Political Science
To what extent can differences in workers pay levels and pay progression in Britain be accorded to the decline of collective bargaining?
Project description:
The essay has to answer the question: To what extent can differences in workers pay levels and pay progression in Britain be accorded to the decline of collective bargaining?
In doing so, the answer has to refer to the level, coverage and scope of collective bargaining,and consider the relationship between bargaining in the UK and the ability of trade unions to organise effective strike action.
The essay needs to cover:
Collective bargaining in the UK (level, coverage, scope; impact on pay determination, growth of shop floor bargaining over pay and productivity, voluntarist framework, limited legal regulation of industrial action, wage councils);
The decline of collective bargaining (level, coverage, scope, decline in recognition and coverage in private sector, changes in resilience in public sector, the political, economical and legal changes that have weakened unions effective use of industrial action).
UK pay levels and payment systems (shift from wages to profit and inequality, unilateral imposition, minimum legal regulation in the national minimum wage and equality law, increasing use of subjective and individualised payment systems at the expense of time based pay).
Current issues (impact of austerity policies on pay levels eg public sector caps, further attacks on pensions eg defered pay, restructuring of public sector to move to private sector or private sector management models, and the use and effectiveness of co-ordinated industrial action in public sector).
The reading list to be used for the essay include: Williams and Adam-Smith (2010) Contemporary Employment Relations; Industrial Relations Services (1988) Industrial Relations in Britain; Pereira (2004) Collective Agreements and Wages in the New Earnings Survey; ACAS (1983) Collective Bargaining in Britain, Its Extent and Level; Thomason (1984) A Textbook of Industrial Relations Management; Clegg (1979) The Changing System of Industrial Relations in Great Britain; McCarthy (1966) The Role of Shop Stewards in British Industrial Relations; the ONS Labour Disputes, Annual Article 2012; ACAS (2010) Job Evaluation, Considerations and Risks; Holdsworth (2010) Patterns of Pay; Burchill (1970) Introduction to Payment systems and Pay Structures with a Note on Productivity; ACAS (2006) Pay Systems; ACAS (2005) Appraisal Related Pay; French (2005) Performance Pay in the UK Public Sector; Hale (2009) Labour Disputes in 2008; Hyman (1988) Strikes; Lyddon (2009) Industrial Conflict under New Labour.
The essay has to be written from a left wing socialist perspective.