The changing nature of collective employment relations

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to survey developments in four aspects of collective employment relations (ER) since the mid-1960s: collective representation and organisation; collective bargaining coverage and structure; the collective bargaining agenda; and joint consultation arrangements. It considers the reasons underlying change.

Design/methodology/approach

A range of published sources are drawn on, including quantitative, survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence.

Findings

The landscape of collective ER has changed markedly over the past half century. Membership of trade unions has fallen from around half of the workforce to one-quarter. Employers who mainly conducted collective bargaining through employers’ associations now negotiate, if at all, on a firm-by-firm basis. Collective bargaining coverage has sharply declined and now only extends to a minority of the private sector workforce. The bargaining agenda has been hollowed out. Joint consultation arrangements too are less widespread than they were around 1980.

Originality/value

The paper contends that change has been driven by three underlying processes. “Marketization” of collective ER entailing a shift from an industrial or occupational to an enterprise frame of reference. The rise of “micro-corporatism”, reflecting increased emphasis on the common interests of collective actors within an enterprise frame. Finally, the voluntarism, underpinning Britain’s collective ER became more “asymmetric”, with employers’ preferences increasingly predominant.

Citation

Marginson, P. (2015), "The changing nature of collective employment relations", Employee Relations, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 645-657. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-03-2015-0049