United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile
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Industrial relations characteristics
Collective bargaining
|
National level (Intersectoral) |
Sectoral level |
Company level | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principle or dominant level |
X |
||
| Important but not dominant level |
X |
||
| Existing level |
X |
X |
In the UK, the dominant level for the setting of pay and working time is the company or plant level in the private sector. In areas of the public sector – and in a small section of the private sector – sectoral level agreements are concluded. There are no national intersectoral agreements in the UK, nor is there any tradition of this, aside from a very brief period in the 1970s. In 2011, the coverage rate of collective agreements in the UK was 31.2%. There is a large discrepancy between figures for the public and private sectors, with collective bargaining covering 67.8% of public sector employees in 2012, compared with 16.9% for the private sector (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2012).
The provision of opt-outs in collective agreements does not apply in the UK system of industrial relations.
Compared with other western European countries, the UK is notable for the disorganised nature of its levels of collective bargaining and the lack of legal backing and promotion that collective agreements are subject to. In line with the UK voluntarist tradition, collective agreements are voluntary instruments that are ‘binding in honour only’. However, the terms of collective agreements are normally incorporated into individual contracts of employment that are then legally enforceable. Collective agreements are not subject to extension and so are subsequently never extended by legislation, and there are no voluntary mechanisms for doing so. Moreover, no formal mechanisms exist for the coordination of wage bargaining in the UK. However, in practice, trade unions in different companies and sectors often share information with one another, and agreements in certain companies and sectors often act as informal ‘benchmarks’ for negotiators in other areas.
Collective bargaining in the UK has become far more decentralised since the 1970s and 1980s. In this period, many companies in the private sector left sectoral agreements and, in the public sector, collective bargaining also became more decentralised. According to one study (Visser, 2004), the degree of bargaining centralisation in the UK stands at just 13%.
Other issues in collective agreements
Collective agreements on issues besides pay and working time are not widespread. While vocational education and training is strong in some professional and technical sectors, it has been historically weak in others. Recent attempts have been made to regularise vocational training through National Vocational Qualifications, and these have been supplemented by further moves to establish lifelong learning routes – especially through the ‘university for industry’ initiative. However, much of the provision of skills training is decentralised to the newly formed Sector Skills Councils (SSC). Currently, there are 23 SSCs in the UK; all of the councils are employer-led, independent organisations, each covering a specific area of the UK.
Industrial disputes
The latest available official statistics show that in 2011 there were 134 stoppages recorded during which 1.3 million working days were lost. The sharp rise in working days lost and the number of workers involved can be attributed to large scale disputes in mainly the public sector over the effects of austerity measures, particularly cuts in government funding and pensions reform. The number of stoppages remained relatively stable, yet two large strikes by public sector workers in June–July and in November 2011 saw the highest number of working days lost in over 20 years. In July 2011, four trade unions staged one-day strikes over the UK coalition government’s proposed changes to public sector pension schemes. The strikes primarily affected schools and functions performed by the Civil Service (UK1107019I). On 30 November 2011, 30 unions held a further round of strike action involving 1.2 million workers over changes to public sector pensions.
|
Year |
Working days lost |
Workers involved |
Stoppages |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1989 |
4,128,000 |
172,000 |
701 |
|
1994 |
278,000 |
107,000 |
205 |
|
1999 |
242,000 |
141,000 |
205 |
|
2004 |
905,000 |
293,000 |
130 |
|
2009 |
455,000 |
209,000 |
98 |
|
2010 |
563,000 |
307,000 |
97 |
|
2011 |
1,380,000 |
1,515,000 |
134 |
Source: ONS 2009, 2010, 2012a
The general decline in the number of stoppages in the UK is likely to be attributable to falling trade union density rates, and to the restrictive trade union legislation of the 1980s and 1990s. The data indicate that while the number of stoppages is low, the number of working days lost and workers involved have not fallen in proportion. The figures for 2010–11 reflect disputes over government austerity measures and pensions reform culminating in two large strikes in the public sector on a scale not seen in the UK for many years. Compared with previous years, stoppages have not increased significantly, whereas working days lost for 2011 increased 60% since 2010 and the numbers of workers involved rose by 80% for the same period.
