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November 29, 1966 Industrial Court — Jurisdiction — Question referred by Minister of Labour — Construction of Fair Wages Resolution — Licence and agreement of Postmaster‐General with British Broadcasting Corporation — Whether construable by Industrial Court — Complaint by trade union concerning employment of member — Minister referring question to Industrial Court — Action by employer for declaration — Whether employee trade union member necessary party.

March 1, 1968 Trade Union — Rules — Construction — Printing trade — Offer of vacancies to returning out‐of‐trade member — Much of work traditionally casual — Union's policy to offer regular vacancies to returning members — Whether obligation to offer casual vacancies — Whether returning member “out of employment” — Dispute over offer of vacancies — Whether breach of contractual agreement concerning “conditions on which… members… shall… be employed” — Trade Union Act, 1871, s.4(1).

In this essay it is proposed first to draw the important distinction which exists in practice between the collective and procedure agreements and explain briefly the respective functions of each of these. An examination will then follow of the current legal status of the collective agreement in Great Britain where a discussion and analysis of various aspects of legal non‐enforceability will take place.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a quantitative model to assess probability of errors and errors correction costs in parts feeding systems for assembly lines.

Event trees are adopted to model errors in the picking-handling-delivery-utilization of materials containers from the warehouse to assembly stations. Error probabilities and quality costs functions are developed to compare alternative feeding policies including kitting, line stocking and just-in-time delivery. A numerical case study is included.

This paper confirms with quantitative evidence the economic relevance of logistic errors (LEs) in parts feeding processes, a problem neglected in the existing literature. It also points out the most frequent or relevant error types and identifies specific corrective measures.

While the model is general purpose, conclusions are specific to each applicative case and are not generalizable, and some modifications may be required to adapt it to specific industrial cases. When no experimental data are available, human error analysis should be used to estimate event probabilities based on underlying modes and causes of human error.

Production managers are given a quantitative decision tool to assess errors probability and errors correction costs in assembly lines parts feeding systems. This allows better comparing of alternative parts feeding policies and identifying corrective measures.

This is the first paper to develop quantitative models for estimating LEs and related quality cost, allowing a comparison between alternative parts feeding policies.

Inspection is an activity that controls the outgoing product quality and involves search, detection and measurement or diagnosis. Traditionally, inspection tasks have been allocated to humans. Attempts to automate industrial inspection in order to eliminate errors and alleviate monotony have faced difficulties due to technological limitations and/or prohibitive implementation costs. An occasional compromise is partial automation (hybrid inspection). Reviews published research in manual, hybrid and automated inspection to understand the current research status.

February 5, 1974 Master and Servant — Redundancy — Reason for dismissal — Employers dismissing engineer alleging redundancy — Employee claiming compensation for unfair dismissal — Employers resisting claim on alternative ground that dismissal was fair — Whether employer entitled to change ground for dismissal from redundancy to lack of capability — Industrial Relations Act, 1971 (c.72), s.24(l)(a) (b), (2) (a), (6), (7).

The status of employee which draws the distinction between a contract of service and a contract for services, and the practical aspects of the two relationships have been discussed. The transfer of the employee by the permanent to the temporary employer has also been considered. It is now proposed to treat a variety of employment relationships which will include short term and casual labour, temporary workers supplied by an agency, labour only sub contracting, outworkers, apprentices, students and cadets, part time labour, crown employment, office holders; probationary employees and finally merchant seamen. The criterias discussed and analysed in relation to the status of employee apply to some, but not to all, of these employment relationships.

COVID-19 accelerated change within the UK retail market. It encouraged the growth of online shopping, providing the necessary demand for grocers to invest in their operations, and transformed the economics of their businesses. As innovative new business models emerged, some existing retailers collapsed leading to significant changes on the high street. Landlords were also affected. As some retail tenants struggled to pay their rents, other parts of the sector prospered and sought additional warehouse capacity to cope with rising demand. Not only does this illustrate how different parts of the retail sector faired during COVID-19, but it also demonstrates how the move online has resulted in the emergence of new opportunities.

This monograph considers a further set of state and statutory functions which are connected with collective bargaining and to examine whether or not there effectively existed, or exists, directly and indirectly, encouragement for the promotion of collective bargaining.