change in the Common Law World

This edited collection is the culmination of a comparative project on 'Voices at Work' funded by the Leverhulme Trust 2010 - 2013. The book aims to shed light on the problematic concept of worker 'voice' by tracking its evolution and its complex interactions with various forms of law. Contributors to the volume identify the scope for continuity of legal approaches to voice and the potential for change in a sample of industrialised English speaking common law countries, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA. These countries, facing broadly similar regulatory dilemmas, have often sought to borrow and adapt certain legal mechanisms from one another. The variance in the outcomes of any attempts at 'borrowing' seems to demonstrate that, despite apparent membership of a 'common law' family, there are significant differences between industrial systems and constitutional traditions, thereby casting doubt on the notion that there are definitive legal solutions which can be applied through transplantation. Instead, it seems worth studying the diverse possibilities for worker voice offered in divergent contexts, not only through traditional forms of labour law, but also such disciplines as competition law, human rights law, international law and public law. In this way, the comparative study highlights a rich multiplicity of institutions and locations of worker voice, configured in a variety of ways across the English-speaking common law world.

This book comprises contributions from many leading scholars of labour law, politics and industrial relations drawn from across the jurisdictions, and is therefore an exceedingly comprehensive comparative study. It is addressed to academics, policymakers, legal practitioners, legislative drafters, trade unions and interest groups alike. Additionally, while offering a critique of existing laws, this book proposes alternative legal tools to promote engagement with a multitude of 'voices' at work and therefore foster the effective deployment of law in industrial relations.

Alan Bogg, Professor of Labour Law, University of Oxford,Tonia Novitz, Professor of Labour Law, ,University of Bristol

Alan Bogg is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Oxford. Alan's research focuses predominantly on theoretical issues in domestic, European and International labour law. His book 'The Democratic Aspects of Trade Union Recognition' was published in 2009 by Hart Publishing. It was awarded the SLS Peter Birks' Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship in 2010.

Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol. She is a member of the editorial board of the UK Industrial Law Journal, with special responsibility for the Recent Legislation section. She writes on UK labour law, international labour standards, EU social policy, EU external relations, and mechanisms for the protection of human rights.