Is There a Role for Trade Unions in the New Employee Relations - Essay Example

Is there a role for Trade Unions in the new employee relations Introduction The development of trade unions worldwide has been based on the need of employees to be protected against the potential violation of their rights by employers. Through the decades the demands of employees for equality and fairness in the workplace have remained the same; however, additional needs appeared - being related with the new social and financial conditions worldwide. The ability of trade unions to respond to the current needs of employees around the world has been strongly doubted; all trade unions have specific principles and priorities; these should be reviewed and updated periodically; instead, a different approach seems to be applied by the governing boards of these unions; traditional methods in representing employees in employment disputes are preferred - being considered as most effective in the resolution of the relevant problems. Current paper focuses on the examination of the role of trade unions in the new employee relations developed in businesses across Britain. The studies published on the above issue will be critically analysed; the studies will be identified using the following two criteria: a) studies published in Britain will be preferred by those published in other countries and b) recent studies - of the last 3 years - will be preferred - aiming to represent the actual interaction between the trade unions and new employee relations in firms across Britain. It is proved that the value of trade unions in supporting the rights of employees in Britain is quite high; however, in certain cases trade unions in Britain fail to respond to their role-mistakes in their strategies and their management style seem to be the main reason for this failure. On the other hand, the support of the state towards the unions has been limited - a fact that led to the further limitation of the importance of trade unions in representing employees in Britain. Other factors have been found to play a role in the limitation of the power of British trade unions in the workplace; these factors are presenting in the literature and are explained in the sections that follow. 2. Trade Unions in Britain - views in literature Trade unions have been an important part of British society. In fact, these unions have helped towards the improvement of the terms of employment in Britain - even under difficult political and social conditions. The development of trade unions in Britain has been extensively examined in the literature. Different approaches have been used in order to evaluate the role of trade unions in the specific country; all these approaches seem to have a common point of reference: the importance of trade unions for the improvement of employment in Britain is not doubted; however, it is assumed that the policies used by trade unions should be updated in order to meet the needs of current employee relations. 2.1 History of trade unions The history of trade unions is an issue that is often given less attention than required. In fact, most commonly, trade unions are related with their role - as intervening bodies in the resolution of employment disputes; the specific view is supported by Howell (2007, 5) who notes that 'trade unions often appear to exist only in order to solve collective action problems for employers having little independence existence or history'. Through a different approach is stated by Upchurch et al. (2009, 26) that 'trade unions in Britain have been less integrated into the post war body politik than in more corporatist countries like Germany'. The above view focuses on the relationship between trade unions and politics rather than on the importance of the history for the evaluation of the role of trade unions in British employment relations - like in the study of Howell (2007) mentioned above. In their first appearance trade unions were considered to be in opposition with law; for this reason, the participation of a person into these unions was punished. In accordance with the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 anyone who asked for an increase in wages - acting together with another person - would be punished by a sentence of prison (Jones, 2006, 37). It is 'through the legislation of 1824 and 1825 that trade unions were made legal' (Evans, 2008, 355). In the study of Jones (2006) it is noted that the movement of trade union was developed during the 1850s - a period that is characterized as more peaceful compared to the past - even under these circumstances the first housing society - the first form of trade union in Britain - was established in 1781 in Birmingham (Jones, 2006, 37). In the years that followed, the development of trade unions in Britain has been radical. In the study of Kellogg et al. (2009, 174) it is noted that in 1892 the estimated number of members of trade unions in Britain have been estimated to 1 million and a quarter; a few years later, in 1916 the members of trade unions in Britain have been estimated to 4,399,696 while today more than 45% of male workers in Britain have a trade union's membership. 2.2 Aims and priorities of trade unions in Britain Trade unions in Britain have been closely related with the politics of the country; the political party that most favoured the development of trade unions in Britain has been the Labour Party; however, there were times that the ideas supported by the leaders of the Labour Party were in opposition - at least partially - with the priorities of the trade unions. The specific phenomenon is analysed in the study of Kellogg et al. (2009, 265-266); in the specific study it is noted that the creation in 1917 of a trade union party that 'would disrupt the Labour Party' (Kellogg et al., 2009, 266) was considered to be the solution for the promotion of workers' rights in Britain; through the years, the aims of this party were found to be differentiated from its initial targets - the political ideas of the trade unions in Britain are mainly represented by the Labour Party. Today, trade unions in Britain need to ensure the protection of employees' rights taking into consideration the rules set by the British government but also the European Union. In fact, trade unions have to inform their members on any change caused to their employment rights and obligations under the influence of the European legal texts. However, the participation of trade unions in the European processes related with employment is not adequately supported by the British government - an issue highlighted in the study of Bache (2008, 118) who refers especially to the level of participation of British trade unions in the initiatives arranged by the European Union regarding the employment - the relevant comments involve in the period of 1992 when Conservatives had the governance of Britain. The importance of trade unions in the representation of employees in employment disputes is also highlighted in the study of Rose (2008); in the specific study it is noted that the role of trade unions has been traditionally limited in the protection of employees' rights - however, various methods and policies are available to trade unions to practice their power - as recognized by law: Rose (2008) refers to the traditional functions of trade unions which can be summarized - in accordance with the above researcher - to the following four: 'Multi-employer bargaining, Limiting the scope of collective bargaining, Disputes procedures and Industry wide agreements' (Rose, 2008, 116). The aims and priorities of trade unions need to be developed within the context of the above four functions - always taking into consideration the national law and the European Union principles and Orders. 