History of Labour Law in The United Kingdom

History Of Labour Law In The United Kingdom

The history of employment law in the United Kingdom concerns the development of UK employment law (or labour law), from its roots in Roman and medieval times in the British Isles up to the present. Before the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of mechanised manufacture, regulation of workplace relations was based on status, rather than contract or mediation through a system of trade unions. Serfdom was the prevailing status of the mass of people, except where artisans in towns could gain a measure of self-regulation through guilds. In 1740 save for the fly-shuttle the loom was as it had been since weaving had begun. The law of the land was, under the Act of Apprentices 1563, that wages in each district should be assessed by Justices of the Peace. From the middle of the 19th century, through Acts such as the Master and Servant Act 1867 and the Employers and Workmen Act 1875, there became growing recognition that greater protection was needed to promote the health and safety of workers, as well as preventing unfair practices in wage contracts.

Read more about History Of Labour Law In The United Kingdom:  Roman Law, Anglo-Saxon England, Medieval England, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, Late Nineteenth Century, Liberal Reforms From 1906, Inter War Period, Post War Consensus, Conservative Government, New Labour

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, labour, law, united and/or kingdom:

    “The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
    —Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)

    “I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
    —Caresse Crosby (1892–1970)

    “What a vast traffic is drove, what a variety of labour is performed in the world to the maintenance of thousands of families that altogether depend on two silly if not odious customs; the taking of snuff and smoking of tobacco; both of which it is certain do infinitely more hurt than good to those that are addicted to them!”
    —Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)

    “They who say that women do not desire the right of suffrage, that they prefer masculine domination to self-government, falsify every page of history, every fact in human experience. It has taken the whole power of the civil and canon law to hold woman in the subordinate position which it is said she willingly accepts.”
    —Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

    “The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.”
    —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”
    —Bible: New Testament, Mark 10:14.

    Jesus.