The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations

13

Employers, managers and employment relations

Peter Sheldon

Introduction

For an employer, the practice of employment relations (ER) starts with a contract of employment that establishes an individual employment relationship with an employee. At its simplest, that employment relationship (and ER) then proceeds as the employer specifies the work the employee is to do and those conditions, beyond the initial contract of employment, under which the employee will perform it. Under time-based hiring, the employer offers the certainty of a pay rate and particular employment conditions in exchange for an expected level of employee performance during the time paid for. The employer therefore buys that employee’s potential performance during that ...