Although uncommon in the UK, 2011 saw two high-profile cases of attempted union derecognition (UK1111029I). In August 2011, Plymouth City Council derecognised the public services union Unison after it rejected a new collective agreement. The union gained recognition in September after it accepted a revised agreement. In the private sector, a group of employees at Honda applied to the independent Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) to ballot workers on whether Unite the union should be derecognised at one of their production plants. The CAC rejected the application on the grounds that it did not believe most workers in the unit would favour an end to the bargaining arrangements.
Conflict resolution and arbitration mechanisms
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) is the main body involved in conciliation and arbitration in the UK. It is an autonomous, tripartite body established by statute and its task is to improve industrial relations. The largest part of ACAS’s work is individual conciliation. The amount of individual litigations and employment tribunal cases has increased considerably within the UK in the past decade or so. Arbitration is a relatively small part of its work, mainly because it has no powers to arbitrate without the consent of both sides. Arbitration is neither compulsory nor legally binding.
Tripartite concertation
Owing to the UK voluntarist tradition, policy concertation has been uncommon, and there are currently few formal mechanisms or forums for tripartite concertation in the country. From 1962, a tripartite National Economic Development Council existed, in which the government and UK social partners discussed economic policy; however, this was abolished in 1992. In the late 1970s, consultation between government, employers and trade unions was also growing in importance. However, the Thatcher government, which was elected in 1979, sought to eradicate any forms of corporatism. Since then, tripartism or corporatism has not been re-introduced on a comprehensive or formal basis. However, the UK social partners are regularly consulted by the public authorities on the direction of public policy in the country on an ad hoc basis; they are also represented in a series of committees of a tripartite nature. For example, the social partners are represented on the Low Pay Commission (LPC), an independent UK body that issues recommendations for increases in the national minimum wage. The LPC board consists of nine members – three trade union representatives, three employers and three labour market relations experts. At the sectoral level, the UK social partners are involved in the aforementioned SSCs, which seek to improve the skills of workers in the UK.
Workplace representation
|
Works council type (WC) |
Trade union (TU) |
[Other body] Please specify, if needed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Most important body |
X |
||
| 2 Alternative body |
X |
The main channel of employee representation in the UK is via the recognition of trade unions by employers for the purposes of collective bargaining. According to the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS), 30% of workplaces with 10 or more employees recognised at least one trade union (Kersley et al, 2006). However, the incidence of union recognition was much higher among larger workplaces, with 67% of workplaces with 500 or more employees recognising unions. Moreover, while recognition of unions was widespread in public sector workplaces (90%), it was much lower in private sector workplaces (16%). The extent of union recognition has declined continually from the early 1980s.
Another channel of employee representation in some workplaces is that of joint consultative committees (JCCs) – sometimes known as works councils or employee forums. These are broadly concerned with consultation rather than negotiation. Although in some cases JCCs are an alternative to, or substitute for, union representation, they are also prevalent in workplaces which recognised unions. WERS 2004 found that JCCs were present in 14% of workplaces (39% if workplaces covered by a higher-level JCC are included). Again, JCCs were more common in public sector workplaces and in larger workplaces. The proportion of workplaces with JCCs has been falling since the late 1980s, but between 1998 and 2004 the decline was primarily evident in workplaces with less than 100 employees: among larger workplaces, the incidence of JCCs was broadly stable.
The primary basis for both union recognition and the establishment of JCCs has traditionally been voluntary agreement. However, since 1999 in the case of trade union recognition and 2004 in the case of information and consultation arrangements, legislation has existed in the UK enabling unions and employees respectively to use statutory procedures to seek the introduction of representation arrangements where not established voluntarily.
Employee rights
Employee rights are enforced in the UK through a variety of mechanisms. Employees have access to employment tribunals that determine whether the rights of employees have been infringed. Trade unions are responsible for the monitoring of collective agreements, and the right of trade unions to engage in strike action is decided by the UK civil courts. Health and safety conditions in workplaces are monitored by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), while compliance with the national minimum wage is monitored by the country’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) department.
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