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GAZETTE
APRIL 1981
similar legislation in England, it is a most arduous
business trying to apply otherwise excellent academic and
judicial comment to what is, at best, only "similar"
legislation. There is, of course, the added difficulty in the
U.K. that with every change of Government, there comes
a change in this area of the law. It is with this prejudice
heavily lying on my mind that I tackled a new series of
publications under the generic title "Law at Work."
There are to date, fourteen titles in the series, all by
different authors but under the general editorial hand of
Paul O'Higgins, a well-known and respected author in the
field of employment law. Each publication runs to
approximately 90 pages, and is written in a simple and
concise form. The books are aimed at the wide market of
employers, employees, trade unionists, and possibly
lawyers. The back cover of each title specifies that the
books "assume no previous knowledge of law" and have
an "emphasis on everyday situations in the workplace." I
could not, however, recommend any of the titles to
practitioners in this field, as the subjects are not dealt with
in sufficient depth. For those, however, who are not
familiar with this area of the law, and wish to become so,
I would recommend three of the titles as a useful starting
point. These are:
"Trade Disputes" by Patrick Elias:
This book has a most useful and interesting history of
the Trade Disputes Act, 1906, and the workings of the
Act to date. The text is easily applied to the law in this
country with the exception of one chapter dealing with the
position from 1974 to date, consequent on the enactment
of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, 1974 as
amended, and the Employment Act, 1980. The main
fault as with all the titles in the series is the lack of depth,
but for those interested in a potted history and
background to existing law, this is as good a publication
as any.
"Discipline" by Brian Napier
The book gets off to a good start with the cover
illustration showing a smiling employer and a smiling
employee shaking hands in front of a time clock showing
five minutes to nine. The book itself is a useful guide to a
subject, about which most practitioners of the law know
little, the workings of discipline on the shop floor.
"Dismissal" by Robert Apex
With an increasing number of Solicitors involving
themselves in Unfair Dismissals Act claims, there is a
need for these practitioners to acquaint themselves with
the industrial relations mechanisms which produce such
claims. There are more comprehensive industrial relations
publications dealing with this subject on the market, but
they tend not to be attractive to the legal practitioner.
This book is concise and easily read, and is a most useful
primer. The subject of dismissals has become one of great
interest to Solicitors, and for those seeking a concise clear
introduction to the subject, I would recommend this
book. There is the obvious difficulty that the text
is dealing at all times, with U.K. legislation, and
while our legislation is broadly similar, there are
significant differences which should be noted. Chief
among these differences are: those who work for less than
16 hours a week are not covered in the U.K., it is 21
hours here; retiring age specifically mentioned in the
U.K. Act, is not referred to in our Act; a claim in the
U.K. must be made within three months of the alleged
dismissal — 6 months here. There are also many
differences in Tribunal procedure. These differences have
become more significant with the recent publication in the
U.K. of new procedural rules which are not referred to in
this book. Nor is there any reference to the
British Home
Stores v. Burchell
case which is to date the most
important case dealing with the criteria to be applied in
deciding whether or not an employer's actions were
justified. This, I feel is a serious omission in any
publication purporting to deal with the law of dismissals.
Chapter 8 of this book deals with dismissals related to
pregnancy, and is a valuable aid in anticipating the likely
impact of our proposed new Maternity Protection Act,
which became law on the 6th April, 1981, but here again,
care should be taken where references are made to
specific statutory provisions such as three weeks notice of
intention to take leave whereas it is four weeks here. In all
this is a useful guide to the law relating to Dismissals and
as with all of these titles is recommended to those seeking
an introduction to the subject.
Of the five other titles which I have received "Job
Security" by Colin Bourn is a useful guide to Redundancy,
but not more so than the booklet on the Redundancy
Payments Acts issued free by the Department of Labour.
"Health and Safety" by Peter Rowe is based exclusively
on the U.K. Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974, and is
a useful indicator of the probable workings of our Safety
in Industry Act, 1980, and in particular, part III thereof.
"Sex Discrimination" by Shelley Adams is not
recommended as, in this area, our legislation and U.K.
legislation have too many points of difference for comfort,
and our legislation is coloured greatly by the Employ-
ment Equality Agency and its policies, decisions, and
interpretations. The same can be said of the remaining
two titles "Social Security" by Julian Fulbrook, and
"Occupational Pensions" by Ian Smith. This latter
publication deals with the U.K. State pension scheme,
and may be of use when the Government here produce
the proposed State pension scheme, but it appears that we
are still a long way from the introduction of such a
scheme. There are six titles which I did not have the
benefit of reading, these are: "Employment Contracts,"
"Going to Law," "Safety Representatives," "Trade
Unions," "Union Members," and "Wages and Salaries,"
Gary V. Byrne
Incorporated Law Society of Ireland
STARDUST ENQUIRY, BLACKHALL
PLACE
During the currency of the Enquiry, it is regretted that
bccause of the demands on the available space, overnight
accommodation cannot be provided for members. This
facility will be reintroduced as soon as possible.
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