Employee Relations: An International Journal

Batstone, Eric; Ferner, Anthony; Terry, Mike

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055018

In the mid to late 1970s, the deliberations of the Bullock Committee on industrial democracy led to a set of proposals for worker directors on the boards of large private companies. The proposals generated strong partisan reactions, and many of the current views of political parties, employers and trade unions were shaped during this period. Recently, the trade unions and the Labour Party have reaffirmed their commitment to the Bullock principles in their election programme pledges to develop the planning of industry through an extension of industrial democracy. By contrast, the continuing hostility of the Conservative Party and many employers to the extension of workers' participation through legislation has been shown by the coolness with which they have received the socalled Vredeling proposals from the European Commission on workers' rights to consultation and company information.

Chadwick, M.G.

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055019

With the current record levels of unemployment comes growing speculation that an era of industrial relations may be coming to an end. Patterns and trends which have been responsible for shaping the unique style of British industrial relations are now under pressure from the recent changes in both the political and economic environment.

Beaumont, P.B.

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055020

In the United States, the phenomenon of concession bargaining, whereby management seeks to obtain wage freezes or actual cuts in wages, is being widely discussed by both researchers and practitioners. In contrast, in Britain, it has been little discussed, although considerable media attention has been given to the case of the Hyster forklift truck factory in Scotland where management were seeking to cut the pay bill by some 9.8 per cent and eliminate attendance and timekeeping bonuses.

Wates, John

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055021

We are now in the first months of the provisions of Section One of the 1982 Employment Act coming into force. The Industrial Society has been working on practical involvement policies since the 1950s and I would like to sketch in very briefly the background to the current proposals on employee involvement as it may help us to come to grips with the present reality.

Undy, Roger; Martin, Roderick

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055022

In 1976, the Conservative Party expressed the view that trade unions were imperfectly democratic. Subsequently they returned to this theme in a Green Paper on Union Democracy in 1983 which expressed strong reservations about the electoral practices of trade unions. The Conservatives were concerned that unrepresentative union leaders misused the wealth and power of their unions for their own political ambitions. They noted the growing proportion of trade unionists voting Conservative and contrasted this with the continued dominance of the trade union movement by leaders sympathetic to, if not actually members of, the Labour Party. From this the Conservatives concluded that the voting system used in union elections was defective.

Salmon, John

1983 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055023

The Labour Movement in Britain has long had a commitment to the education of its membership. It is, however, relatively recently that education and training, specifically in areas of industrial relations, has become generally available to the lay officials of unions. The considerable growth in educational provision for workplace representatives has undoubtedly been one of the most significant developments to emerge in British industrial relations during the last ten years. But such a growth has not developed purely out of the interests of trade unions, nor has it just been a response to a need for educational provision and resources to meet the rapid increases in numbers of shop stewards, which began to occur from the middle of the 1960's.