Relationship Between The Government And Public Sector Unions - Case Study Example

 Relationship Between The Government And Public Sector Unions Contents Introduction 2 Industrial clash 3 Problem 3 British trade Unions 3 Labour Party and Unions 4 Present State 6 Case studies on the current problems faced by public sector 6 The Restructuring of Trade Unionism 8 Bibliography 9 The Nature Of The Current Relationship Between The Government And Public Sector Unions  Introduction  UK government presently is subjected to the troubles arising from its struggle in developing a consistent agenda of public-sector reconstruction and modernization.  The government is trying to engage the private sector and its ongoing restructuring of pay determination measures. This coupled with the current developments in the public sector and the government’s effort to solve the problems of employment and retention has aroused tension and extensive acuity of “public-sector crisis”.(Stephen, n.d.)  The structure of industrial affairs in the United Kingdom (UK) is conventionally characterized by deliberate relations involving the social partners, with a minimum level of intervention from the government. Union relationships can either facilitate or restrain company’s decision making and also the implementation of strategy (Heaton, Mason, Morgan, 2000) The connection of UK trade unions developed noticeably in the post-war time. The period also symbolized the action of trade unions in protecting industrial harmony and growing efficiency of the workers. Moreover In both the sectors, collective agreements were fulfilled which enclosed all the industries on average. On the other hand, in the latter half of 1960s, concerns appeared about the effectiveness of an organization in which industrial turbulence seemed to be growing. Industrial clash grew noticeably in the 1970s, to a certain extent due to the economic crisis that distressed western nation due to the oil shock in 1973. The time was characterized by trade union rivalry and a huge rate of industrial action, and failing efforts by consecutive left-wing and right-wing governments to control the system. The period concluded in the 1978–1979 Winter of Discontent, where public sector trade unions occupied in usual and long industrial action over the then persisting Labour government’s strategy of public sector pay moderation. (United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile, n.d.) A conservative government, headed by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was voted in 1979 which took its stand on a neo-liberal an anti-trade union mechanism.(United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile, n.d.) which was followed by the successive conservative government with other legislative policies that placed legal limitations on trade unions’ capacity to involve in industrial action, and privatizing a lot of areas of the public sector and running the public sector, at the same time, in an anti-union manner. During this phase, trade union association also declined noticeably. A ‘New Labour’ government, guided by Prime Minister Tony Blair, was chosen in 1997, recommending a reasonably appeasing progress to the trade unions. Industrial conflict The number of Trade union has dropped distinctly in the UK since its peak 1980. A large variation in the number of trade unions is apparent between the private and public sector. The biggest public sector trade union is Unison, which has a membership of more than 1.3 (“Essential Information” n.d.) million people and systematizes employees in every field of the public sector. UK is noteworthy for the disordered character of its levels of collective bargaining and the deficiency of legal support and endorsement that collective agreements are exposed to. In UK, Collective bargaining has turned more decentralized since the 1970s and 1980s. In this time, collective bargaining also became more decentralized in many companies in the public sector. In 2008, huge industrial actions took place in the UK public sector regarding the government’s policy on public sector pay restraint. A great number of public sectors went on strikes. Public Administration, Compulsory Social Security and Defence sectors were mainly distressed by these strikes in the year. These sectors were the ones that were also adversely affected a lot with respect to loss of working days and workers engaged. (United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile, n.d.) Problem The present uncertainties hovering British trade unions has appeared after three decades of massive reorganization of work and service relations. This restructure was accompanied by detailed legislative changes as succeeding Conservative governments tried to swing the balance of command towards employers. In these conditions, and with the initial stages of a rift between the Labour Party and trade unions, individual unions and the TUC (Trades Union Congress) started to work on their own forms of institution and function to undo the declining membership levels, both within individual trade unions and also across the unionized employees. A number of reviews were carried out from 1987, under the patronage of the Special Review Body (SRB) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). One of the key reasons was to counter the problem of declining membership and to encourage and promote towards this end financial services were aggressively encouraged to encourage membership recruitment and