The impact of the law on industrial disputes in the 1980s: report of a survey of education authorities

This paper reports the results of one part of a research project designed to investigate the nature and extent of the impact of the labour legislation enacted between 1980 and 1990 on the conduct of industrial relations and the processes by which this has come about. Interviews were carried out with officers in the education departments of ten Local Education Authorities. All had felt the impact of major national disputes from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. The most important legacy of this experience so far as the law was concerned was that it had now become generally the case that any significant industrial action would lead to Authorities considering whether to make deductions from the pay of workers concerned. Modification to the structure for the provision of public sector education under the Education Acts of the late 1980s and early 1990s was a far more important legal influence. This required significant change in established industrial relations and employment practices and could be a cause of dispute to which the labour legislation of the 1980s was of limited relevance.