Over the past twenty years employment law has had a growing significance for both human resource practitioners and general managers. It influences and may constrain the action that managers want to take. The aim of this textbook is to help those who have, or will have, responsibilities for employee relations and human resource management to manage within the law. This text promotes understanding of: A * the application of the law to HRM; A * the social purposes behind the legislation; A * the contextual issues that affect the implementation of the law. It aims to be integrative, by demonstrating that effective problem solving and policy making depend upon a recognition of the purposes behind the legislation and the context within which that legislation is implemented. By addressing the concerns about the impact of employment law, this text gives HR and general managers the confidence to analyse and handle a greater range of problems. Throughout, the balance between knowledge of legal provisions, on the one hand, and consideration of human resource issues, on the other, is explored by means of exercises and case studies.