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March 22, 1972 Building and Construction — Working places regulations — Main contractor in occupation of motorway site — Subcontractors' employee injured by fall on path used as alternative means of access to and egress from working place — Whether main contractor capable of being liable to subcontractors' employee for damages for breach of regulation relating to safe access — Whether under duty to comply with “such requirements” of safe access regulation “as affect him…” to cover subcontractors' employees — Whether duty extended by addition of two words in regulation — Conflicting decision on scope of amended regulation resolved — Construction (Working Places) Regulations, 1966 (S.I. 1966 No. 94) regs. 3(1) (a) (b), 6(1) — Factories Act, 1961 (9 & 10 Eliz. II, c 34) s.76(2).

January 15, 1970 Redundancy — Calculation of payment — Continuity of employment — Absence from work — “Temporary cessation of work” — Employment taken until temporary cessation terminated — Other employment intended to bridge gap — Re‐engagement when work available — Whether absence on account of temporary cessation — Whether employment continuous — Contracts of Employment Act, 1963 (c. 49), Sch. 1, para. 5 (1) (b) — Redundancy Payments Act, 1965 (c. 62), s. 1 (1). Sch. 1, para. 1 (1).

July 30, 1970 Trade union — Membership — Breach of contract by wrongful termination — Measure of damages — Actual loss to date of assessment — Future loss, how estimated? — Duty to mitigate — Union rules giving arbitrary power over temporary members — Effect on man's right to work — Whether invalid.

November 7, 1972 Industrial Relations — Unfair dismissal — Statutory compensation — Month's notice of dismissal given before coming into force of statutory protection — Notice expiring after provisions in force — Whether contract of employment terminated when notice given or when expiring — Whether jurisdiction to award compen‐sation for unfair dismissal where period of notice straddling date of coming into force of statutory protection — Act with retrospective effect — No room for interpreting clear words to avoid retrospective effect — Industrial Relations Act 1971 (c.72) ss. 22,23(2)(a)(3), 167.

October 31, 1972 Negligence — Duty of care — Manufacturer — Purchaser's employees exposed to chemical containing carcinogen — Whether danger foreseeable.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

May 25, 1971 Docks — “De‐casualisation scheme” — Timber loaded on lorries after storage in dock area on removal from ship — Piling of timber at importer's yard “in vicinity of” Cardiff dock estates — Whether “dock work” — Whether timber still “cargo” — Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. VI, c. 22), s.6 — Docks and Harbours Act, 1966 (c. 28), ss. 51(3), 58 — Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) (Amendment) Order, 1967 (S.I. 1967, No. 1252), Sch. 2, cl. 1 (3) proviso, App. 1.

Increasingly public sector industrial relations have become the central concern of governments, practitioners and academics. The main purpose of this monograph is to review key developments in public sector industrial relations, particularly during the period of the Thatcher Government. The emphasis is on the public services, especially local government, the NHS and the civil service. In the first section we review trends in public sector employment (particularly in the light of Government policy to reduce it), wages (in a context of cash limits), and strikes and other forms of industrial action. In the second part we move from “outcomes” to consider recent developments in the structure, organisation and policy of the “actors” in public sector industrial relations. In particular, we examine union organisation, developments in personnel management, bargaining structure, wage determination machinery and procedures, dispute resolution and privatisation initiatives. Developments in these areas are set in the context of the traditional features which distinguish public sector industrial relations from other spheres. In many of the areas under consideration, trends and developments set in train by the post‐1979 Conservative Government are still in the process of being worked out. Overall public sector employment has fallen, but with considerable variation around the average. National wage disputes, with considerable numbers of working days lost, have characterised the public sector since 1979, but the frequency of industrial conflict should not be exaggerated. There are moves to decentralise union and management structures, but the consequences of this have yet to be realised. Pay, however, remains problematic for government, employing authorities and unions. Since 1981–2, public sector settlements have generally been below the rate of inflation, but above the cash limit. The ad hoc policy of determining public sector pay by a mixture of review bodies, measures of comparability and market forces has created an overall picture of confusion. Establishing a fair and rational system of public sector pay remains a key task for any future government.

In attempting an examination of the contractual and normative concepts of the collective agreement, some ideas are tentatively put forward in the pages which follow hoping that they will stimulate the reader's mind and open areas for further discussion.