Annual Shirley Lerner Lecture
Phil Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Employment Relations, University of Strathclyde
This talk will present a detailed analysis of the origins, context, framing, purposes, activities and outcomes of the Inverclyde Advice and Employment Rights Centre (IAERC), drawing on a wider ESRC-supported research project on the nature of contemporary worker voice. While, conceptually, it may be considered a post-Dunlopian 'new actor', it is an established (since 1996), continuous, voluntary organisation, deeply embedded in a defined local authority and intimately engaging with thousands of grievance-bearing unrepresented workers in a de-industrialised labour market. The IAERC commits to ensuring access and availability for clients, their empowerment, continuity of advice, depth of expertise and, crucially, detailed knowledge of employment law, ACAS and ET procedures and appropriate referral to skilled representatives and experts. The paper reports on the diverse range of client problems and grievances, from the relatively straightforward to the complex, from manifold instances of pay withdrawal, to unfair dismissal, bullying and harassment and multiple forms of discrimination, and on their resolution or otherwise. It concludes by analysing IAERC's interaction with 'conventional' IR actors, and in re-engaging with Bellemare's (2000) instrumental and outcome dimensions, argues that the IAERC represents a significant 'not-so-new' IR actor.
This will be a hybrid meeting held in Room G.35, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. The meeting will be held from 6-7.30pm.
For those unable to attend in person there is a Zoom link.
