Gender Equality and Trade Unions: A New Basis for Mobilisation?

Abstract

The promotion of employment equality by trade unions is especially important in the UK. Although legal regulation of the employment relationship has increased, the individualised, private law model characteristic of the UK means legal rights can often remain merely formal entitlements. In the absence of a general labour inspectorate for monitoring and enforcing legal protections, the UK system largely leaves employers and trade unions to translate statute and case law voluntarily through collective bargaining. The recent history of such equality bargaining, and the prospects for it, are the core themes of this chapter.