retention. (United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile, n.d.) British Trade Unions From the 1980s, union membership fell heavily, and most of the union leadership had started losing their earlier prominence in the economic and political areas. In an assessment of current progress in manufacturing and the reorganized public sector, it is stated that unions counter a number of problems, related to economic reformation, institutional restructuring of the public sector and the uncertainties of the globalized economies. There has been a redistribution of power associations within the existing political economy; as a result, with reduced power and even under more difficult circumstances, unions face fresh prospects and potential. Moreover, important unions, like the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and the General, Municipal and Boilermakers (GMB) continued on focused recruitment campaigns. Managerial rationalization was also seen as an suitable response and there were a number of amalgamations concerning important unions within the civil service, the public sector by and large and manufacturing, targeted at imparting unionism on a stronger basis. Although the truth was that a number of these amalgamations were far from the promises, they exemplify the extent of the problems encountered and the outer limit of the measures implemented to handle these problems. What is absent in these measures is a satisfactory approval of the altering ground of trade unionism. In effect, the centre of power inside and among trade unions has changed so that the root for previous relationships and performance no longer subsists. Although there have been a lot of arguments about the fall in membership and structural restructuring, there has been inadequate discussion and dispute about the type of unionism that may be in the course of budding. In new discussion, under the tag New Unionism, the TUC worked on international experience and researches to encourage a re- examination of the manner in which unions organize and function. However, the center of attention is mainly on recruitment and retention and not union type, particularly the way unions organize and function in the existing economy and political affairs, the policies practiced and the objectives of unions. In this respect, there exists an obscurity about the study of present problems facing unions. (United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile, n.d.)  Labour Party and Unions The center and locus of authority within the present political economy has moved away from the conventional foundations of union power, mainly in the manufacturing sector, and towards the privatized (which takes into account private services like finance) and public sectors of the nation. One outcome of this swing in the political economy is that the material base for the previous social affiliation between unions and the Labour Party exists no more (McIlroy, 1995 and 1997; Taylor, 1994). On the one hand, ‘New Labour’ is in the course of redefining social democracy so as to grip the main characteristics of a neo-liberal modification program where trade unions have a constricted and restricted role, either as subsidiary partners or as special interest factions. On the other side, a number of unions are newly focusing on their targets in ways that causes a risk of more cynical analysis of the Labour Party, when judged against with the long term relationship that has knotted union politics with that of the Labour Party. As the public sector and privatized services take the central point, unions are more and more faced with the result of government policies targeted at reidentifying the connection between unions and politics.    With the appointment of the Labour Government in 1997, trade unions, consisting of the TUC, encountered a conflicting situation. On the one side, there is the emergence of success as the Fairness at Work legislation according to Employment Relations Act, 1999 was employed and a Statutory Minimum Wage established While representing the accomplishment of union objectives involving employee and trade union rights to some extent, they are comparatively not as much as was expected preceding the election of the Labour government. conversely, the state has made it apparent that the trade union association, counting the TUC, do not have advantaged admittance to the government and that the old concept of labour movement partnership does not pertain anymore.  Nevertheless, this does not count out diverse options in the future. It remains probable and indeed plausible that those unions that were previously connected to the Labour Party will continue to be so. The difference with what went before is that this relationship will no longer be made on a firm base of interests between the Labour Party and trade union leaders. To a certain extent union leaders who perceive their political prospects associated with the Labour Party will persist to build an adjusting relationship between the two sections of the labour movement. More generally, it is expected that a number unions will resume looking to Labour Governments in the projected future as the most affable and accommodating party in government. It is the Party that may be acquainted with and dealt with the specific aims of organized and unorganized labor. As unions keep on to redefine their intention and objectives they are likely to seek to the Labour Party for support. The thing is that this is a connection based on the