In this assessment, different employee relations concepts have been evaluated based on how they influence the employment laws. To achieve this, the impact of employment relations, features of employment contract, scope, and statutory trade union recognition have been evaluated. Further, the development and enforcement of the employment law and roles of different bodies such as ACAS have been assessed.

Question 1: Factors that Impact Employment Relations

Difference between Labour and Labour Power

In a labour market, there are different employment relations at play, which are informed by regulations that determine the rights of various stakeholders and levels of collaboration. For the sustainability of the employment relations, CIPD (2020a), a trust-based and positive business environment are essential for harnessing the stability levels socially and specifically with property rights. To ensure the success of labor-power, property rights ought to be critical through constraining the employer’s ability to control all stakeholders, specifically the employees. Most importantly is that in the labour market, engaged parties leverage from an increased cooperation level.

An employment contract does not necessarily point out the quantity of work or efforts to be advanced. Also, it is not clear on the extent of initiatives to be implemented and relevant for the employees. This is noted to be the indeterminacy of the employment sector contract.

Indeterminacy is noted to be the incapacity and gap in the labour contracts, which is evidenced by the efforts exerted by the employees where rewards and capacities are acquired. This indicates that employees are supposed to achieve the assigned roles efficiently despite the level or quantity of the work done. In describing the indeterminacy concept in full and the extent to which it impacts employment relations, labour and labor-power need to be detailed.

Labour power identifies the capacity of an employee to work but not the actual available labour. Labour is defined in Andrijasevic and Sacchetto (2016) as the act of implementing specific allocated roles. Therefore, the employment relations could be noted as the current time and capacity of an employee (labor-power) to perform based on available labour actively (see figure 1 summary).

Figure 1: Summary of Labour and Labour Power

Differences between Unitarism and Pluralism and Implications for Employment Relations

Employment and labour are different, and both can be appraised by focusing on different multidisciplinary and varying strategies. Through a reference on distinct theoretical frameworks, there is a potential of recognising the behaviours, distinct concepts, analysis level, strategies, outputs, and the institutions impacting different contexts of the employment relationships. According to Abbott (2007), unitarism is used to define the existing values and assumptions of conflicts in the workplace. This is since, in modern workplaces, conflicts are inevitable and prevail in most instances. The effectiveness of this theory is informed by the assumption that disputes will always be prevalent in the relationship between the managers and the subordinates. Nevertheless, for the progress of such an organisation, the conflicts would be required to be arbitrated to ensure the success of the employment relations. Therefore, based on the identified unitarism model, it is the core function of the managers to ensure that their organisation operations integrate performance management and staffing equitably and fairly to eliminate any source of lack of shared understanding.

Contrary to the Unitarism model, the Pluralism model notes on distinct values and assumptions characterised by varying workplace conflicts that cannot be ignored (Bingham, 2016). Hence as pointed out by Swenson (2018), the pluralistic model is informed by the view that there exist sophisticated social structures with different groups being interested. A good example is a case where two groups exist for the employees and employers to pursue different targets and values. Hence, unitarism is assumed to include different authority sources in an organisation with conflicts emerging between distinct groups due to diverse responsibilities and rewards demand.

Therefore, in the case of employment relationships, pluralism is informed by the view that addressing the distinct conflicts in employee relations is possible by being innovative. This is evidenced by MBA Knowledgebase (2012) that note that despite diverse sources of authority being evident, improved conflict management could be achieved. Apart from the managers in such an entity, the trade unions, management, and the organisation employees critical to guide the industrial relations. The trade unions are also crucial since they aid a strong counterbalance of the varying management powers and to fostering equality in terms of the outcomes in the negotiation of the employment contracts.

Examples of Factors which Affect Employment Relations

Different factors can be identified as examples of factors tor establishing the relationship between the employees and an organisation. Based on the unitarian and pluralism model of employment relations, managers ought to possess an increased level of awareness and put in place relevant strategies for mitigating any emerging conflicts. The examples are;

Total Reward System– In organisations that have a total reward system, the employees are fully compensated for their distinct efforts and assigned roles. The overall reward system is inclusive of the psychological, monetary, and non-monetary factors provided by an organisation aligned to their performance. For an organisation to operate through an improved employment relation, total and strategic rewards are to be put into account (CIPD, 2020b).

Employee Staffing– This is inclusive of the strategies which are put in place in an organisation in recruiting and selecting the staff for fitting in distinct job descriptions. In the recruitment, an organisation should provide a comprehensive job description to all potential employees with a precise specification on the importance of different qualifications and nature of the job role. In an employment contract, it should include the agreement arrived at between the employees and employer. This could also be inclusive of the contract details with information on remuneration, roles, responsibilities sharing, and contract terms.

Communication– This include the approach followed to exchange information between different stakeholders. The relevance of the communication process is promoting employee relations since it notes on the level in which employee engagement is promoted. Provision of prompt feedback and active learning is a representative of essential skills of communication that need to be evident among the employees. This also harnesses the existence of a more individualised commitment in an organisation. According to CIPD (2020c), a detailed communication process has an impact in contributing to the promotion of trust levels of the employers and employees.

Performance Management– This factor identifies the process of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the employees to implement specific requirements with their strengths and weaknesses identified. According to CIPD (2013), by noting on the performance management best practice, there is a possibility of observing the overall demands of the employees and addressing them based on the satisfaction of the employees and the overall personalised and organisation performance.

Employment Law– According to CIPD (2020d), employment law is used in regulating the relationship between employers and employees. It is inclusive of varying standards and regulations, which are critical to guide the employment relations in an entity. These legislations include the Equality Act 2010, GDPR 2018, the protected characteristics, and family-friendly legislation.

Question 2: Employment Contract and Sources of Law

2.1 Meaning of a contract of employment about express and implied terms

A contract of employment, as identified in Citizens’ advice (2020),

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