Public sector workforces perform better with on-site union representative, research shows
Reforms to union laws, as outlined in last week’s Trade Union Bill, could be detrimental to the government’s aim to improve business productivity, research has found.
Proposals in the bill will see restrictive new turnout thresholds for union ballots, the end of the ban on using agency workers to replace strikers, and tighter controls on how public money is used to subsidise trade union ‘facility time’, where union representatives are paid to carry out trade union duties.
However, joint research from professors of HR Management, Nick Bacon, from Cass Business School, and Kim Hoque, from Warwick Business School, found that public sector workforces performed better when a union representative was present in the workplace.
The research, based on the government-sponsored Workplace Employment Relations Survey data (WERS 2011), suggests that reducing trade union facility time is likely to have a detrimental effect on UK workforces, especially in the public sector, where unions still have significant membership and support.
According to the research, 38 per cent of public sector workplaces have an on-site union representative, compared to 26 per cent in the private sector, however, the vast majority of on-site reps are not engaged in union activities on a full-time basis.
“Restricting facility time for union representatives in the public sector would be counterproductive and may damage levels of trust between employers and employees, reduce co-operation when introducing change to improve public services, increase labour turnover, increase the number of industrial tribunal cases, and result in lower levels of labour productivity, service quality and financial performance,” said Hoque.
Bacon added: “As such, the proposed legislation to limit the amount of time union representatives can spend on their representative duties appears unnecessary and may reduce workplace performance in the public sector.”
According to the research, 66 per cent of union representatives in the public sector state that they work closely with management when changes are being introduced; a figure that rises to 82 per cent among full-time worker representatives.
When focusing on NHS workplaces in particular, the research showed that labour turnover was almost three times higher and the industrial tribunal rate 14 times higher in NHS workplaces without union representatives compared to workplaces where representatives were present.
And managers in NHS workplaces with union representatives present were more likely to report higher productivity, greater quality of services and ‘better’ financial performance.
Bacon said: “The steps laid out by the government do not appear to take into account evidence, using data the government itself has sponsored, pointing to the positive effects that workplace trade union representatives have in the public sector.
“Both full and part-time workplace union representatives help improve performance in the public sector and managers widely recognise this to be the case,” he added.