ERIC ED475333: Awareness, Knowledge and Exercise of Individual Employment Rights. Employment Relations Research Series.

282 Pages·2002·3.5 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 475 333
CE 084 508
Meager, Nigel; Tyers, Claire; Perryman, Sarah; Rick, Jo;
AUTHOR
Willison, Rebecca
Awareness, Knowledge and Exercise of Individual Employment
TITLE
Rights. Employment Relations Research Series.
Sussex Univ., Brighton (England). Inst. for Employment
INSTITUTION
Studies.
Department of Trade and Industry, London (England).
SPONS AGENCY
No-15
REPORT NO
PUB DATE 2002-00-00
NOTE
280p.
AVAILABLE FROM
For full text: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar/ ies.pdf.
Reference Materials
PUB TYPE
General (130)
Research
Reports
143
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Adult Development; Adult Learning; Civil Rights Legislation;
DESCRIPTORS
Collective Bargaining; Developed Nations; Disability
Discrimination; Dismissal (Personnel); Due Process;
Eligibility; Employed Parents; Employed Women; *Employee
Attitudes; *Employer Employee Relationship; Employment;
Employment Practices; Equal Opportunities (Jobs); Family Work
Relationship; Federal Legislation; Foreign Countries;
Government Role; Information Dissemination; *Knowledge Level;
Labor Conditions; *Labor Legislation; Labor Problems; *Labor
Standards; Leaves of Absence; Legal Responsibility; Minimum
Wage Legislation; Multivariate Analysis; Occupational
Surveys; Postsecondary Education; Public Policy; Quality of
Working Life; Telephone Surveys; Theory Practice
Relationship; Working Hours
*Employee Rights; *England
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Recent employment law reforms in England precipitated a
telephone survey of a stratified random sample of 5,120 employed people
(1,000 respondents) that was intended to find their levels of awareness and
knowledge of employment rights and their exercise of those rights. Survey
results included the following:
(1) nearly 70% of those questioned assess
themselves as well-informed or very well-informed about employment rights in
(2) of laws known by respondents, the most commonly cited related to
general;
working time, health and safety, and discrimination;
(3) while women assessed
their awareness/knowledge as higher than men, the latter were more likely to
name an employment right;
(4) levels of awareness peaked in the 36-45 age
group and among those with the highest level of education;
(5) levels of
awareness/knowledge were highest among managers and professionals, and among
permanent employees and trade union members;
16% of respondents
(6)
experienced problems at work in relation to employment rights in the previous
(7) non-whites were nearly twice as likely to report work
five years;
problems; and (8) older respondents and those with a work contract were much
less likely to report having experienced problems. Because of the relatively
small numbers who had experienced infringements of their rights, only limited
conclusions could be drawn about whether a lack of awareness/knowledge
disenfranchises people in achieving their employment rights. (There are 185
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
figures and tables. Appended are a description of the research methodology;
details of the achieved sample; scenarios; and the survey instrument.)
(AJ)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
dti
Department of Trade and Industry
Employment Relations Research Series No.15
Awareness, knowledge and exercise of
individual employment rights
Nigel Meager, Claire Tyers, Sarah Perryman,
Jo Rick and Rebecca Willison
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
BEEN GRANTED BY
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
as
(7i2..J_Dis document has been reproduced
received from the person or organization
originating it.
Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
this
° Points of view or opinions stated in
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
2
AVAILABLE
gEST COPY
The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the
Department of Trade and Industry.
© Crown Copyright 2002
Foreword
Promoting good employment relations is an important task of
government. Our role in the Department of Trade and Industry is
to encourage the development of a skilled and flexible labour
market founded on the principle of partnership at work.
The Department commissions an ongoing programme of
evaluation and research in employment relations.
In-house
researchers, economists and policy advisors devise research
projects to be conducted on our behalf by external researchers,
who are chosen through a competitive tendering process. Projects
typically look at areas where we are interested in identifying good
assessing the impact of particular policies or
in
practice,
Details of the
regulations, or examining emergent trends.
programme appear regularly in Labour Market Trends and can be
found at http://www.dti.gov.ukier/emar.
The Research Series is where we disseminate the results of this
The views expressed in these publications do not
work.
necessarily reflect those of the Department. We publish these
reports as a contribution towards an open debate about how we
might best achieve our overall aim of improving competitiveness.
Mark Beatson
Director, Employment Market Analysis and Research Branch
4
The Institute for Employment Studies
an independent,
for Employment Studies
The Institute
is
apolitical, international centre of research and consultancy in
human resource issues. It Harks closely with employers in the
government
and
public
sectors,
manufacturing,
service
departments, agencies, professional and employee bodies, and
foundations. For over 30 years the Institute has been a focus of
knowledge and practical experience in employment and training
policy, the operation of labour markets and human resource
planning and development. IES is a not-for-profit organisation
which has a multidisciplinary staff of over 50. IES expertise is
available to all organisations through research, consultancy,
publications and the Internet.
