Consultation at Work

Mark Hall is Professorial Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He previously worked on the TUC's head office staff throughout the 1980s. He has written extensively on the legal regulation of employee representation. He acted as a consultant to the European Commission, 1990-1, working on the European Works Councils Directive and revision of collective redundancies Directive, and to the Department of Trade and Industry, 1997-2001, advising on the UK implementation of the EWCs and information and consultation Directives. He co-edited European Works Councils Bulletin, 1995-2006. and is co-ordinator of UK input to the European Industrial Relations Observatory. His research interests include the legal regulation of employment relations, EU and British employment law policy, European Works Councils, and employee information and consultation. John Purcell is a specialist in the management of employment relations and HRM with a particular interest in business strategies and the way they impact on employees' attitudes and behaviour and affect performance. He is an active researcher and has led research teams looking at HRM and performance, performance related pay, mergers and acquisitions, the role of line managers, the use of agency workers and the management of change. His latest research with Mark Hall focussed on the practice of collective consultation and the impact of the law in this area. Following 14 years as a University Lecturer at Oxford University, he worked for 12 years as Professor of Human Resource Management at Bath University before moving to the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick Business School where he is now an Associate Fellow. He has written or co-authored 7 books and over 50 academic papers. He is an Acas arbitrator and a Deputy Chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee.

In the book, [the authors] convincingly argue the case for government, employers, and trade unions ... taking a more positive attitude towards this institution. They situate consultation in its historical context in the UK ... ; explain the drivers behind the European Community's desire to generalise the institution at the turn of the century; and examine the British government's tepid transposition of the EU rules. Above all, they present the results of their own research on the impact of the EU rules in the UK to date and make powerful suggestions for a reassessment of the value of consultation, on the part of both domestic government and trade unions. A book to be studied with close attention by those interested in the future of the collective representation of workers towards their employers in a time of declining union membership and shrinking collective bargaining coverage.

• 1. Consultation at Work: Competing Agendas, Differing Expectations ; 2. Justifications for Consultation ; 3. Legislating for Employee Consultation: the Significance of EU-level Regulation ; 4. Half-hearted Regulation in the UK ; 5. The Take-up and Impact of Statutory Consultation ; 6. The Practice of Consultation ; 7. The Dynamics of Consultation ; 8. The Future of Consultation ; Appendix