Trade unions and bargaining for skills

Abstract

This article seeks to locate the role of trade unions in bargaining for vocational, education and training (VET) within the context of workplace industrial relations. Drawing on the experiences and findings of a TUC project aimed at improving

Learning agreements and socially responsible approaches to professional and human resource development in the United Kingdom

“…For the purpose of this article, social responsibility in relation to these issues is defined as involving widening employee access to, and participation within, workplace-based learning; embedding the principles of equal opportunities with respect to learning and HRD within organisational policies and practice; providing learning opportunities that address employee concerns relating to transferable skills and broader employability issues, as well as the specific needs of employers for job-related skills designed to optimise organisational performance; and providing opportunities for employees to engage in CPD. The advancement of such an approach would to a large extent be dependent upon trade unions establishing learning as a bargaining issue, but this has historically been difficult terrain for the unions, with collective agreements relating to training being rare (Claydon & Green, 1994;Dundon & Eva, 1998). Indeed, the most recent Workplace Employment Relations Survey indicates that little progress has been made in this direction since just 8% of workplace union representatives negotiate over employee training (Kersley et al, 2006).…”

‘Learners of the workplace unite!’

“…Developing through the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union's promotion of training committees in the late 1980s, UNISON's Return to Learn initiative and the TUC's Bargaining for Skills programme (to name just a few), training and learning issues have become central to the articulation of a 'new bargaining agenda' (TUC, 1991). These developments have been widely considered and need no detailed rehearsal here (see, for example, Claydon and Green, 1994;Dundon and Eva, 1998;Heyes and Stuart, 1998;Rainbird, 1990Rainbird, , 2005Stuart, 1996), beyond noting two key points. First, the promotion of training matters became an increasing bargaining priority for trade unions at the workplace following their exclusion from the institutions of policy formation with regard to skill formation by successive Conservative governments (Munro and Rainbird, 2004b;Rainbird, 1990).…”

The ‘learning society’, and small and medium-sized enterprises: empowering the individual?

“…Furthermore, the SME sector can claim few of the privileges that can accrue to the large organisation with some level of employee representation at the point of decision-making. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) programme of 'learning representatives', supported by the Trades Union Learning Fund [4] and which has emerged from the 'bargaining for skills' agenda (Dundon & Eva, 1998), is likely to have minimal impact in SMEs simply because of the lack of union presence in such organisations (see, for example, Rainnie, 1989).…”

“…However, we also note cases where ED brings benefits of a somewhat different order; benefits which say more about the well being of individuals at work, the social aspects of organisation development and the democratisation of workplace relations and which offer prospect and potential of a kind which may well be beyond the reach of any ILA. Critically also, given a suspicion that ED works best in large organisations (Payne, 1996) and the fact that trade union learning initiatives (Dundon & Eva, 1998) rarely reach SMEs, the evidence in our third case study is drawn directly from such an organisation.…”