Dr Eddy Donnelly NAB 4.07

This course is available on the BSc in Social Policy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course was formerly known as ID100 Employment Relations

The syllabus introduces students to the complex relationships between employers, managers, workers, trade unions and the state. It builds from the perspective of the individual worker and his/her job and proceeds, via discussion of management strategies and trade union responses, to contemporary views on globalisation and its impact on state policy.

The employment relationship in theory. Work organisation and work methods. Emotional labour. Japanisation. Human Resource Management. Pay and reward. Individual and collective resistance at work. Collective bargaining and trade unions. Industrial conflict and the right to strike. Comparative models of employment relations. The role of the state. Corporate governance. Globalisation and migrant work. International labour standards.

10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 3 hours of classes in the ST.

As well as contributing to class discussion, students are expected to provide one piece of written work at the end of each term (MT and LT) in preparation for their final exam.

The lecture course does not follow a single prescribed textbook. A detailed reading list will be supplied. However the following are useful; M Noon, P Blyton & K Morrell, The Realities of Work, 4th edn, 2013; P Blyton & P Turnbull, The Dynamics of Employee Relations, 3rd edn, 2004; John W Budd, The Thought of Work, 2011; C Frege & J Kelly, Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy, 2013, Routledge.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.