Arbitration of Labor Disputes in Great Britain

Great Britain is at the present time engaged in the momentous experiment of reconciling broad economic planning for the country as a whole with the greatest possible amount of freedom for its individual components. The difficulties are apparent and can be readily studied in the field of collective bargaining. How much freedom for individuals or trade unions and employers' associations is compatible with maintaining the delicate balance of the over-all plan, especially in a period of full employment? In the postwar British economy there is not room for a great deal of flexibility for yielding to strains and stresses. Uneconomic bargains would divert needed manpower into nonessential occupations, siphon off scarce consumer goods from places where they are most needed as incentives to increase production, or raise costs of products intended for export. Yet even in their precarious economic situation the British have chosen to preserve voluntary institutions in the field of industrial relations. They have refrained from governmental planning of the wage structure, and have imposed compulsory arbitration of labor disputes only to a limited extent. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Arbitration · Balance (ability) · Business · Collective bargaining · Compulsory arbitration · Economics · Flexibility (engineering) · Incentive · Labor disputes · Labor relations · Labour economics · Law and economics · Management · Market economy · Political science · Wage · Corporate Law and Human Rights · International Labor and Employment Law · Labor Movements and Unions · Law