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:

    Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)

    No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.
    Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)

    There seems almost a general wish of descrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.
    Jane Austen (1775–1817)

    The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony
    of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
    Bible: Hebrew Psalm XIX (l. XIX, 7)

    God knows that any man who would seek the presidency of the United States is a fool for his pains. The burden is all but intolerable, and the things that I have to do are just as much as the human spirit can carry.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
    Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 24:6-7.