Legal obstacles to alternative work-force designs

GIven the changing industrial realities we now face, more and more employers and their employees are becoming involved in cooperative work ventures such as work teams, quality circles, and joint employer-employee committees. Successful ventures of ths sort minimize the adversary nature of the relationship between management and labor and enhance employees' sense of responsibility and authority. The result is better working relationships and increased productivity. In both union and nonunion settings, however, employers face legal obstacles to work-force redesign. In the following article, the author discusses these obstacles and offers some suggestions on how they may be avoided.