Employee Relations: An International Journal

Bastin, Garry; Fahey, Walter

1982 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054993

The birth of the 39 hour week in the engineering industry in 1981 was conceived in the heat of the striketorn summer of 1979. And the prolonged period of gestation proved to be something of a watershed far beyond the confines of the industry in which it was conceived. As the date of the event drew closer, and the negotiations between the parents of the 1979 Agreement got ever more local and domestic, the message coming back from the industry was one of varied, confused, and at times discordant, response.

Hollmann, Robert W.

1982 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054994

A recent article by P.B. Beaumont focused attention on the problem of alcoholism in British industry. Beaumont discussed the need for organisations to have policies for dealing with employee alcoholism and he identified a number of factors likely to be associated with successful policies. The article was quite stimulating and, accordingly, I thought it would be instructive to describe what American organisations are doing with respect not only to employee alcoholism but also the problems of drug and other emotional difficulties affecting job performance. Specifically, this article is devoted to a more thorough description of american employee assistance programmes and a discussion of some of the factors that have been found important to their successful implementation. Hopefully this information could be helpful to British as well as other American firms that continue to grapple with these kinds of problems.

Bright, David; MacDermott, Terry

1982 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054995

There has been a steady growth in courses for shop stewards in the United Kingdom in the last decade, much of which is a direct consequence of the increased involvement of the TUC. This growth has been paralleled by two other developments, the first of which is the position of skills training as a central element in union education, while the second is the emergence of a group of tutors who are employed to teach almost exclusively on courses for shop stewards and other representatives.

Gibson, Martin; Kidd, Jim

1982 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054996

Whilst there are potential benefits to be gained from the consultative approach to the management of health and safety at work required by recent legislation, the actual implementation of such consultation is not without its problems. In particular the process of developing effective consultation may actually lead to conflict between participants. The process of implementation calls for careful management if the advantages of consultation are to be achieved.