Employment Law Revisited

This critique of Brian Langille’s famous “Subset” article considers the historical and current meaning of “employment law” in Canada and in the UK. In Canada, “employment law” was fashioned by Innis Christie in the 1980s as the law of personal work relations for the non-unionized sector, with “labour law” applying to the unionized sector of the economy. In the UK, “individual employment law” appeared in the 1970s to be a distinct discipline; but since that time it has largely re-merged with labour law, with the terms “employment law” and “labour law” becoming virtually synonymous. An enlarged scope is proposed for the whole subject as “work relations law,” in which individual and collective elements are combined; and finally it is argued that Langille’s seminal article proposed a similar over-arching framework for the subject as a whole, rather than subordinating its collective to its individual aspect as it initially appears to do. La présente critique du célèbre article de Brian Langille « Labour Law is a Subset of Employment Law » examine la signification historique et actuelle du « droit de l’emploi » au Canada et au Royaume-Uni. Au Canada, le « droit de l’emploi » a été conçu par Innis Christie dans les années 1980 comme le droit des relations de travail personnelles pour le secteur non syndiqué, alors que le « droit du travail » s’appliquait au secteur syndiqué de l’économie. Au Royaume-Uni, le « droit individuel de l’emploi » est apparu dans les années 1970 comme une discipline distincte ; mais depuis lors, il a largement fusionné avec le droit du travail, les termes « droit de l’emploi » et « droit du travail » étant devenus pratiquement synonymes. Nous proposons un champ d’application élargi pour aborder l’ensemble du sujet en tant que « droit des relations de travail », dans lequel les éléments individuels et collectifs sont combinés; et enfin, nous avançons que l’article fondateur de Langille proposait un cadre global similaire pour l’ensemble du sujet, plutôt que de subordonner son aspect collectif à son aspect individuel comme il semblait le faire initialement

Employees, workers and the ‘sharing economy’ Changing practices and changing concepts in The United Kingdom

Recent years have seen a radical shift in the practice and profile of the labour economy in the United Kingdom consisting in the considerable growth of the so-called ‘Sharing Economy’ or ‘Gig Economy’, better identified as the ‘On-demand Economy’. From that starting point, it is argued that a corresponding change seems to have occurred in the set of concepts which the labour/ employment law of the United Kingdom uses to analyse and to characterize the work relations and work contracts which are created, made, and operated within this rapidly growing sector of the labour market. Two recent high-profile Employment Tribunal decisions in the Uber and Citysprint cases, and a decision of the Court of Appeal in this same area in the Pimlico Plumbers case have served to confirm the legislative creation of a third intermediate category of ‘workers’ who benefit from a set of employment rights which is more limited than that enjoyed by employees but which is nevertheless very important. This crystallization of labour law’s newly tripartite taxonomy of work relations has occurred very largely in the context of the on-demand economy, and is beneficial to those located in that sector. This is, however, a rather fragile conceptual structure

Law, public services and citizenship : new domains, new regimes?

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

Age Discrimination and EU Labour Rights Law

The aim of this chapter is to provide a general account of the development and working of EU law against age discrimination in employment in which that body of law is analysed and evaluated as the expression or realisation, however complete or incomplete it may be, of an EU labour right which we can think of as ‘the EU right to age equality in employment’ or ‘the EU right against age discrimination in employment’. For this purpose, the legal framework concerning age discrimination is first described in general terms (Section 1), and attention is then focused upon three areas or aspects of that body of law, namely those of discrimination against younger workers (Section 2), discrimination against older workers in general (Section 3), and finally the special case of retirement (Section 4). In this Introduction, we suggest a method for critical analysis of this body of law which, among other things, serves to explain why we single out retirement as a special case for discussion. This paves the way for some normative evaluations which are made throughout and are added to in the Conclusion to the chapter. Our suggestion for a method of critical analysis of EU employment age discrimination law focuses on the kinds and degrees of structural change to employment arrangements which are involved in its implementation; so it is the idea of ‘EU law against age discrimination in employment and structural change’. This might also be applicable to EU employment discrimination law on other grounds

