Also known as employment law, labor laws are a body of laws, rulings and precedents which go over the legal rights and obligations of employees and the employers that provide them wages for their work. Since the relationship between an employee and an employer can usually be extremely temperamental, labor laws have been established to mediate the relations between the two. Parties involved within employment law are employees, employers and trade unions.

What is a Trade Union?
In employment law, a trade union is an organization made up of workers from a single company, or an industry with similar organizations for a common goal. The goal of a trade union is to ensure the safety of employees, create fair working environments, fair wages, and ensure that all procedures and interactions between the employer and the employee are fair. Trade unions generally negotiate with employers on subjects such as labor contracts, fair wages, fair rules and regulations, hiring procedures, firing procedures and other elements of employment law. Employment laws allow trade unions to organize strikes in a company if their needs and demands are not met, they can perform collective bargaining and other political activity.

Collective Employment Law (also known as Collective Labor Law):
The primary concerns of people involved in collective employment law is to establish a fair relationship between the employer, employee and the trade unions (trade unions are commonly referred to as labor unions).

Strikes:
Collective employment law can sometimes lead to strikes within a company. A strike can be thought of as a weapon used by employees during times of employment law disputes and are usually highly effective in getting workers’ message across and receiving what they believe is fair. Information about strikes:

• Strikes are generally voted upon by trade unions. This is important because they would not be effective if not everyone agrees on it and not everyone is interested in participating.

• Employment laws allow for general strikes to be legally overturned if a public order is issued. A general strike is the most common type of strike done today and organized by trade unions.

• Employees involved in strikes are generally only safe if they are a member of a trade union airport and health personnel, teachers, police and firemen are all restricted from participating in a strike.

Pickets:
A picket is commonly referred to in collective employment law as a tactic done by workers during a strike. It involves employees in a strike convening outside their place of business, making their presence known to the business officials, while preventing other workers from “breaking” or “crossing” the picket line to work. Many countries outlaw pickets from being formed, including Great Britain.

Workplace Involvement:
This is an employment law that requires decisions made by a company to be first consulted with workers that the decision will affect. Another term that refers to this notion is industrial democracy, which is a stricter version of workplace involvement, that requires workers’ votes to be counted in addition to be consulted with.