ABSTRACT
In this chapter I examine the basis for reform to the United Kingdom’s statutory unfair dismissal scheme after 1971. Although frequently amended after its introduction, the United Kingdom’s statutory unfair dismissal scheme has never been dismantled, proving to be a fairly durable addition to the corpus of British labour law. The introduction of a statutory unfair dismissal scheme in 1971 as the result of rigorous debate in the previous decade over how to address the perceived inadequacies of the common law of wrongful dismissal meant that both sides of politics largely accepted the scheme’s merits at its inception. 1 While there was political agreement over the need to introduce unfair dismissal protection for workers, this arose at a time of labour law crisis more generally, and there was significant disagreement over the future of the United Kingdom’s industrial relations system. 2 The convergence over the rationale for statutory unfair dismissal protection began to unravel towards the tail end of the 1970s, and the differences between Labour and the Conservatives became more acute with the development of an argument of principle against unfair dismissal law by the Conservative government in the 1980s. Davies and Freedland coined this term to describe government acceptance of ‘an argument of principle against unfair dismissal legislation, namely that it discouraged employers from taking on labour and so contributed to unemployment’. 3 The Conservative government advocated a return to the common law of wrongful dismissal because of its belief in the right of employers to dismiss staff without independent scrutiny. Unlike its manifestation during the Conservative government’s duration in office, under subsequent governments this argument of principle was not used to argue against unfair dismissal law but rather to justify mechanisms for reducing access to the system and the substantive protection it offered.
