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James Tilley
Unit 14 – Aspects of Employment Law
P5 – Explain the key features of employer and employee relatons
and welfare
There will always be disputes between workers and the business due to the nature of business,
people always striving to be beter than others, either the business or worker not wantng to
embrace the future technology or rights, as well as some people wantng to cause a dispute to see
the advantages it gains them.
Employee relatons include the communicatons between management and employees concerning
workplace decisions, individual and union grievances and conficts as well as the ways in which the
employees and helping the partes involved solving the issues raised.
Employee welfare are the benefts which an employee must receive from their company. These
include benefts such as transportaton, medical insurance, facilites, bonuses, sick leave, maternity/
paternity leave as well as annual leave.
In London, there was a long running dispute between Transport for London ‘TfL’ and the unions
associated with the various factons of workers, including both ASLEF and RMT.
Trade unions are organisatons in which members unite to atempt to protect and promote their
common interests to help them gain more leverage within a business, helping workers to gain a
larger voice within the company and improve working conditons or other aspects of the daily
running of the business.
ASLEF is a union for train drivers. This includes drivers for all aspects of train driving, from freight
trains, customer trains as well as trains such as the London Underground.
RMT is a trade union standing for Rail, Maritme and Transport workers.
Both unions joined together to protest Transport for London against the 24-hour running of the
tube, as well as the stafng, pay and conditons.
The unions argued that by opening the tubes for 24 hours, the trains could not be safely managed
and kept up to a standard which guaranteed the safety of the workers and the customers.
This issue would be both an employee relatons issue, due to the managers of TfL needing to talk to
the leaders of the unions to ensure a mutually benefcial decision and outcome is achieved.
Furthermore, this can also be seen as a welfare issue due to the issues raised by the unions having
the possibility to cause injury and even death to all workers in the area if the train is poorly
maintained and either breaks on the track, loses control, or derails. The unions are therefore
pushing for the trains to be beter maintained so that the chances of these potental problems are
kept to a minimum.
The unions advised their members to not drive the trains which the drivers believe have not had
correct and thorough safety checks. In response to this, the London Underground further issued a
statement that the trains have safety checks, with these being thorough, and in some cases,
managers have been preparing the trains to ensure their smooth and constant running’s. Due to
them believing the trains are running correctly and safely, they have been sending drivers who
refuse to drive trains home without pay.
After this incident, the unions further escalated their case by agreeing on a total closure of the tube
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