Employee relations

Abstract

Our point of departure in writing a book about employee relations can be summarised in a few short statements. First and foremost, work dominates the lives of most men and women. Aside from the domestic sphere, the vast majority of those who work are employees rather than employers. The terms and conditions under which we undertake that work are of central importance to us all. These terms and conditions include both the ‘market exchange’ that we enter into with an employer and the ‘managerial relations’ to which all of us are subjected. The former evokes notions of fairness and equity in the remuneration of labour. According to an old Proverb, ‘in all labour there is profit’, but how much profit should the employer derive from our labour? The latter, managerial relations, are equally important because ‘there can be no employment relationship without a power to command and a duty to obey’ (Kahn-Freund, 1972:9). We are all concerned about the authority of the employer to direct and (ab)use our labour.