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The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes to employment law and the consequent impact of legislation on Irish employment relations practice.

The paper adopts a comparative approach using two separate pieces of employment law governing race equality, and employee information and consultation, respectively. Semi‐structured interviews with key informants are the main data source, augmented in the case of the information and consultation legislation by focus groups in individual workplaces.

The empirical evidence presented suggests that legislation is not the primary initiator of change. In the case of race equality the market was found to be a key determinant of practice (termed “market‐prompted voluntarism”). However, it is argued that regulation can influence change in organisations, depending on the complex dynamic between a number of contingencies, including the aspect of employment being regulated, the presence of supportive institutions, and organisation‐specific variables.

The comparative findings in this research allow some important inferences to be made regarding the use of law to mandate change in employment relations practice. They, in turn, provide useful lessons for future policy makers, managers, trade unionists and workers.

This paper is unique in its comparison of two separate pieces of legislation. In both cases considered, the legislation was prompted by EU Directives, and the obligation on member states to transpose these Directives into national law. The findings suggest that readiness for legislation, based on length of national debate and acceptance of the underlying concept, can influence its impact. The concept of equality seems to have gained widespread acceptance since the debate provoked by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, understanding and acceptance of the concept of employee voice has been much less pronounced in the Anglo‐Saxon world.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential to develop a shared understanding of systemic discrimination and the complexity of equality and an appreciation for the range of interventions designed to redress inequality within the context of business school curricula.

Qualitative material was gathered over a four-year period through written reflections of student interpretations of equality. Participants were enroled in a human resource management (HRM) course critically examining systemic gender discrimination, women’s organisational experiences, gendered employment outcomes and the range of interventions designed to redress gendered employment outcomes. Threshold concepts framed the analysis of participant reflections.

The paper shows that while the participants developed a shared understanding of systemic gender discrimination, their interpretations of equality and appreciation for the range of interventions available to redress inequality differed. These differences were shaped by the extent to which participants integrated their understanding of systemic discrimination with their interpretations of equality, and the extent to which the interventions to inequality transformed, upheld or challenged participant agendic self-identity and world view.

The study provides support for continued use of equality as a construct in both research and teaching settings. The study highlights that unequal outcomes are an enduring phenomena, and that introducing the notion of equality to the classroom helps develop student’s ability to understand dynamics of discrimination in the workplace. The limitations of the study relate to the sample size, and dependence on a single specialist HRM course, in addition to the specific New Zealand context.

The differences in interpretations have implications for the way educators introduce discussions of equality within the business school classroom.

The paper demonstrates that developing a shared understanding of systemic discrimination does not always lead to developing a shared understanding of the complexity of equality or appreciation for the many forms of interventions available.

The concept of equality in employment is an elusive one, since it is difficult to visualise the state that would be described with such a concept. Most often, its meaning is taken as self‐ evident and therefore left undefined. (See, for instance, the papers submitted to the Subcommittee on Economic Growth and Stabilisation of the Joint Committees of the Congress of the United States, 1977). Difficulties in attempting to define equality in employment arise from at least four distinct sources: One set of problems stems from the fact that it is hard to envision equality in employment in the overall context of a society that is based on inequality. Utopian thinkers have therefore, traditionally handled the problem of inequality in employment for any given group by equalising all work in its evaluation, and to some degree, in its allocation. (For a modern version that is extremely well thought through see LeGuin, 1974). I will assume that for the purposes of this paper a complete restructuring of society along the lines of overall equality is outside the realm of the possible given the current context and I will therefore not pursue this thought here further.

The purpose of this paper is to address the little researched question of how trade unions have interpreted and engaged with the discourse of diversity adopted by many organisations to replace the traditional “equal opportunities” discourse.

Drawing on interviews with national trade union equality officers, the paper presents a discourse‐based analysis, exploring what the shift towards a diversity discourse means for trade unions.

The paper identifies three main features of the diversity discourse, which cause concern from the trade union perspective: its business‐driven nature, its focus on the individual and its positioning as a top‐down managerial activity. The main concern expressed was that the upbeat rhetoric of the diversity discourse diverts attention from the realities of discrimination and disadvantage. However, the discussion concludes that unions believe it is possible to work critically with diversity in order to pursue equality objectives.

The paper offers an original perspective on the diversity discourse, and within the field of employment relations, an unusual analytical approach.

