The Contraction of Collective Bargaining in Britain
| Author | William Brown |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1993.tb00388.x |
| Date | 01 June 1993 |
| Published date | 01 June 1993 |
British
Journal
of
Industrial Relations
31:2
June
1993 0007-1080
The Contraction
of
Collective
Bargaining
in
Britain
William
Brown
Abstract
Collective bargaining has been transformed since the Donovan Commission
reported. Their prescription for reform has been fulfilled by both the decline
in multi-employer agreements arid the greater control exercised by the single-
employer agreements thut have displaced them.
It
has, however, been
confounded by the substantial contraction
in
the coverage
of
collective
agreements, the narrowing in the scope
of
bargaining, the decline
in
the depth
of
union involvement and the erosion
of
uriiorrs’ organizationalsecurity.
In
so
fur us this has been cuused by the recent reversul ofgovernment policy towards
collective bargaining, it cannot be ussumed
to
be permanent.
Properly conducted, collective bargaining is the most effective means
of
giving
workers the right
to
representation in decisions affecting their working lives, a
right which
is
or
should be the prerogative
of
every worker in a democratic society.
While therefore the first task
in
the reform
of
British industrial relations is to bring
greater
order
into collective bargaining in the company and plant, the second is to
extend the coverage
of
collective bargaining and the organisation
of
workers on
which it depends. (Donovan
1968,
para.
212)
1.
Introduction
This unanimous statement of the values and objectives
of
Lord Donovan’s
Royal Commission leaves us in
no
doubt about the criteria with which they
would have had us judge the reform of British industrial relations a quarter
of
a century later. Has collective bargaining become more orderly? Has its
coverage increased? The
WlRS
surveys provide an incomparable basis for
an answer. Before assessing what they have to tell us about the way in which
collective bargaining has changed,
it
is useful to place that change in a larger
context
of
official policy.
The Commissioners’ view was not a romantic aberration of the
1960s.
The
considered opinion
of
the
1860s
had been
little
different. As the Royal
Commission on the Organisation and Rules
of
Trade Unions and Other
Associations
of
1869
put
it,
‘.
.
.
we think that the workmen may reasonably
Professor
William Brown
is
in
the
Faculty
of
Economics
at
Cambridge University.
To continue reading
Request your trial