Signs of a more militant approach by employees and trade unions have appeared in recent months as many firms struggle to deliver a positive - and productive - employee relations climate. Duncan Brown reports
The well-publicised Gate Gourmet industrial dispute affecting the supply of meals on British Airways flights was finally settled at the start of this month. Supported by sympathy or secondary action by BA staff, the action has cost the airline millions of pounds in lost business. And across UK industry, there have been signs of a more militant approach by employees and trade unions.
Morrisons was forced to concede national negotiating rights to trade unions representing staff in its distribution depots after the threat of strikes in protest against rumours of job cuts. HSBC recently agreed its annual pay deal with finance union Amicus after a row over pay and bonuses resulted in staff voting for industrial action.
Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, have just voted for a series of one-day strikes at First Great Western. Driving tests were disrupted last month by a walk-out at the Driving Standards Agency’s HQ in Nottingham; Rolls Royce’s factory in Bristol was similarly affected. The big, consolidating trade unions adopted an aggressive stance at last month’s TUC conference, demanding the repeal of a ban on secondary action and a raft of new employment rights.
So are we seeing the start of a return to the 1970s’ situation of widespread strike action and trade union officials enjoying regular bouts of beer and sandwiches at 10 Downing Street? The national picture as a whole would suggest not, and most UK employees might not now recognise primary, never mind secondary, industrial action.
The number of working days lost in strikes has fallen from more than 1,100 per 1,000 staff in the 1970s to fewer than 100 today. Less than one in five private sector workers are union members. Between 1980 and 2000 the coverage of collective bargaining agreements fell from more than 75% to less than 33% of the workforce, with a heavy concentration in the public sector and for older workers.
A study for the TUC carried out by Professor David Metcalfe at The London School of Economics painted a bleak future, with unions buffeted by a range of factors including the decline of heavy industry, global competitive pressures and negative attitudes among particularly younger employees. Professor Willy Brown at Cambridge agrees that “unions are confronted with apparently insuperable difficulties” and that “it has become irreversibly difficult to mobilise the credible strength that might alter employee attitudes”.
Yet a new CIPD report, What is Employee Relations, demonstrates that changing employee attitudes and the decline
in collective organisation presents as many challenges to employers as to the unions. In a situation of widespread skill shortages and major retailers leafleting their competitors’ staff with recruitment ads, lazy employers that rely exclusively on occasional meetings with trade union officials to communicate with their staff are losing out.
There is clear evidence from firms such as Sears and Nationwide that positive attitudes and involved, engaged staff drive high levels of customer satisfaction and financial performance. Yet a majority of UK employees today feel that communications in their workplace are ineffective, 40% believe their pay is unfair, only a third feel involved in workplace decision-making and fewer than 25% trust their senior management.
The aim of new legislation on employee information and consultation, introduced in April, was to try to encourage the development of more high performance workplaces with informed and committed employees, rather than a return to the 1970s. Yet many firms are struggling to deliver the intended positive employee relations climate.
As the CIPD’s study illustrates, successful firms such as Tesco are directing considerable efforts at studying and working to continually improve employee attitudes and engagement. At computer firm Dell, managers are held accountable for the results of regular Tell Dell employee surveys, while senior managers hold regular staff briefings and discussions. ITV has been restructuring in the face of major changes in the broadcasting industry. Confrontation has been avoided by interacting with employees through a wide range of channels.
UK management’s apparent victory over truculent trade unions may be a Pyrrhic one in the face of aggressive global competitors, unless negative employee attitudes can be countered by the development of more productive and engaging relationships in the workplace.
n Duncan Brown is assistant director general, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
The well-publicised Gate Gourmet industrial dispute affecting the supply of meals on British Airways flights was finally settled at the start of this month. Supported by sympathy or secondary action by BA staff, the action has cost the airline millions of pounds in lost business. And across UK industry, there have been signs of a more militant approach by employees and trade unions.
Morrisons was forced to concede national negotiating rights to trade unions representing staff in its distribution depots after the threat of strikes in protest against rumours of job cuts. HSBC recently agreed its annual pay deal with finance union Amicus after a row over pay and bonuses resulted in staff voting for industrial action.
Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, have just voted for a series of one-day strikes at First Great Western. Driving tests were disrupted last month by a walk-out at the Driving Standards Agency’s HQ in Nottingham; Rolls Royce’s factory in Bristol was similarly affected. The big, consolidating trade unions adopted an aggressive stance at last month’s TUC conference, demanding the repeal of a ban on secondary action and a raft of new employment rights.
So are we seeing the start of a return to the 1970s’ situation of widespread strike action and trade union officials enjoying regular bouts of beer and sandwiches at 10 Downing Street? The national picture as a whole would suggest not, and most UK employees might not now recognise primary, never mind secondary, industrial action.
The number of working days lost in strikes has fallen from more than 1,100 per 1,000 staff in the 1970s to fewer than 100 today. Less than one in five private sector workers are union members. Between 1980 and 2000 the coverage of collective bargaining agreements fell from more than 75% to less than 33% of the workforce, with a heavy concentration in the public sector and for older workers.
A study for the TUC carried out by Professor David Metcalfe at The London School of Economics painted a bleak future, with unions buffeted by a range of factors including the decline of heavy industry, global competitive pressures and negative attitudes among particularly younger employees. Professor Willy Brown at Cambridge agrees that “unions are confronted with apparently insuperable difficulties” and that “it has become irreversibly difficult to mobilise the credible strength that might alter employee attitudes”.
Yet a new CIPD report, What is Employee Relations, demonstrates that changing employee attitudes and the decline
in collective organisation presents as many challenges to employers as to the unions. In a situation of widespread skill shortages and major retailers leafleting their competitors’ staff with recruitment ads, lazy employers that rely exclusively on occasional meetings with trade union officials to communicate with their staff are losing out.
There is clear evidence from firms such as Sears and Nationwide that positive attitudes and involved, engaged staff drive high levels of customer satisfaction and financial performance. Yet a majority of UK employees today feel that communications in their workplace are ineffective, 40% believe their pay is unfair, only a third feel involved in workplace decision-making and fewer than 25% trust their senior management.
The aim of new legislation on employee information and consultation, introduced in April, was to try to encourage the development of more high performance workplaces with informed and committed employees, rather than a return to the 1970s. Yet many firms are struggling to deliver the intended positive employee relations climate.
As the CIPD’s study illustrates, successful firms such as Tesco are directing considerable efforts at studying and working to continually improve employee attitudes and engagement. At computer firm Dell, managers are held accountable for the results of regular Tell Dell employee surveys, while senior managers hold regular staff briefings and discussions. ITV has been restructuring in the face of major changes in the broadcasting industry. Confrontation has been avoided by interacting with employees through a wide range of channels.
UK management’s apparent victory over truculent trade unions may be a Pyrrhic one in the face of aggressive global competitors, unless negative employee attitudes can be countered by the development of more productive and engaging relationships in the workplace.
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