2.3 Trade Unions and new employee relations in British market The new employee relations - as developed in all organizations across Britain - caused a series of problems for all the country's trade unions. In most cases, the problems were not resolved; instead, the power of trade unions seems to be continuously limited - mostly due to the ability of employees to support themselves directly - an ability developed through the improvement of the employees' education but also through the improvement of technology available to the public - especially the Internet. One of the most important problems for British trade unions has been the lack of effective bargaining with the state under specific conditions - a phenomenon developed during periods of political or financial crisis. Usually during these period, the conditions of emergency are used as an argument by the government in order to avoid proceed to collective bargaining regarding specific employment rights. An exception to the above phenomenon has been the development of employment rights during the First World War; during this period men had to enlisted to the country's military forces; it was in this period that other parts of the population - especially women - entered the British workforce. This led to the increase of pressure to the British government in order to expand the borders of collective bargaining; the British government accepted the specific claim; in this way the particular problem was resolved in favour of the employees across Britain (Crafts et al., 2007, 12). Under different circumstances - political, social and financial - the reaction of the government to the relevant claim could be differentiated. Currently, the problems faced by the trade unions seem to be different compared to the previous decades; an indicative example is the fact that employees seem to accept the improvement and the increase of technology in the workplace - whereas in the past the specific initiatives would face the resistance of employees (Crafts et al., 2007, 258); the above fact which is highlighted in the study of Crafts et al. (2007) lead to the following outcome - which is critical for employees across Britain: the need for employees in specific industrial activities - mostly in the manufacturing industry - is limited; the number of employees work in the relevant sector is gradually decreased, a fact that further lead to the increase of unemployment across the country. Because the relevant initiatives - introduction and improvement of technology in the workplace - were developed gradually, the initial resistance of employees has been eliminated. Trade unions did not manage to persuade employees to keep their resistance against technology - the needs of the public and the development of consumer preferences led to the radical improvement of technology systems used in all industrial sectors; in this case the interest of the public was considered as superior compared to the interest of each one of the employees. Other problems currently faced by the British trade unions are the following ones: a) limitation of the number of their members - through the organizations - British and European - developed in relation with the employees rights, employees in Britain avoid to participate in trade unions - at least at the level that they used to do in the past; this phenomenon leads to the limitation of the trade unions' power to press the government for collective bargaining on a series of issues that involve in the employees' rights. The above assumption is supported by the view of Lewin et al. (2009) who notes that 'the ability of trade unions to sustain themselves depends both on the establishment of effective permanent organization and the use of resources' (Lewin et al., 2009, 24); b) limitation of the government's support; in fact, the British government - see the analysis made on the study of Bache, 2008, above - has not supported the trade unions at the level required - in this way, the particular organizations continue to face a series of administrative and financial problems - the support offered to the trade unions in the past (1992) by the European Union had not been welcomed by the British government (Bache, 2008) - an indication of the negative perceptions of political authorities on the concept of collective bargaining. In the past - especially after the Second World War - the power of trade unions to ask for collective bargaining and press the government to recognize employment rights was significant; part of this power was expressed through 'the involvement of trade unions in the promotion of a good education system available to all children, regardless of class status' (Shelley et al., 2007, 29). Today, the power of the trade unions to be involved in such activities can be doubted - new social and political conditions have been developed influencing also the perceptions of people on the trade unions' role as a mediator between the individual and the government. 2.4 Trade Unions and British government The administrative framework in which trade unions in Britain operate is described with accuracy in the study of Taylor (2009); in the above study it is noted that 'trade unions in Britain operate under the umbrella organization named as Trades Union Progress (TUP) which in 2007 consisted of 62 unions with a combined membership of nearly 6.5 million people' (Taylor, 2009, 1); the number of people participating in trade unions is significant if taking into consideration the alternative sources for support available to employees in modern British market - referring to the governmental and non-governmental organizations, the Internet and the relevant authorities of the European Union. The existence of a central administrative unit regarding the regulation of all trade unions' issues is a significant advantage of the trade unions towards the British government; through the specific organization the trade unions can press the government to introduce specific measures or make other adjustments in accordance with the relevant needs of employees - members of the unions. The effectiveness of the trade unions' methods when fighting for employees' rights was proved several times in past - an example is the year 1974 when Britain's 'industrial competitiveness was declined but the trade unions managed to keep wage rates up to or beyond the rate of inflation' (Budge et al., 2007, 58). On the other hand, despite the fact that the Labour Party is considered to represent - as possible - the views of trade unions - referring to the issues related with the employees' rights - in fact, this is not the case. For this reason, Budge et al. (2008) refers to 'Blair's warning to the trade unions to expect fairness, not favours' (Budge et al., 2008, 371). In other words, trade unions in Britain are not closely related with a specific political party; even in the case of Labours, political and financial interests seem to be more important criteria for the development of political decisions - compared to the interests of employees across the country. 3. Conclusion Trade unions were initially introduced in order to support employees' rights; the power of these unions to intervene in various social activities - including education, in the context described above - prove their power to affect the political decisions in Britain. However, the current status of trade unions has been changed; there are still related with employees rights but their power is particularly limited compared to the past. In the study of Strange et al. (2007, 284) it is noted that 'white collar workers join unions not so much to obtain economic benefits as to be able to control more effectively their work situation'; it is clear from the above that the perceptions of people on the role of trade unions has changed; in the past 'unions of unskilled workers attach more importance on certain issues' (More, 2007, 11) - reference is made to the right of unskilled workers to ask for social welfare measures. Today, employees are - at a high percentage - well educated; moreover, most of them have access to Internet and are informed on all issues related with their rights in the workplace; employees today do not rely on trade unions to defend themselves against employers; this is the major challenge for British trade unions. In the long term, the survival of trade unions in Britain will be depended on their ability to respond to the changing needs of employees in the particular country. References Bache, I. (2008). 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