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Employment Relationship

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The aim of this essay is to discuss whether it is appropriate to consider the employment relationship as a contract, in the sense of voluntary between the two equal parties. Fox (1974:183) argues that it is inappropriate to consider the employment contract is equal and the employment relationship is merely a ‘brute facts of power’. With reference to Fox’s statement, this essay will discuss the nature of employment relationship, the influence of key institutions and their impact for employers and employees, and the three main perspectives at work. This essay will support Fox’s statement as inequality between the employers and employees is often an issue at the workplace.

The basis of employment relationship is the relationship that exists between the employer and employee. The employment relationship is the context within which indicate interactions between employees, who may be unionised, and employers are conducted, both collectively and individually (Kelly, 1998). The employment contract is apparently central to the employment relationship. By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the development of
Capitalism in Britain, based on the contractual relationship between an employer and employee, wage labour system had largely displaced traditional forms of work relations that are based on status. The role of the employment contract in the employment relationship is that it captures the way in which the employment relationship is an economic transaction, concerning the willingness of employee to offer their capacity to labour in exchange for the promise of wages (Kahn-Freund, 1977). There are two problems regarding the employment contract. First, the contracts assume that both parties have equal relationships. However, employers have more freedom and power compared to the employee to make as this can be seen when employers are hiring and selecting

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