Consultation on creating a modern framework for industrial relations (2024): Response from High Pay Centre and academic signatories
Twelve leading academic employment relations experts have written to the Government calling on policymakers to strengthen trade unions’ right to be consulted on major business decisions.
The academics have endorsed the High Pay Centre think tank’s submission to the consultation on a new Industrial Relations Framework issued by the Department for Business and Trade. The High Pay Centre argue that workers in the UK have less voice in the workplace than in almost any other European country, citing research from the European Trade Union Institute which ranks the UK 26th out of 28 countries for worker participation at work.
The think tank’s consultation response states that the proposed industrial relations framework, including plans to permit unions access to relevant workplaces and rules preventing employers from manipulating worker votes on union recognition, is to be welcomed. However, it does not clarify rights for unions to be consulted on decisions that will affect their members.
UK workers have a right to request consultation on business decisions, as part of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) regulations, however the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices found that just 14% of workplaces had taken up this right. 29% of workers in workplaces with over 50 people are trade union members, while 67% of these workplaces have at least some union presence. The High Pay Centre argue that giving workers’ rights to consultation would boost employee productivity and wellbeing, and lead to senior management’s decisions being better informed by practical understanding of the business. The consultation response recommends that where workers vote to recognise a union, management should ensure:
- Union representatives are presented with key information about major strategic and business practice issues in a timely manner, in order to solicit and feed in the views of the workforce
- Union representatives have regular access to senior decision-makers, in order to raise views and suggestions of the workforce on business issues
- Employers are accountable to their workforce via unions for explaining how they have considered and acted upon the views expressed by the workforce and communicated to the business leadership
A letter supporting response has been signed by the following academics:
- Ödül Bozkurt, Professor of Work and Employment, University of Sussex Business School
- Niall Cullinane, Professor of Employment Relations, Queens University Belfast
- Tony Dobbins, Professor of Work and Employment Relations, University of Birmingham
- Tony Dundon, Professor of HRM and Employment Relations, University of Limerick
- Chris Forde, Professor of Employment Studies, University of Leeds
- Irena Grugulis, Professor of Work and Skills, University of Leeds
- Ed Heery, Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations, Cardiff University
- Jean Jenkins, Professor of Employment Relations, Cardiff University
- Stewart Johnstone, Professor of HRM and Employment Relations, University of Strathclyde
- Sian Moore, Professor of Work and Employment, Anglia Ruskin University
- Chris Rees, Professor of Employment Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London
- Melanie Simms, Professor of Work and Employment, University of Glasgow