IES aims to help bring about sustainable improvements in
employment policy and human resource management. IES
achieves this by increasing the understanding and improving the
practice of key decision makers in policy bodies and employing
organisations.
5
v
Acknowledgements
The study was conducted on behalf of the Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI) by the Institute for Employment Studies in
partnership with NOP, who undertook the fieldwork. The authors
are grateful to Stephen Penlington, who managed the project on
behalf of DTI, for his support and encouragement during the
research, and to Carol Goldstone at NOP who supervised the
fieldwork. Last, but by no means least, we are grateful to those
members of the general public who gave their time to participate
in the telephone survey.
vi
Contents
xi
Executive Summary
Introduction and Background
1.
1.1 Introduction
1
1.2 The research study
1
1.3 Background
2
1.4 Research questions
9
1.5 Report structure and content
9
Research Methodology and Approach to Measuring
2.
Awareness and Knowledge
11
2.1 'Awareness' and 'knowledge'
11
2.2 Operationalising definitions of awareness and
knowledge
14
2.3 Exercise of rights
16
2.4 Grouping of legislation
17
17
2.5 Survey methodology
2.6 Survey respondents
18
2.7 Statistical significance
20
General Awareness and Knowledge of Employment
3.
Rights
22
3.1 Awareness and knowledge
a summary
23
3.2 Self-assessed awareness and knowledge
24
3.3 Informed awareness
25
3.4 Informed awareness compared with self-assessed
awareness and knowledge
28
3.5 Individual characteristics and levels of awareness/
knowledge
31
4. Awareness and Knowledge of Work-Life Balance
Legislation
38
4.1 Informed awareness (unprompted/partly prompted)
40
4.2 Informed awareness (prompted)
45
4.3 Substantive knowledge
49
57
4.4 Perception of entitlements (scenarios)
4.5 How far are perceptions based on knowledge?
63
4.6 Taking action
66
vii
9. Awareness and Knowledge of Unfair Dismissal Rights
152
9.1 Informed awareness (unprompted and partly prompted)
153
9.2 Informed awareness (prompted)
156
9.3 Substantive knowledge
159
9.4 Perception of entitlements (scenarios)
165
9.5 How far are perceptions based on knowledge?
170
9.6 Taking action
172
10. Experience of Problems at Work, Responses and Actions 174
Introduction
176
10.1
The nature of problems at work
177
10.2
Experience of problems, self-assessed
10.3
awareness/knowledge and informed awareness
182
Responses to problems
183
10.4
Propensity to take action in a hypothetical situation 192
10.5
11. Concluding Remarks
201
Which rights are people most aware of or
knowledgeable about?
201
Which groups are most aware of or knowledgeable
11.2
about their rights?
206
Who exercises their employment rights?
210
11.3
12. Statistical Annex: Multivariate Analysis
212
Introduction
212
12.1
213
12.2 Logistic regression
Personal characteristics
214
12.3
Employment characteristics
216
12.4
Experience
218
12.5
Appendix 1: Research Methodology
220
Appendix 2: Details of Achieved Sample
226
Appendix 3: Scenarios
232
Appendix 4: Telephone survey questionnaire
234
Availability and Take-up of New Entitlements
68
5.
Introduction
69
5.1
Availability of the new leave and time off
5.2
provisions
70
Would employer offer leave/time off under
5.3
the new provisions on request?
72
Whether leave/time off under the new provisions
5.4
is paid or unpaid
73
Eligibility for and take up of leave/time off under
5.5
the new provisions
75
Potential future take-up of leave/time off under the
5.6
new provisions
76
Barriers to take up of leave/time off under the new
5.7
provisions
77
Awareness and Knowledge of Working Time Legislation
78
6.
Informed awareness (unprompted/partly prompted)
80
6.1
Informed awareness (prompted)
83
6.2
6.3 Substantive knowledge
87
6.4 Perception of entitlements (scenarios)
94
How far are perceptions based on knowledge?
98
6.5
6.6 Taking action
100
7. Awareness and Knowledge of Rights in Relation to Wages,
Terms and Conditions (including the National Minimum
102
Wage)
7.1 Informed awareness (unprompted or partly prompted)103
7.2 Informed awareness (prompted)
107
7.3 Substantive knowledge
111
7.4 Perception of entitlements (scenarios)
117
7.5 How far are perceptions based on knowledge?
122
7.6 Taking action
123
8. Awareness and Knowledge of Anti-Discrimination
Legislation
126
8.1 Informed awareness (unprompted and partly prompted)
127
8.2 Informed awareness (prompted)
131
8.3 Substantive knowledge
135
142
8.4 Perception of entitlements (scenarios)
8.5 How far are perceptions based on knowledge?
148
8.6 Taking action
150
viii
9