| Unit name | Employment Law |
|---|---|
| Unit code | LAWD30113 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Bogg |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | University of Bristol Law School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
Employment Law is concerned with the regulation of work and employment in the economy and society. For workers, the activity of work may be one of the most important elements in their lives. Through work and employment, workers can secure economic independence through earning a wage. Meaningful and decent work can also provide a basis for self-esteem and self-respect. Productive employment is important for governments in generating wealth and economic prosperity. Employment Law is the way in which this vital relationship is regulated. There are often conflicting interests and values, and the legal system must address those conflicts. The employment relationship is generally an unequal relationship which means that workers may be exploited where an employer abuses its power. Employment Law is the primary mechanism for protecting workers from exploitation and abuse of power.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Employment law is an optional final year Law unit that builds on and applies knowledge learned in a range of compulsory public and private law modules, such as the Law of Contract. It provides you with an essential understanding of the fundamental features of the employment contract in its broader social and economic context. You will examine issues such as the identity and contents of the employment contract, the role of trade union rights in economy and society, justice in dismissal, and the specific enforcement challenges presented by extreme forms of exploitation of migrant workers.
An overview of content
You will learn about the main legal techniques for regulating employment and protecting workers. This will include the role of the employment contract as a gateway into accessing statutory protections such as the minimum wage and unfair dismissal rights. The course will also consider other ways of extending legal protections to precarious workers, for example those who work in the gig economy, such as the ‘worker’ category. We will also consider the specific challenges faced by other groups of workers such as migrant workers, who may be experiencing serious exploitation such as modern slavery. You will also look at the different sources of protection for employees and workers. This will include implied terms, collective agreements with trade unions, and statutory rights such as unfair dismissal protection. You will also learn about the law and politics of trade union activity, including strikes.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
We will consider how established approaches to individual employment law are currently applied to contemporary developments in labour markets, such as the ‘gig economy’, ‘zero hours’ contracts, and ‘modern slavery’ of migrant workers. You will develop a firm grasp of the basic principles, structure, and institutions of UK employment law. This will include both individual rights (statutory and common law) and the legal policies relating to collective actors such as trade unions. You will identify and explore a selection of contemporary legal and policy-related issues, derived from the academic and public policy literature, providing your own evaluation of the ways in which they should be addressed by courts and legislators.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, students will be able to:
Independent Study
Independent study is at the core of a university education. A large proportion of your time will be spent engaging with a variety of different materials, including legislation, case law, academic materials (including textbook reading and published academic work), recorded materials (such as recorded videos, podcasts and other relevant media), blogs and other relevant materials. This provides the foundation of your knowledge which will then be assessed in the formative and summative assessments. You will be provided with structured reading lists, which includes required and further reading for you to explore in your own time. You will be expected to read and engage with this material and to reflect on it before your seminars and large group sessions.
Lectures, Seminars and Large Group Sessions
Lectures are a key element of degree-legal education and provide a framework for your learning. Lectures will help introduce you to key concepts relevant to the unit and will be used in a number of ways to facilitate your learning. They may be used to provide an introduction to a particular topic, to help you see connections between different topics within the unit, or to provide a “deep dive” into particularly difficult legal issues. They will usually be less interactive than other forms of teaching, but being able to listen to and digest information is a key skill.
Seminars and large group sessions are a space in which you will develop and consolidate your learning and have an opportunity to practice key assessment-related skills. Seminars will be led by an academic member of staff who will facilitate group discussions around specific legal issues that you have encountered in lectures, large group sessions and your independent study. You will be expected to have completed the required reading set for each seminar, which will involve interactive learning. In doing so, you should give thought to how you might use the reading material to answer any questions set in advance. Seminars will give you the opportunity to discuss the issues and questions set for each topic in small and large groups. Exercises will be set either prior to or in the seminar, which may involve ‘problem question’ scenarios or other group work designed to generate class debate. The aim of the tutor will be to provide structure for discussion and to highlight the various concerns and difficulties arising in relation to various aspects of law and policy. Further reading will be provided which is designed to enable you to build upon the reading given in seminars. In this way, you will learn more about the kinds of issues that you might discuss in response to the topics set for formative assessment and the related questions you will answer in the summative assessment.
Large group sessions may involve meeting as a whole cohort or in other groupings, and are a more interactive environment than a lecture, but are larger than a seminar. Large group sessions may involve focusing on particular assessment-related skills or may involve exploring particular legal issues in more detail to supplement your lectures, seminars and independent study.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare for summative tasks (formative):
Formative assessments will come in many forms such as informal questioning and dialogue in seminars, group exercises and asynchronous activities on Blackboard (our virtual learning platform). These will contribute to your learning and will not count towards your final mark.
Additionally, five topics (which will be relevant for the summative assessment coursework) will be released early in the teaching block. You will then be invited to submit in the middle of the teaching block a 500-word essay plan or problem question plan relating to one of the topics set. Feedback will be returned to you later in the term to assist you with the completion of the summative assessment.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Summative assessment provides the mark for the unit. The assessment will assess all the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) for this unit in the context of topics selected by the examiners. The summative assessment for Employment Law will consist of a 3,000-word Timed Assessment (take home exam), which will take place at the end of the teaching block. The Timed Assessment will require you to answer a set number of questions and submit your paper online. It will be 3,000 words in total made up of two 1,500 word answers that forms 100% of the assessment. You will be required to provide one answer in essay form and the other in problem question form.
When assessment does not go to plan:
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, the unit will be reassessed on a like-for-like basis.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessment required for credit in the usual way.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. LAWD30113).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
