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Back to International Industrial Relations The UK can be accredited with the birth of the 'industrial revolution' in terms of both the creation of factories and the establishment of world trading links. After world war two, the political consensus of successive UK government was very similar in the sense that the period from late 1940's to 1960's was one of firmly establishing the UK as the leading manufacturing nation, and rebuilding the national infrastructure. Very little was done in terms of industrial relations laws, and indeed the actual quality of output produced. The nation produced what it wanted as it was the dominant leader in global market. The stark realities of first the 1970's which saw collapse of the gold standard, the opec oil crisis and the infamous 'winter of discontent' saw a rethink in industrial relations as inflation began to spiral higher and higher. The first major changes to employment law came in the 1970's with the establishment of the Health & Safety at work, Race Relations and Sex Discrimination Acts. The 1970's also saw the emergence of other manufacturing nations, namely Germany and Japan both of whom were manufacturing more efficiently, with better quality and lower priced products. This meant that UK produce became in decline with a resulting decline in manufacturing as seen in the 1980's. The 1980's was a period in time where the UK saw a sharp decline in it's manufacturing base. Manufacturing companies were simply un-competitive and produced products which were over priced and had poor quality. It was during this period and to the present day that UK manufacturers have been embracing the production techniques of Germany and Japan. Indeed the UK government through a variety of incentives such as low wage rates & grants actively encouraged inward investment from Japanese companies. The 1980-1990's under the Conservative government saw a much reduced role for unions in the UK, there was a fundamental shift from the employee towards the employer, throughout all the major employment legislation. The imbalance in the employer-employee legislation has been addressed to some extent under the Labour government since the late 1990's, with the establishment of the minimum wage, establishment of working time directives and the strengthening of communication lines between unions and employers. GOVERNMENT ROLE - The UK government has historically become involved in resolving work disputes which have gone on for a prolonged period. The UK government has had a strong tendency to set working practices in place regarding employee safety, discriminatory issues, reducing union powers, etc. MINIMUM WAGE - There is a minimum wage standard in the UK, with slightly lower rates for 18-21 year olds. EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT - There is no national system of employee involvement as in the German Works Councils. However since the 1970's the health and safety acts, led to the establishment of health and safety committees and the use of employees as health and safety representatives for businesses. The 1980's adoption of Japanese production techniques has led to the establishment of quality, process improvement teams made up from employees. Currently there are initiatives to by European Council to install Europe wide works directives. UK TRADE UNIONS - In the UK there are a lot more trade unions that other European counterparts, for example in the UK there are over 200 trade unions against 12 in Germany. Indeed it must be stated if there were fewer trade unions it would result in smaller more powerful organisations. The major body responsible for trade unions is the Trade Union Congress (TUC). The TUC is an umbrella organisation which expresses the voice and concerns of the UK trade union movement. www.tuc.org.uk EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION - The main UK employers association is the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). www.cbi.org.uk COLLECTIVE BARGAINING - With so many different unions, often several within the same workplace, collective bargaining is very difficult to achieve in a single business. Indeed it can be said that collective bargaining is more sparse in the UK than most of Europe for any given industry. It must be stated that after the world war two, the United Kingdom did not realize the potential to overhaul its industrial relations system and redefine the role of employees and employers. Unlike Germany & Japan the UK employee and employer associations do not appear to have a constructive dialogue process. Unfortunately in the UK the focus of power towards workers or employers occurs only to one side, dependant on whether the Conservative (employer bias) or Labour (employee bias) are in political power. Back to International Industrial Relations |
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