The Role of Trade Unions and/or Non-Union Employee Representative Bodies - Essay Example

What is the role of trade unions and/or non union employee representative bodies? Abstract Trade unions are organisations of workers who have the common goal of achieving best working conditions in the workplace. As Flanders (1975) states a Union offers its members the ability to give voice to common interests and concerns and offers protection through collectivism. Trade unions in Britain are in continuous development, understanding these developments which can bring negative impact on productivity is of growing discussion amongst different organisations such as employers and trade unions themselves. This essay will focus on the claim that trade unions in the workplace can only have negative impact on productivity. Examples such as, what negative impact means, which factors influences on productivity, the pros and cons of unionisation on productivity while discussing the Freeman and Medoff thesis. It will be argued that trade unions can also bring positive impact on productivity citing different examples. Research Problem According to Rose (2008), until the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 were replaced by the Combination Laws in 1825 most trade unions activities were illegal. After fifty-seven years in 1868 according to the TUC website, thirty-four delegates, representing some 118,000 trade union members, attended this first Congress, which was held in Manchester, from June 2nd to June 6th. Only two out of thirty-four delegates were part of the trade union from London. From this time onwards Trade Unions have been encountering different challenging times when trying to offer their members the best working conditions. One of the clearest examples of these circumstances is women entering the workforce, as well as the country’s recession periods after the First and Second World War. However, after the Second World War the unemployment decreased in the country and the unions became stronger. On the other hand, in 1979, the Conservative party came into power, bringing along a series of laws that would eradicate some of the rights and immunities that the TU had gained over the years. The 1990 Employment Act surveys reflected the increase in legislative power of the state and the fall in union membership between 1980 and 1990, as well as the collective bargaining arrangements that occurred during the same period (Stewart, 1995). Literature Review An analysis into the grounds of negative and positive impact on productivity it is provided below. This analysis will also consider the factors that can impact the situation for particular organisations, such as Royal Mail (RM) and British Airways (BA) in recognising a union. The first part of the analysis is to acknowledge how trade unions can influence employment relationships. The employees’ psychological contract plays a very important role in the employment relationship. According to Isaksson et al (2003) the psychological contract is the perceptions of reciprocal expectations and obligations implied in the employment relationship. If employees feel that they have a harmonious psychological contract it is more likely that they would perform better at work. However, if the contract could be perceived as being violated this could affect the employee’s relationship affecting as well the productivity. Unions in the workplace can influence or persuade employee’s psychological contract in a way that it can impact over the work balance. Fernie and Metcalf (1995) found union representation significantly increased motivation and commitment levels to the organisation, resulting in improved productivity and performance. Collective bargain thank you to the trade unions is a major player within the public sector (CIPD 2009), however this is not the case in the private sector where trade unions posses reduced presence. Collective bargain in this case will be left to the two-way dialogue between the manager and employee ensuring this is as effective as possible. If unions can provide support with such as grievance and disciplinary procedures; health and safety conditions, salary pay negotiation, job security, all these through collective bargaining, the employees’ psychological contracts will be also re-assured and supported to keep balanced, hence resulting in improved productivity and performance. Research Methods Recognition of a union within the organisation can also threaten an established standard relationship between management and employees (Bryson, 2004). Friedman et al (2006) found that dissatisfied workers are more likely to become members of a trade union. However, the presence of a trade union within an organisation might give misleading perceptions to the managers, which will be having an effect in the employee-manager relationship. Freeman, R and Medoff, J (1984) argue that greater benefits for unionized workers stem from two factors: 1- union bargaining power, also known as "monopoly face" and 2-union voice, also known as "collective voice" In the first case, the monopoly face damages competitive outcomes and reduces collective welfare, and members belonging to these ‘monopolies’ are considered as inefficient (and therefore less desirable) in an average economic thought. On