The Nature of the Current Trade Unions in the UK - Essay Example

Discuss the Nature of the Current Relationship between the UK Government and UK Public Sector (Trade) Unions Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Role of Trade Unions 5 Public Sector Trade Unions 6 Relationship between UK Government and the Public Sector Trade Unions 7 Conclusion 11 References 12 Bibliography 14 Introduction It has been rightly observed by the experts of the industry that the only constant thing of today is the word ‘change’ itself. There have been massive developments in the fields of information technology as well as communication process that initiated sea changes in the terms and the tricks of the trade. There is little doubt that such changes have affected almost all of the industries. Along with such change agents, the influential factor of globalization has also played very significant role in shaping the rules of the present industry. The world has become all the much smaller and the reach of the citizens (i.e. the end customers) have increased by huge extent. The effects of globalization have almost written – off the international borders of geography. The workers or the employees of almost all of the industries are informed like never before, thanks to the boom in media and specifically the internet. The work force of one country are often observed to have relationships on the grounds of strategies and thought process with their counter parts of other nations. Therefore, in the present day of continuous change, it is all the more challenging to shape and fix relationships for the governments with the working class of the nation i.e. the trade unions. Unlike the past, it would not be enough for the government only to focus on the national and the present issues but also it should take in to account the happenings of other nations in similar situations. It is also pretty clear that the relationship between the government and the trade union cannot be based upon certain obstinate terms, at least in this changing era, and it should necessarily be flexible and adaptable to the changing scenario. The Role of Trade Unions The popularity of the trade unions in the society has been from the ages of industrial revolution. It was in the continent of Europe that witnessed the primary presence of the trade unions. Trade unions are basically formed by the workers and employees of same organization who share similar working conditions. The trade unions had been a great help for the workers and the employees i.e. the working class as it tried to carb the exploiting working conditions by the companies in the past through the measures like collective bargaining. The public sector trade unions are specifically the association of the employees of the public sector units. There is a major difference among the public sector trade unions and the other trade unions as the public sector trade unions are essentially backed by the governments and therefore are entitled to certain extra facilities and amenities. The trends observed by various researchers and scholars suggest that the trade unions are losing its popularity fast and this is happening primarily in Europe. According to various research reports and journals, the employees of the present day are least bothered about their membership with the trade unions. Such trend is being noted from the last twenty years or so. The prime reason of such erosion of memberships of the trade unions in Europe and United Kingdom, which is also known as ‘deunionisation’, has been the changing nature of the economy and the society. The structural changes that have initiated by the welfare states of today have been too heavy for the unions of today. Apart from these factors, the other important reason for the losing popularity of the trade unions in the United Kingdom and that of the Europe has been because of the aging leadership of such unions. It is harsh but true fact that the leaders of such trade unions are much senior in age and often they fail to understand the needs and the perceptions of the young generation of the employees which results in the ‘deunionsiation’. The other important factor that has been important for such trends has been the long periods of mass unemployment in Europe and more specifically in the United Kingdom. Such long term mass unemployment has adversely affected the new memberships as well as the bargaining power of the trade unions (Ebbinghaus, 2002). Public Sector Trade Unions The purview of public sector includes those organisations that are run by the government of one level or the other. Such organisations might be under direct control of the national government or the local government. It is rightly said that the public sector is the most organized sector of the industry. And it is so, despite privatization being one of the most influential factors of the present world and other important factors like cuts in public sector spending. It is true fact that the public sector workers or the employees enjoy added advantage over and above their counterparts of the private industry. And the same is applicable for those in United Kingdom. The prime reason for such a state of affairs is because of the security of the job in a public sector company as they are the government companies and the governments of any welfare nation would not initiate measures or exploit their own citizens. On the other hand, it is the government in many of the European nations, including United Kingdom, that takes every possible measure to increase the membership of the public sector trade unions through initiatives like that of membership drives. The job security is much more in the public sector organizations and with the active support of the government; the unionisation is also extremely higher in public sector companies compared to the private ones. As it was revealed in the Labour Force Survey, in United Kingdom, the unionisation is almost three times higher in the public sector undertakings than the companies of the private sectors (DTI, 2001). In United Kingdom, like many other nations of Europe, there have been the instances of membership mobilization at least double the rate of the market sector. Relationship between UK Government and the Public Sector Trade Unions The government of the United Kingdom is undoubtedly one of the most influential governments in the international arena. The government is also regarded as the humanitarian face all across the globe. The members of the public sector trade unions are the direct employees of the government. Therefore, it could be expected that there might not be much of friction between the two groups of the study. But that is certainly not the case. The experts of the field are of the view that the employee strength of the public sector companies is much higher than that is required. And such higher number of employees with the trade unions strengthens their bargaining power. The another important observations about the public sector undertakings