Commenting on the publication of Inside the Workplace, the report of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, published today, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
This is an important and authoritative study that reports real achievements and some challenges for unions.
It is clear that unions make a big difference in the workplace. People who work in unionised workplaces are less likely to be low paid; more likely to have a pension and proper equal opportunities polices; and are more likely to enjoy more than the legal minimum for both paid holiday and sick pay. You are better off in a union, it’s official.
The report proves that better employment rights make a difference. Despite the clear business case for better work/life balance and flexible working, changes in the law are the real driver of change. Enlightened employers may get there before the law changes, but the only way to make rights universal is to legislate for them.
Unions have made progress in larger workplaces. The proportion of workplaces employing more than 25 that recognise unions has risen from 24 per cent to 32 per cent since the 1998 study. This is in line with the increase in union density reported by the most recent Labour Force Survey and this year’s increase in TUC membership.
But unions face challenges in smaller and newer workplaces where recruitment and organisation have traditionally been difficult. Almost all the difficult findings for unions in the report are confined to trends in smaller private sector workplaces, with unions consolidating or growing in the public sector and in larger workplaces. But while this presents us with a real challenge, such clear new evidence of the union difference should spur unions on to new organising efforts.
Union achievements and challenges revealed in new study
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