the other hand, the collective voice face, can overcome the country’s situation and increase collective welfare relative to what would result from the worker. An extensive literature research, supported by Freeman and Medoff, has established that the Two Factors of Unionism became more popular in 1984. This confirmed that unions provide ‘collective voice’ to employees, which meant that would bring less turnover and make union firms have better productivity than non-unionized firms. Freeman and Medoff also argue that unions are indeed "harmful to the bottom line of company balance sheets.” However, they also state that trade unions have an important role in the organisation as they can influence in reducing the turnover rate as they can be the voice to be heard by the employees if they need to negotiate, for example, an increment on their salary. This argument is also supported by Batt, Colvin and Keefe (2002). They argued that unions can transmit the message to workers that they earn higher salaries for being in a unionised organisation than if they would be in a non-unionised one. However, Freeman and Medoff also stated that the "voice/response face of organized labour will be beneficial only if management can adjust to the union and turn unionism into a positive force at the workplace." We can see here that by, for example, introducing a certify workers’ skills programme or apprenticeships to the workplace, the organisation can be benefited in lowering costs of training and recruitment, making efficient and productive improvements, at the same time we should consider that motivation and work methods are clear factors that can have a great deal of impact on productivity. Topic Despite the fact that there are many benefits while recognising a union, it has been established that where the relationship with the unions are too strong within the workplace, employees can limit the opportunity of the organisation to be efficiently productive (Bryson & Wilkinson, 2001). For instance, one of the factors that can influence productivity is if the workers request an increment in their salary. This will mean that the profit of the organisation will be reduced and have consequences with fellow workers. Implications of Research One of these cases worth to mention is when the University and College Union (UCU) (The Guardian, 2008) announced that lecturers were going to strike over delayed increment pay, the union representative stated that some universities were in breach of agreement and that this could be taken as a reason for a dispute. Further back in 2006 (The Guardian, 2006), another case in the Education was causing argument over salary. Academics refused to mark exams while still receiving their full salaries. Although the dispute had already started some months before these actions, the employers did not do much to settle the situation. Employers rested thinking the lecturers were going to give up before the exam period, but that was not the case. The only possible solution could have only implied the involvement of more money. If an organisation is place where a strike is taking place, perhaps the temporary used of staff can sometimes be easiest route. However, this might not be always the case, and in some instances illegally. Such is the case of the Royal Mail dispute (BBC 2009) where the Communication Workers Union claimed that Royal Mail was illegally using temporary staff to break the strike and to be able to continuing with the service they provide, on the other hand Royal Mail denied these accusations. While the first example is based within the education sector, this makes the case more familiar. If the union would have failed to consider some of the impacts of the requests they were making, impacts such as significant redundancies (due to increment of salaries to other members of staff) and the increased workload this would create for those remaining in post, this would affect the union’s contribution to the work balance the union sought in the first place. Topic Once organisations recognise a trade union, they commit themselves to consultation, therefore, they are obliged to disclose certain information to the union for collective bargaining purposes (Business Link, 2010). An example of this is the meetings between BA and Unite when they failed to try to overturn changes that were brought by BA last year (BBC 2010). Unite claimed that it was not consulted properly and stated that changes were rather imposed than consulted. Amongst these changes were the reduction of crew members on long-haul flight, as well as introducing a two-year pay freeze from the current year and reduction of allowances. Another model of this commitment to consultation that some organisations fail to meet is the case of Royal Mail (RM) and Unite. When P Reuter (BBC 2008), official of the postal managers union Unite, expressed that all the consultation period was a sham when agreeing on new pension changes, as there was little different from the original from where they started. Although we can see most of the unionisation examples as negative, there are some positive sides to this. Bryson and Wilkinson (2001) suggested that unions’ role are to improve the workplace performance under the difficult economic situations of the countries. These make