Statutory employment rights have traditionally been confined to employees, excluding independent contractors. Courts resist the use of misleading terms in contracts in order to create the appearance that many employees are independent contractors. Recent legislation has extended some statutory protections to some economically dependent independent contractors known as ’limb b workers’. Triangular relations where the function of employer is distributed between two or more businesses create the problem for agency workers and platform workers that it is unclear which, if any, business bears the responsibility of conforming to employment rights.

EU law has developed mandatory requirements for employers to inform and consult employee representatives. These various provisions remain in force in British law post-Brexit, though Brexit will clearly have implications for their future development. In this chapter, we consider information and consultation obligations relating to collective redundancies, as well as the more wide ranging provisions in the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, and the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, as amended in 2010.

Long assumed to have no real function, we now understand the importance of the prefrontal cortex for a wide range of cognitive functions, including decision-making. Some of the earliest understanding of the role of the prefrontal cortex came from the famous case study of Phineas Gage. Through a mining accident, Gage’s prefrontal cortex was extensively damaged. He showed no observable impairments in motor, sensory or memory skills. He however did show marked differences in personality and planning. Over the following decades, research built upon understanding of the role of the prefrontal cortex. Today, the prefrontal cortex as a region is recognised across many species and is considered the most evolutionarily advanced in humans. The current consensus is that prefrontal cortex is an integration area, integrating information from all over the brain.

Rewarding employees based on their performance is a crucial part of rewards management. Performance-based payments can illicit two behavioural responses, summarised as the incentive effect and the sorting effect. ‘Incentive effect’ refers to employees being more likely to increase their work effort when they believe it will be rewarded with higher pay. ‘Sorting effect’ has to do with the movements of people across organisations: highly capable and competitive employees are attracted to meritocratic organisations, while low performers are driven out of such organisations. This chapter examines the main types of individual and collective incentive plans, focusing on short-term plans (usually one year or less of the performance cycle). The individual performance pay includes merit payments, results-based individual incentives (piece rate, sales commission and goal-based bonus), and employee recognition plans. Collective incentives are profit-sharing, gainsharing, goal-sharing and team incentives. The chapter also discusses how each incentive plan aligns with the firm’s strategies and the implications of implementing a complex pay system with multiple types of performance pay plans.

This chapter provides an array of different characterization techniques that are used to determine the surface and bulk properties of biomaterials. Principles underlying the various instruments that are typically used for characterization of biomaterials and their limitations are presented.

The chapter examines statutory entitlements to caring leave and flexible working. The statutory right to paid maternity leave on the birth of a child has been extended to paid paternity leave, shared parental leave and shared parental pay. There are also rights to paid neonatal care leave and parental bereavement leave, and rights to unpaid leave to deal with family care emergencies. More generally, all employees have the right to request flexible work arrangements involving changes in their hours and location of work. There is also protection from discrimination against part-time workers in comparison to full-time workers.

Decision-making shows great variance between individuals. In attempt to explain individual differences, the General Decision Making Style questionnaire (GDMS) was developed. The GDMS considers decision-making an individual characteristic, that can be categorised as rational, avoidant, dependent, intuitive or spontaneous. A person can move between decision-making styles, or have a primary and secondary style – it is not fixed. Personality traits and a range of environmental factors are thought to influence decision-making style.

The employment relation is normally understood as a contract of employment. The employer, as usually the stronger bargaining partner, is free to determine the parties’ obligations through fixing the express terms of the contract. Regulation requires the employer to disclose those terms in writing. There is no legal control over unfair terms. However, collective agreements with a recognised trade union often fix the principal express terms of the contract.

Our central proposition is that developing and maintaining an effective and sustainable approach to performance and reward management requires careful consideration of two key factors: (1) the organisation’s strategic objectives; and (2) employees’ psychological needs, expectations and perceptions. To optimise their effectiveness, performance and reward policies and practices should be compatible with, and support, both of these factors. Misalignment between the two occurs all too readily and is likely to produce suboptimal outcomes for the organisation or its employees, or both. We examine the considerations and challenges involved in achieving strategic alignment and explore the possibilities and complexities of securing psychological engagement. Throughout the chapter, ‘reality check’ boxes encourage you to think through these two themes in practical terms, while the end-of-chapter case study invites you to apply the themes of strategic alignment and psychological engagement to our focal case study organisation, IT Angels.

The human brain can be divided by both structure and function. Brodmann maps provide a useful way of organising the complex cortical structure based on cytoarchitecture. The basic architecture of the prefrontal cortex shows nothing substantially different to other cortical regions we have a clearer understanding of. However, it remains clear that there must be something anatomically different in the prefrontal cortex for it to be able to carry out such complex functions. Despite vast differences in the functionality of brain regions, topographic connectivity is considered a hallmark feature of cortical structure. However, relatively recent research evidence shows there may be more complexity to the connectivity pattern in the prefrontal cortex when viewed on a fine scale.

The band theory of solids is developed and used to explain the properties of conductors, insulators, and semiconductors (both pure and doped). Type n and p semiconductors are introduced and combined to form the p-n junction or diode. Analysis of diode circuits is introduced, followed by several applications of diodes. As a lead-in to power supply circuits, rectification, filtering, and regulation are discussed. Zener diodes are introduced and applications are given. The silicon-controlled rectifier and some applications are presented. Photodiode operation and the resulting circuit analysis are given, along with a discussion of optimization. An introduction to switching power supplies (boost, buck, and buck-boost) is presented.

Large corporations, trade unions and labour law now function within a global economy, creating the need to develop effective international labour standards addressed both to governments and corporations, which are now expected to take greater responsibility for labour standards throughout their global operations. This chapter examines the international legal framework for labour law within which domestic law operates, and the more recent initiatives focused specifically on corporations, as well as questions of exploitation associated with growing labour mobility, before concluding with a discussion about the prospects for global labour law.