history. It fails to notice the manner in which the Labour Party has changed its position with respect to an expansive political community, which comprises of commercial interests, mainly global business. Moreover, there also exists other potential. It is possible that unions, such as those organizing workers in services, will be entangled in a variety of developments that will get them away from the Labour Party schema. Increasingly, a number of unions transact with transnational companies, frequently with distant and isolated managements, though, states hold a concern with the manner with which these companies are synchronized. Therefore, unions in these segments will run on an international level more and more and will be depending on governments to assist and maintain their dynamic involvement and relation with the policies and practices of these companies. On the other hand, such improvements are likely to lead to union leadership isolation save ground in jointly strengthening associations between the workplace and the national levels of representation. (Fairbrother. 2000.) In addition, public sector unions (and their alike) come across options that are captured in the strain between organization and partnership. On the one side, these unions will maintain to put up in the workplace, rephrase their targets in ways that isolate themselves from all governments (local authorities, devolved governments, and the national government) and practice their objectives accordinglyEvidently, New Labour for these employees is more affable than the Conservative Government, but there is no grounds to look forward to favor or particular concern from New Labour. Also, it cannot be understood to this day that whether devolved governments will be sensitive and work with these unions to construct a different social democracy at the devolved scale. In such conditions, these unions are on their own in their association with the government and the revivial of these unions is expected to progress accordingly. Present State Over the past three decades the position and position of trade unions has altered, from a condition where there was politicized commitment between unions and the Labour Party, which gave the stand for union movement and participation to a more remote one in the 1980s continuing in the 1990s. Against the backdrop of remarkable alteration, concerning political and economic reorganization, give a platform for a re-examination of union organization and action. While the wide patterns of alterations were differentially felt by unions in every sector, the significance of workplace unionism was reinstated, although in uncertain and irregular ways. In this process, reviewers on the possibilities for UK trade unionism appealed to different notions of unionism, either based on place of work or centralized and dependable. How this will be determined is as yet uncertain. There is therefore the basis for union renewal, where the focal point is on a workplace structure of association. Such a procedure would focus on the place of work, involving the staying power and upgrading of union associations at this level, and the growth of mutually strengthening associations among and within the unions at the local, state and international levels. If unions uphold their past structures, they can be expected to coalesce, become closely focused without much actual presence in the workplace. Nevertheless, where the intricate courses of union renewal are accepted, there arises the hope of revived if contested structures of unionism budding. The subject matter here is the choice that these memberships would be making. (Fairbrother,2000) Case studies on the current problems faced by public sector According to an article published in “Public Finance” on 18th April, public sector unions threatened to cause the most severe challenge again to Gordon Brown's pay policy, by going on a walkout headed by a thousand of civil servants and teachers in the following week. A week ahead of the local election in England and Wales, more than 1 million employees from ten government units and bureaus threatened to go in a strike along with 2 million members National Union of Teachers and around thirty thousand college lecturers in England. The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union reported the action on 24th April, 2009 was to protest the effect of government pay policy across extensive segments of the public sector. It retaliated to the government's line of reasoning that public sector pay invigorates inflation and employees, mostly on less pay, are estranged by a strategy of below-inflation pay restriction and pay freezes. The PCS said that the majority of government offices would stay release but have a severe shortage of services. General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The message is that public sector workers aren't prepared to sit down and take pay cuts in real terms. They aren't prepared to see their pay driven down. As a union we have always been quite clear that where unions are fighting a common problem, it makes more sense for them to work together”. (Public sector unions unite for day of protest over pay, 2008) Another article dated Aug 29, 2009 David Maddox Scottish Political Correspondent, reported that public sector employees were warned to share the burden of recession. Thirty two council leaders from Scotland had discussed the possibilities to entail a five-year pay freeze on their employees. They came out from the conference