Citizenship, Public Service, and the Employment Relationship

This paper reports on the effects on employment relations and conceptions of citizenship of the shift from bureaucratic to market-led forms of public service provision in britain. Two contrasting case studies are reported, one based on the public education service, the other on the utilities. Education, which remains within the public sector, has become subject to a high degree of hierarchical control through political and administrative processes which together amount to a form of 'imposed contractualism'. Excessively prescriptive performance targets are in danger of bringing about a low-trust dynamic within employment relations, which in turn threatens the viability of government-initiated reforms. By contrast, in the privatised (and re-regulated) utilities, collective bargaining has been re-emerging in the last few years on the basis of 'partnership' arrangements between labour and management. However, the regulatory framework continues to place employers under continuous pressure to cut costs and to reduce employment levels. The partnership solution is therefore in many ways a highly precarious one, which may not survive further tightening of regulatory controls.Public Service Employment, Citizenship

Adjuvant and Salvage Radiotherapy After Prostatectomy: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Endorsement

PURPOSE: To endorse the American Urological Association (AUA)/American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) guideline on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has a policy and set of procedures for endorsing clinical practice guidelines developed by other professional organizations. METHODS: The guideline on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy was reviewed for developmental rigor by methodologists. An ASCO endorsement panel then reviewed the content and recommendations. RESULTS: The panel determined that the guideline recommendations on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy, published in August 2013, are clear, thorough, and based on the most relevant scientific evidence. ASCO endorsed the guideline on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy, adding one qualifying statement that not all candidates for adjuvant or salvage radiotherapy have the same risk of recurrence or disease progression, and thus, risk-benefit ratios are not the same for all men. Those at the highest risk for recurrence after radical prostatectomy include men with seminal vesicle invasion, Gleason score 8 to 10, extensive positive margins, and detectable postoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA). RECOMMENDATIONS: Physicians should discuss adjuvant radiotherapy with patients with adverse pathologic findings at prostatectomy (ie, seminal vesicle invasion, positive surgical margins, extraprostatic extension) and salvage radiotherapy with patients with PSA or local recurrence after prostatectomy. The discussion of radiotherapy should include possible short- and long-term adverse effects and potential benefits. The decision to administer radiotherapy should be made by the patient and multidisciplinary treatment team, keeping in mind that not all men are at equal risk of recurrence or clinically meaningful disease progression. Thus, the risk-benefit ratio will differ for each patient

Feminist Reflections on the Scope of Labour Law: Domestic Work, Social Reproduction and Jurisdiction

Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After discussing the “commodification” of care, global care chains, and body work, I claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of social reproduction

Privatisation, outsourcing and employment relations in Israel

This chapter focuses on the effect that outsourcing, as a subset of privatization, has had on employment relations in Israel. In particular, chapter highlights the adverse, and perhaps counter-intuitive, effects that the law has had on the plight of Israeli contract workers. Israeli governmental agencies and local councils have turned to outsourcing as a means to circumventing post limits and due to the Ministry of Finance’s pressures to increase ‘flexibility’ in the civil service. Intriguingly, paradoxically, and tragically, the law’s effort to regulate this growing phenomenon has led employers resorting to tactics which have redefined agency workers (teachers, nurses, etc) as workers subject to the “outsourcing of services” (teaching, nursing, etc). This has moved such workers into a legal void, depriving them of rights and protection

The Movember Global Action Plan 1 (GAP1) : Unique Prostate Cancer Tissue Microarray Resource

BACKGROUND: The need to better understand the molecular underpinnings of the heterogeneous outcomes of patients with prostate cancer is a pressing global problem and a key research priority for Movember. To address this, the Movember Global Action Plan 1 Unique tissue microarray (GAP1-UTMA) project constructed a set of unique and richly annotated tissue microarrays (TMA) from prostate cancer samples obtained from multiple institutions across several global locations. METHODS: Three separate TMA sets were built that differ by purpose and disease state. RESULTS: The intended use of TMA1 (Primary Matched LN) is to validate biomarkers that help determine which clinically localized prostate cancers with associated lymph node metastasis have a high risk of progression to lethal castration-resistant metastatic disease, and to compare molecular properties of high-risk index lesions within the prostate to regional lymph node metastases resected at the time of prostatectomy. TMA2 (Pre vs. Post ADT) was designed to address questions regarding risk of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and response to suppression of the androgen receptor/androgen axis, and characterization of the castration-resistant phenotype. TMA3 (CRPC Met Heterogeneity)'s intended use is to assess the heterogeneity of molecular markers across different anatomic sites in lethal prostate cancer metastases. CONCLUSIONS: The GAP1-UTMA project has succeeded in combining a large set of tissue specimens from 501 patients with prostate cancer with rich clinical annotation. IMPACT: This resource is now available to the prostate cancer community as a tool for biomarker validation to address important unanswered clinical questions around disease progression and response to treatment.publishedVersionPeer reviewe