BH6003 Employee Relations Retake of Continuous Assessment 2013/14
Students who failed or did not complete the continuous assessment element of the Employee
Relations module need to do the following piece of work as a retake of this.
Specifically, for the workshop topic below on The Future of Employee Relations, students
must:
o
Summarise two of the listed readings (minimum 300 words each) (e.g. what
is the article/chapter about, what are the key findings or arguments made)
o
Based on these provide an assessment of one or more of the workshop
discussion questions (i.e. in light of these readings and other relevant
knowledge from the module, what can you say in response to these
questions?)(minimum 400 words)
o
So this would give a piece of work of minimum of 1000 words
This assignment must be submitted via Turnitin
Submission deadline: 12 noon on Friday 22 August 2014
BH6003 Employee Relations Workshop
The Future of Employee Relations
Aims & objectives
The purpose of this workshop is to consider, in light of available evidence and research, likely
future trends and prospects for employee relations in the UK. In particular, the session will
focus on an examination of future prospects for trade unions. ‘Organising’ approaches,
partnership agreements and union involvement in learning activities will be considered.
Required Preparation
Textbook pages 146-53 & Rose, E. (2008): Employment Relations, pages 172-93, 370-7.
Gall, G. (2009): The Future of Union Organising, Basingstoke: Palgrave (chpt 3 & 14).
Wills, J. (2004): ‘Trade Unionism and Partnership in practice: evidence from the BarclaysUnifi agreement’, Industrial Relations Journal, 35 (4): 329-43.
Thompson, P., C. Warhurst and P. Findlay (2007), ‘Organising to Learn and Learning to
Organise: Three Case Studies on the Effects of Union-led Workplace Learning’.
Unionlearn Research Paper 2, London, Unionlearn.
http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/about/research-into-union-learning
Additional Reading
Gall, G. (2005): ‘Union organizing in the “new economy” in Britain’, Employee Relations 27
(2): 208-225.
Danford, A., Richardson, M., Stewart, P., Tailby, S. and Upchurch, M. (2004): ‘Partnership,
Mutuality and the Higher-performance Workplace: A Case Study of Union Strategy
and Worker Experience in the Aircraft Industry’ pp. 167-186 in G. Healy, E. Heery, P.
Taylor and W. Brown (eds.) The Future of Worker Representation, Basingstoke:
Palgrave
Oxenbridge, S. & Brown, W. (2004): ‘A Poisoned Chalice? Trade Union Representatives in
Partnership and Co-operative Employer-Union Relationships’ pp. 187-206 in G. Healy,
E. Heery, P. Taylor and W. Brown (eds.) The Future of Worker Representation,
Basingstoke: Palgrave
Johnstone, S., Wilkinson, A. and Ackers, P. (2010): ‘Critical incidents of partnership: five
years’ experience at NatBank’, Industrial Relations Journal, 35 (4): 329-43.
McIlroy, J. (2008): ‘Ten Years of New Labour: Workplace Learning, Social Partnership and
Union Revitalization in Britain’, British Journal of Industrial Relations 46 (2): 283-313
(quite difficult; focus on pages 299-306).
Heyes, J. (2009): ‘Recruiting and organising migrant workers through education and training:
a comparison of Community and the GMB’, Industrial Relations Journal 40(3): 182–
197.
http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/ulr/index.cfm
Discussion Questions
What prospect is there for an increase in trade union membership or collective bargaining
coverage over the next 5-10 years? What are the key influences in this regard?
To what extent can ‘organising’ approaches, partnership agreements or union involvement in
workplace learning enable unions to increase membership and bargaining levels?