Putting Partnership into Practice in Britain
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00164 |
| Published date | 01 June 2000 |
| Author | William Brown |
| Date | 01 June 2000 |
ANNUAL REVIEW ARTICLE
Putting Par tnership into Practice in Britain
William Brown
Abstract
The paper reviews industrial relations developments in Britain during 1999 by
assessing how New Labour's policy commitment to encouraging `partnership'
is developing in practice. After a discussion of the Employment Relations
Act, it considers the wider influence of European legislation. It then describes
how partnership approaches have been developing in trade union policy and
industrial practice. This leads to an analysis of the operation of two explicit
`social partnership' institutions, ACAS and the Low Pay Commission. The
paper ends with a consideration of the developing arguments at the ILO and
WTO over international labour standards.
1. Introduction
After the rhetoric and hopes of New Labour's honeymoon, it became clearer
during 1999 how British industrial relations might develop in the longer
term. In his review in this Journal of 1998, Roger Undy discussed the
`industrial relations settlement' that was being proposed by the new govern-
ment (Undy 1999). He explored how New Labour's `Third Way' approaches
might translate into industrial relations institutions and, in particular, into
those involving some form of `social partnership' approach. The year 1999,
described by the government itself as its `year of delivery', was one in which
the true nature of its commitment and capacity to deliver began to emerge.
At the same time, the influence of Europe continued to grow, and arguments
at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva and World Trade
Organization in Seattle made clear the extent to which labour regulation is
increasingly transcending national frontiers.
This paper initially follows from Undy's discussion by describing the
implementation of New Labour's policies during 1999. It then looks a little
William Brown is in the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
38:2 June 2000 0007±1080 pp. 299±316
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closer at how notions of partnership are developing in practice. `Partner-
ship' is a term that has come to be loosely applied to a broad range of
collective bargaining relationships which place emphasis on mutual co-
operation.
1
It is beyond the scope of an annual review to explore the details
of the many partnership arrangements at workplace level that were reported
during the year. The paper can, however, say more about social partnership
in the European sense of relationships between the summit employer and
trade union bodies. It does this by discussing the experience of two social
partnership institutions: the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service
(ACAS) which celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday, and the relatively new
Low Pay Commission (LPC), whose National Minimum Wage was imple-
mented during the year. The paper concludes with a discussion of the
expanding international debate about labour standards and their regulation
and speculates that ever-widening markets are forcing a more consensual
approach to the shrinking realm of British collective bargaining.
2. Economic and political background
The economic circumstances of 1999 were, by any standards, exceptionally
benign for Britain. The adverse effects of the economic crisis in East Asia
and elsewhere did not materialize, and by the year end GDP growth had
risen to an annual rate of 2 per cent and was continuing to rise. Average
nominal earnings (excluding bonus) rose by almost 4 per cent. Both inflation
and unemployment fell to lower levels than for over twenty years. Inflation
(excluding mortgage interest payments) fell to an annual rate of below 2 per
cent by the end of the year. Unemployment levels (under the claimant count
measure) fell over the course of the year to as low as 4 per cent (ONS 2000).
A substantial contribution to the reduced unemployment was made by
the New Deal policy, as it brought many long-term unemployed back into
work. The introduction of the Working Family Tax Credit as part of a
wholesale reform of the tax and benefit system is likely to contribute further
to this process.
2
So changed was the labour and product market context,
even in terms of recent history, that by the end of the year authorities within
the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee were arguing that the
economists' vexed relationship between unemployment and inflation, the
NAIRU, had undergone a substantial, enduring and employment-friendly
shift (Wadhwani 1999).
The politically most significant development of the year was the
establishment of separate elected bodies for Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland. Although at present this has no direct or immediate implications
for employment law and practices, this may change. Attitudes to trade
unionism differ between the four components of the United Kingdom.
Union density is substantially higher in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland than in England; the respective densities in 1996 were estimated as
36, 41 and 41 per cent as against the English 30 per cent (ONS 1997). Unions
300 British Journal of Industrial Relations
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