Modern Employment Law: : A Guide to Job Security and Safety (9th ed.)

Citation

Townsend, P. (1998), "Modern Employment Law: : A Guide to Job Security and Safety (9th ed.)", Personnel Review, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 484-485. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr.1998.27.6.484.3

Undergraduate students taking employment law courses at university or college may well find this textbook a suitable purchase, depending on the requirements of their course. It is a surprisingly concise textbook in the field of employment law in comparison with other texts such as Smith and Wood’s Industrial Law and Selwyn’s Law of Employment.

Chapter 1 contains a stimulating and lively discussion on industry and the law and a comparative look at other systems and industrial democracy. The wide and useful discussion found here is something that is not always so evident in some other employment law books. Chapter 2 looks at the contract of employment, including the various tests used to establish employee status. Chapter 3 looks at written terms of employment and the following two chapters examine the employers’ statutory and common law duties. Included in this chapter is the law relating to discrimination, equal pay and restraint of trade. Subsequent chapters look at the employees’ common law duties, breach of contract and the right to strike. Also covered are other important elements in employment law of wrongful and unfair dismissal, redundancy, unemployment provision and the contract of trade union membership.

Part 2 of the textbook contains a comprehensive review of health and safety at work. This includes employers’ common law safety duties, employers’ liabilities for employees’ wrongful acts, occupiers’ and suppliers’ liabilities, the Robens Report and the Health and Safety at Work Act. Other chapters concern health and safety regulations, defences, damages and state insurance payments for industrial injuries and diseases.

Perhaps in view of this being a relatively concise book on employment law, there are understandably some omissions. For example, in the section dealing with contracts of employment, there was no mention of the case of Hall (Inspector of Taxes ) v. Lorimer (1992). Reference to different perspectives in places might also have been useful; for example, in the context of unfair dismissal, the unitary and pluralist framework. There are a number of humorous cartoons in the book. Probably what would have been even more useful to students than this would have been a few explanatory charts. Another useful addition in this book could have been reference to further reading at the end of each chapter. However, if students were also to purchase a further cases and materials book on employment law, this would be a useful partner to this textbook, particularly in providing a little extra detail on selected cases and further reading.

Altogether this is a useful and concise book on employment law which is well established and now in its ninth edition. However, the market in employment law textbooks is now much more competitive, in view of the ever increasing range of employment law textbooks available in the last few years. Some of the newer textbooks are different in style in so far as they may, for example, contain a summary at the end of each chapter together with a suggested list of further reading of other texts and journals. Other weightier textbooks may be preferred on specific courses, such as the LLB degree course. Nevertheless, on a number of modular courses where employment law may be taught during only one semester, or possibly two, this textbook may prove to be an attractive proposition. It is an informed, well expressed and up to date textbook, incorporating the provisions contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996. It has the virtue of being relatively concise yet surprisingly comprehensive in its treatment of employment law. Consequently, this will continue to be a popular textbook.