organisations to be more aware of any processes that need to be changed within the workplace. However, resistance to change can become the biggest problem for the organisations to overcome. Obtaining the support of the managers for union trade recognition seems to be crucial to ensure that recognition will bring along benefits to the employees. If the support from the managers is missing, this can bring negative impact not only on the management-employee relationship but also productivity within the organisation. Finally, according to Boheim & Booth (2004) unions do help to reduce staff turnover as they consider to influence in their morale and their commitment for their employer. They assure that trade unions can benefit the organisation with quality workers by improving employees’ knowledge and right skill levels. If the organisation posses a skilled workforce, this will generate a strong base of flexibility when responding to external factors, which will help the organisation to survive. In conclusion, keeping in view all the research that has been done, trade unions can have a great deal of benefits in the workplace as we found out, such as providing workers with a voice in determining policies that reduce the pay inequality, grievance and arbitration procedures, motivation, commitment and mainly productivity within others. However, Trade Unions can also have negative impact on productivity if they are unable to effectively represent all their members within their workplace. Conclusion Under the right conditions both workers and employees can benefit from the trade unions. Communication is essential, mainly in large organisations. Organisations can benefit from collective voice which will help to improve the workplace climate between managers and employees Most organisations that recognise a trade union would pursue a relationship that resulted in productivity rather than the opposite, but this varies not only by the type of organisation but also by different factors. If they are small organisations they might opt for being non-unionised. If recognition of a union is sought, it is important to be aware of what the union strength is and that this is reasonable and non-restraining. The principal role of the union we do not have to forget is to achieve best working conditions in the workplace by keeping the balance and harmony between the employer and employee. References BATT, R., COLVIN, A.J.S., and KEFFE, J., (2002) “Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, and Quit Rates: Evidence from the Telecommunications Industry” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 55, issue 4, pp. 573-594. BBC News ‘Union loses legal battle with British Airways’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8523758.stm BBC News ‘Union rejects Royal Mail Reform’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7275529.stm BBC News ‘Q&A: Royal Mail Dispute’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8260701.stm Boheim, R & Booth, A. (2004) ‘Trade Union Presence and Employer Provided Training in Great Britain’ Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 43, issue. 3, pp 520-545 Bryson, A & Wilkinson, D. (2001) ‘Collective Bargaining & Work Performance: An investigation using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998, Department of Trade & Industry Employment Relations Research, Series No12, pp1-169 Bryson, A (2004) ‘Managerial Responsiveness to Union and Non-Union Worker Voice in Britain.’ Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 3, issue 1, pp 213-241 BusinessLink ‘Working Effectively with Trade Unions’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1073792417 CIPD ‘The psychological contract’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/psycntrct/psycontr.htm Fenie, S & Metcalf, D. (1995) ‘Participation, Contingent Pay, Representation and Workplace Performance: Evidence from Great Britain’. British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 33, issue 3, pp379-415 Flanders, A (1975) Management & Unions: The theory and reform of industrial relations. Faber & Faber: London Freeman, R & Medoff, J. (1984). What do unions do? Basic Books: New York Friedman, B. Abraham, S & Thomas, R (2006) ‘Factors Related to Employees’ Desire to Join and Leave Unions’. Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 45, issue. 1, pp 102-110 Isaksson, K., Bernhard, C., Peiró, J. M., Caballer, A., Gracia, F., Ramos, J., et al. (2003). Psychological Contracts across Employment Situations (PSYCONES). Results from the pilot study (Research report No. 2.2) Rose, E (2008) Employment Relations. Prentice Hall: London Stewart, M (1995) ‘Union Wage Differentials in an era of declining unionisation’ Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics, Vol 57, issue 2, pp143-166 The Guardian ‘Lecturers' pay Union threatens to strike over salary rise delays’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/may/29/highereducation.lecturerspay The Guardian ‘Degrees of Incertainty’, accessed 20 April 2013 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/may/19/politics.publicservices Trade Union Congress (TUC) ‘Why Not Have A Congress Of Your Own’, source accessed 20 April 2013 http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-2878-f3.cfm#tuc-2878-3 Read More