Power relations in employment disputes

This article reconceptualizes the operation of power relations in employment disputes. We draw on Foucault’s theory of neo-liberal governance to inform our analysis of empirical data exploring how low-income workers make decisions about whether to engage with the Employment Tribunal system. Particular focus is placed on the ways the state governs employment disputes to achieve ideologically driven objectives. We conclude: first, that power relations in employment disputes operate across a range of institutions and individuals, and that the state’s role is powerful and ongoing; secondly, that power relations operate to shape not just the objective context that workers find themselves in when experiencing an employment dispute but also workers’ subjective moral codes about appropriate courses of action to take; and thirdly, that despite the powerful influence of the state, workers continue to hold non-economic values that guide their perception of the appropriate basis for relations between employers and workers.