1. Employee Participation
The extent to which employees are involved in the decision-making process

2. Industrial relations
The atmosphere prevailing between a management & its workforce representatives – the trade unions

3. Industrial democracy
When employees have the opportunity to be involved in and to influence decision making:
Worker directors (elected to board of directors by employees from the factory floor)
Works councils
Workers’ cooperatives (where firm’s workers own majority of its shares, e.g. John Lewis Partnership)

4. Works council
Committee of management & workforce representatives that meet to discuss company-wide issues, e.g. training, investment & working practices
Bargaining over issues such as wages, terms of employment & productivity is left to trade union negotiations

5. European works councils
Under EU law, large companies operating in two or more EU countries must set up European works councils
Aim is to ‘improve the right to information and to consultation of employees’
Aim to restrict power of multinationals & to provide workers in different locations with the opportunity to discuss common concerns

6. Trade Union
A pressure group that represents the interests of people at work
Craft union
Industrial union
General union

7. Negotiation Collective bargaining
Union representatives in an organisation discuss with management the issues that affect employees in that organisation

8. Representation
Trade unions also represent individual union members when they have problems at work
Offer legal representation, e.g. compensation for work-related injuries

9. Do trade unions benefit employers?
Valuable communication link between management & the workforce
Management can avoid time-consuming bargaining & negotiation with individual workers
Strong union may encourage management to take workers’ needs seriously  improved morale  increased productivity, etc
Ease situations such as relocation, downsizing,etc

10. How have trade unions changed recently?
Membership has declined – lower union density
Union density = proportion of all employees who are union members
Why has this happened?

11. Reasons for decline Fall in number of jobs in manufacturing industries
Privatisation of major utilities, reducing number of employees in public sector
Increase in flexible working
Increase in proportion of workforce employed by small businesses
Legislation that makes it more difficult for unions to operate
Improved employment rights in the workplace

12. Industrial dispute
A disagreement between management & the trade union representing
Industrial action = measures taken by employees to halt or slow production or disrupt services in order to put pressure on management during an industrial dispute
Strike
Overtime ban
Work to rule
Go-slow

13. Single-union agreement
Recognition by a firm of only one trade union for collective bargaining purposes
No-strike agreement
Pendulum arbitration
System of binding arbitration in which an independent person or panel must decide in favour of one side or the other

14. ACAS Advisory, conciliation & arbitration service
Ambition is to improve organisations & working life through better employment relations
Funded by the Department of Trade & Industry
Non-governmental body – independent, impartial & confidential

15. Reaching agreement Conciliation
Negotiation intended to reconcile differences between the parties to an industrial dispute (agree before whether solution will be binding or non-binding)
Binding arbitration – both parties agree in advance that they will accept the arbitrator’s solution
Non-binding mediation – both sides consider what mediator suggests, but ultimately do not have to act on it

16. Collective employment law
Aims to influence industrial relations & control activities of trade unions
Employment Act 1980 – employers no longer obliged to recognise or negotiate with a particular union