The Constitutionalization of Employment Relations: Multiple Models, Pernicious Problems

Authors

Harry W. Arthurs, Osgoode Hall Law School of York UniversityFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Harry W. Arthurs: 0009-0000-1890-1884

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2010

Source Publication

Social & Legal Studies, 19(4), 403-422. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663910376339

Keywords

constitution, employment, globalization, governance, labour, workers, rights

Abstract

The constitutionalization of employment relations has been proposed as a possible response to the serious difficulties confronting workers and unions in an era of neo-liberalism and globalization. This article challenges this proposal on two grounds. First, ‘employment’ no longer serves as an appropriate platform for labour policy, and in any event is conceptually inappropriate for constitutionalization. And second, a survey of the multiple meanings and manifestations of ‘constitutionalization’ at the level of the nation state, the global economy and the enterprise reveals that this approach is unlikely to produce positive practical results for workers. Nonetheless, to think about the constitutionalization of employment relations is productive in the sense that it requires engagement with the pernicious problems of articulating a ‘new normal’ — a ‘new normativity’ — that represents a better balance between workers’ interests and those of employers.

Repository Citation

Arthurs, Harry W., "The Constitutionalization of Employment Relations: Multiple Models, Pernicious Problems" (2010). Articles & Book Chapters. 3244.
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works/3244