cautioning unions that council do not "exist in a vacuum" and they have to rationalize the truth of the present economic crisis. They cautioned that they planned to head further and would re-evaluate pensions plus other benefits. They also planned for large scale slash on expenditure, taking the impact of GBP 500 million that is scheduled to be curtailed by the government of United Kingdom from the Scottish block grant in 2010-11. But a vice president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) cautioned his co-workers that they must also be prepared to share the burden if they wanted to inflict a wage ceiling. Councillor Michael Cook, Cosla's human resource spokesman, said: "Scotland's councils are not operating in a vacuum - local government is not immune from the economic downturn or the pain being felt elsewhere” (Maddox, 2009). He added that the existing system for negotiating is not suitable since this led to a number of strikes when it was used the last time. Matt Smith, Scottish secretary of Unison, which represents 1 million council personnel in Scotland, made it obvious that a “pay freeze” is in no way acceptable and he added that there exists a lot of council employees earning a low salary which is just above the minimum wage which needs to be focused instead of the payment freeze. (Maddox. 2009) The Government and unions have settled on a variety of reforms to public sector systems in recent years. The reforms were taken mainly in reaction to greater demands from improved life expectancy, with plan currently having the risk of associates living longer. A good number of public sector pension plans have increased the usual pension age from sixty to sixty five for new applicants, similar to many private sector schemes. Only for the armed forces, police and fire department, the age is kept below sixty five, owing to the physical demands of these jobs. Teachers, nurses and local government staffs are at the present disbursing more than normal on their pensions than it was previous to the reforms. This agreement led to an initial rise in member contributions with a likely further increase in the future valuations. New cost-sharing measures were laid which means that if greater pension benefits are given out or if life expectancy persists to increase more rapidly than expected, the consequential cost will fall mostly on public sector system members instead of on the taxpayer.   (Exploding Public Sector Pensions Myths: A Briefing for Trade Union Members, n.d.) The Restructuring of Trade Unionism Against this backdrop, the future scenarios of unions in the United Kingdom are vague. Obviously there has been a great deal of impediment for unions, with a reduction in members, bargaining alteration, and financial insecurity. They confronted a raft of legislative terms slanted in favor of employers. All the way through the 1980s and 1990s, the government was at the greatest indifferent, most terribly antagonistic about union demonstration. Unions, both in isolation and as a fraction of the TUC, chose to attend to these problems. It was in these conditions that union reconstruction became a concern. In some instances union leaderships, chiefly in the public sector, chose to modify their internal organization by encouraging local types of representation. So as to tackle the problem of diminishing membership union associations started to advocate strategies associated with developing the service proviso to members. These proposals received backing and assistance from the TUC (Trades Union Congress) (Fairbrother. 2000) Reference 1. Bach, S. 2002. “Public-sector Employment Relations Reforms Under Labour: muddling through or modernization?” British Journal of Industrial Relations vol.40 no.2 pp.319-339 2. Heaton, N, Mason, B, Morgan, J, 2000. “Trade Unions and Partnership in the Health Service” Employee Relations vol.22 no.4 pp.315-333 3. “Essential Information” n.d. Unison, Available from: www.unison.org.uk/about/about.asp (accessed on Dec 17, 2009) 4. “United Kingdom: Industrial relations profile”, n.d. Available from: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country/united.kingdom.pdf (accessed on Dec 17, 2009) 5. Fairbrother. P, 2000. “British trade union facing the future” Available from: http://www.cseweb.greennet.org.uk/pdfs/CC71/CC71_03_Fairbrother.pdf (accessed on Dec 17, 2009) 6. Taylor, R, 1994. The Future of Trade Unions. Andre Deutsch, London. 7. McIlroy, J. 1995. Trade Unions in Britain Today. 2nd edition. Manchester University Press, Manchester. 8. McIlroy, J. 1997 “Still Under Siege: British Trade Unions at the Turn of the Century”, Historical Studies in industrial Relations 3 (March): 93-122 9. “Public sector unions unite for day of protest over pay”, April 18, 2008. Public finance Available from: http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2008/public-sector-unions-unite-for-day-of-protest-over/ (accessed on Dec 17, 2009) 10. Maddox .D, August 29, 2009. “Public sector workers warned of pay freeze” The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), available at: http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/scotsman-edinburgh-scotland-the/mi_7951/is_2009_August_29/public-sector-workers-warned-pay/ai_n35571369/ (accessed on December 20, 2009) 11. “Exploding Public Sector Pensions Myths: A Briefing for Trade Union Members”, n.d. Available from: http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/publicsectorpensions.pdf (accessed on Dec 17, 2009)           Read More