More than six years have elapsed since the much‐heralded Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (hereafter also referred to as the “Act”) came into force. The Act had been prompted by concern at the lack of progress made in the sphere of racial equality despite the existence of the 1976 Race Relations Act. There were accusations that the 1976 Act was outdated and lacked the political teeth to be effective. The new Act imposed for the first time specific requirements on public sector institutions to be more proactive in promoting race equality. The duties would apply to public bodies that were previously exempt such as the Police and the National Health Service. This paper aims to focus on Scottish local councils and to examine the progress made by these public sector organisations in the field of race equality since the new Act came into force.

The researchers carried out a postal survey of Scotland's 32 local authorities in order to assess the progress made in the area of race equality. Questions focused on examining the scale of progress in relation to both employment and service delivery.

The results revealed a mixed picture. On the positive side, most councils had initiated race awareness training programmes. The majority had also incorporated aspects of race equality into their equal opportunities policies and most had instituted measures to engage with ethnic minority communities. However, there are still areas where performance is unsatisfactory, including inadequacies in the ethnic monitoring of staff, failure to reflect the size of the ethnic minority community in the workforce, and the absence of a clear and distinctive policy on racial harassment in the workplace.

This research will be of great value to anyone who is interested in assessing whether the legislative duties imposed by the Act have been satisfied by Scotland's local authorities. It is the first study of its kind in Scotland and is likely to appeal to both practitioners in the public sector and to academics.

Examines the history of fair employment legislation in Northern Ireland, outlines the nature and scope of the present law, and looks briefly at the significant differences between fair employment law and the law on racial equality in Great Britain. Finally reflects upon the fair employment legislation in action.

In this chapter, adopting a civil society perspective, the author is reflecting on the development of equality legislation in the European Union and its (lack of) impact on racial equality at the workplace. Presenting the development of the European Network against Racism and its organization, he highlights the thought process that led anti-racist activists to depart from a purely legal approach to discrimination and inequality to engage in a constructive conversation with public and private employers about diversity management. Since 2009, this organization has been through a long cycle of learning and exploration of the challenges of racially and ethnically diversifying a workforce and articulating business cases to that effect, while seeking to remain faithful to its founding principles of inclusion and equality. The author touches upon a variety of issues emerging from the practice of its organization: the difficulties, sometimes reluctance of HR managers to confront racism, their quest for tools, the blockings around equality data collection, the ambivalent role of trade unions as well as post-modern tensions between standardization and individualization which lie at the heart of diversity management.

The aim of this chapter is to take stock of the aspect of the social concertation in the framework of policies of diversity management. It rests in particular on the work of a commission created by the AFMD (French Association of Diversity Managers), in partnership with ORSE (a French Societal Observatory). The commission has involved several larges French companies and organised meetings between the representatives of the different employers’ and workers’ organisations. Another source is the numerous actions led by the Labour Unions in Belgium in the framework of the Consortium Diversité Wallonie, which exists since 2007. This study tries to remind some objectives of social concertation in regards to policies of diversity management, to take stock of the legal constraints on concertation in regards to particular targets, to show the multiple conceptions of this notion of diversity management among social partners, to give an overview of the content of the agreements, and to present the steps of a social concertation sensible to diversity.

Starting with a comparative assessment of different welfare regimes and political economies from the perspective of gender awareness and “pro-women” policies, this chapter identifies the determinants of cross-national variation in women's chances of being in a high-status occupation in 12 West European countries. Special emphasis is given to size and structure of the service sector, including share of women in public employment and structural factors such as trade union density and employment protection. The first level of comparison between men and women concentrates on gender representation in the higher echelons of the job hierarchy, while the second section extends the scope of analysis, comparing women in high-status occupations and low-wage employment in order to allow for a more nuanced study of gender and class interaction. The first analysis is based on European Social Survey data for the years 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008, capturing recent trends in occupational dynamics. Results indicate that in general a large service sector and a high trade union density enhance women's chances of being in high-status occupations, while more specifically a large public sector helps to reduce channeling women into low-wage employment. Thus, equality at the top can well be paired with inequality at the bottom, as postindustrial countries with a highly polarized occupational hierarchy such as the UK show.

Outlines women′s continuing pay and employment disadvantage in Britain. Discusses limitations of the legal compliance approach to equal opportunity. Examines critically the business case for EO (that it serves organizational competitiveness). Argues there is not a business case but a series of business rationales which are contingent. Organizational and managerial receptiveness to them is uneven, and they lead to only selective action. Argues that the business case “carrot” shares a similar weakness to the legal compliance “stick”. Calls for action beyond the individual organization in a multi‐pronged approach requiring state action, in which equality legislation and business case rationales each have a part to play.