The Interface between the Law and the Workplace : The Role of Human Resource Managers

Much modern labor legislation is intended to achieve its objectives through influencing an employer's internal decision making processes. The benefits of this mode of regulation are particularly apparent where the legislative objective is to deliver tangible protections to employees by restraining the discretionary powers of the employer. Examples include constraints on disciplinary powers, provisions to encourage flexible working arrangements and generic expectations such as conducting employment relations in good faith. If such expectations are not successfully embedded at workplace level the legislative objectives are likely to have limited success. This paper reports on research that investigates the extent to which HR managers and their organizations encourage/discourage or are indifferent to legislative compliance. It builds on initial research by the authors exploring the relationship between employment law and human resource management. That work has shown that with the enactment of statutory requirements setting expectations of employer conduct the courts have paid increasing attention to the internal processes of employers and in particular to their HRM practices when evaluating employer decisions. The project from which this paper is derived investigates the extent to which HR managers are aware of legal reforms and developments and how they and their organization respond to such developments. It seeks to assess the extent to which legal solutions are sought, for example external legal advice, new forms of employment contract, development of employment policies, as well as the approach taken within the firm: for example is the firm response dominated by risk avoidance, minimal compliance or active resistance or is there a positive acceptance of the need to implement legislative objectives and if so to what extent