ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the managerialism implicit in the modernization project (David 2000; Ozga 2002) and enacted through site-based management has been modified by the development of individual rights in society in general and in the workplace in particular. It explores the traditional and emerging roles of education trade unions, their use of new individual legal rights and their engagement with notions of social partnership. (Note: the term education trade union will be used to denote a union to which staff working in the education sector can belong. This term is preferred to teaching trade union because some unions, such as the UK’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers, are open to support staff, and some, such as the UK’s Association of School and College Leaders, are open only to school leaders, including school business managers.) It argues that neo-liberalism and human capital theory, with their relentless promotion of competitive individualism, have given rise to national and supra-national legal frameworks (including the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights) that comprehensively protect employees against every form of discrimination, while still failing to prevent various types of worker exploitation.