has been that the management of such organizations are basically centralised and there are too many managers present who really are not aware about their key result areas. Such factors lead to lesser productivity from the public sector companies and often such corporations cannot reach the expected level of performance. The public sector trade unions also have rocked the doors of the government of the United Kingdom many a times. According to such trade unions, the public sector workers are not duly attained in various subjects like that of performance management and conflict management. Also, according to the public sector trade unions the government should have larger numbers of social workers, nurses and doctors to take the needs of the public sector trade unions. The pay structure of the employees was also not satisfactory to the public sector trade unions (Philpott, 2009). The noted author on the discipline, Edward Rose, in his book ‘Employee Relations’ has dealt the issue with due emphasis. Ed Rose have identified the changing terms of trade and most importantly the employment opportunities that have been key in shaping the relationship in between the trade unions and the government. Rose is also of the view that the government just should not continue the blame game with the public sector trade unions and rather should initiate appropriate measures like proper training and development. Mr. Rose rightly observed that the relationship in between the government and the public sector trade unions should be shaped through the various methods like employee participation, partnership and involvement. Also, he focused more upon mutual understanding as he advocated collective resolution of their dispute (Rose, 2008). The relationship of the public sector trade unions and the government is fast changing in the United Kingdom. Various surveys about the issue exhibited that the density of the public sector union dropped significantly since the last decade of the last millennium. It has also been observed that there has been a paradigm shift in the pay determination of the public sector trade unions. If one considers the figures from 1984 to 1990, it could be verified that the workplace percentages that recognized unions for pay determination, fell from 99% (in the year of 1984) to 87% in the year of 1990. The other significant change that had huge impact upon the relationship of the public sector trade unions and the government was the fact that many of the works that was earlier performed only by the public sector companies are now offered by any public organisations of the United Kingdom. Many of the jobs of the public sectors that were employment generation are either contracted out to smaller private firms or are outsourced for cheap labour. Therefore, the managers of the public sectors became more careful about the setting of the pays to the employees unlike the scenario of few years back (Banchflower & Bryson, 2007) The British Journal of Industrial Relations also has brought up several issues that dealt with the changing role of employment. The issue that came up with the case of postal workers of Great Britain showed how internal politics with in the union can end up changing the entire strategy of the union. The modern perspective of understanding of the industrial relations essentially includes that of temporary networks and alliances (Gall, 2002). As it is almost certain today that the trade unions of public sector in the United Kingdom is losing the bargaining ability with the government and other important bodies, they are increasingly dependent upon forming coalition among the similar minded organisations. The public sector trade unions are also joining hands with the trade unions of the other sectors along with the various social as well as pressure groups so that they can enhance their losing power of collective bargaining. There are various instances of such instances in United Kingdom, few being East London Campaign for a Living Wage or the coalition between the trade unions and the Residents’ Action Group for the Elderly (RAGE) to prohibit privatisation of care homes (Heery, 2005). Conclusion Trade Union has been the part and parcel of the industry. The basic objective of the formation of trade union had been to save the workers and the employees of the organizations from their tyrant owners. But now, the time has changed. The companies and the corporations, all over the world, value their human capital, the most (Blyton & Turnbull, 1994). In case of public sector trade unions, there are no such issues generally as the members of the unions are employed by the government and the government functions for the common good of the mass. Yet, the role of trade unions can never be undermined. In the present day, the trade unions act as facilitators to the government so that the productivity can be increased. In the United Kingdom, there are certain issues regarding the pay structure at the public sector companies, yet the fact is that the trade unions are fast losing their popularity in the country. References Banchflower, D. G. & Bryson, A., 2007. The Wage Impact of Trade Unions in the UK Public and Private Sectors. Darthmouth University. [Online] Available at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~blnchflr/papers/economica%20revision%20final.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2010]. Blyton, P. & Turnbull, P. J. The Dynamics of Employee Relations. Macmillan, 1994. DTI, 2001. Trade Union Membership 1999-2000: An Analysis of Data from the Certification Officer and the Labour Force Survey. Labour Market Trends. Department of Trade and Industry. Ebbinghaus, 2002. Trade unions’ changing role: membership erosion, organisational reform, and social partnership in Europe. University of Wisconsin – Madison. [Online] Available at: http://eucenter.wisc.edu/Publications/ebbinghaus02.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2010]. Gall, G., 2002. The Organization of Organized Discontent: The Case of the Postal Workers in Britain. British Journal of Industrial Relations. Heery, E. 2005. Trade Unionism under New Labour Law. Manchester Industrial Relations Society. [Online] Available at: http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:R9-HO3v04bgJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=2000 [Accessed 13 February 2010]. Philpott, J., 2009. UK’s poorly managed and union-dominated public sector is ill-equipped for decade of fiscal austerity. People Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/blog-posts/2009/11/uks-poorly-managed-and-union-dominated-public-sector-is-ill-equipped-for-decade-of-fiscal-austerity.htm [Accessed 13 February 2010]. Rose, E. Employment Relations. Prentice Hall, 2008. Bibliography Bach, S., 2002. Public-sector Employment Relations Reform under Labour: Muddling Through on Modernization? British Journal of Industrial Relations. Terry, M. Redefining Public Sector Unionism: UNISON and the future of trade unions Routledge, 2000. Read More