White‐collar Trade Unions and New Office Technology
| Published date | 01 May 1985 |
| Pages | 29-31 |
| Date | 01 May 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055062 |
| Author | Maureen Haddow |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
White-collar
Trade Unions
and New Office
Technology
by Maureen Haddow
Napier College, Edinburgh
Introduction
A feature of the new computerised office technology is its
pervasiveness which affects all types of office work and of-
fice workers. This has presented many challenges to the
trade union movement — some familiar, such as changes
in wages, salaries and the numbers of jobs, and some new,
such as the drafting of New Technology Agreements and
the health, safety and ergonomic aspects of visual display
units and work stations. This article seeks to examine the
attitude and reaction of the white-collar trade unions to new
office technology and is based on recent research carried
out in Scottish organisations and trade unions.
General Observations
Generally Positive Attitude
The first observation to be made relates to the attitude and
reaction of the white-collar trade unions to new technology.
Many people had feared that there would be a "Luddite"
reaction from the unions, whereas an examination of
literature produced by the TUC and other relevant unions
indicates that the movement as a whole has given a cautious
welcome to the technology provided that it is introduced
in a controlled fashion and that there are safeguards against
exploitation of the workforce.
In many union publications there was a recognition that new
technology had the potential to bring benefits to members
in the form of a reduction of repetitive and boring work, an
opportunity for increased salaries as a result of productivi-
ty increases and the possibility of improved working condi-
tions,
for example, more leisure time and study or sabbatical
leave.
It was also clear that the unions realised that there were
a number of problems inherent in the introduction of new
technology, not least of which was the effect on the
numbers of jobs. The dilemma facing the unions, however,
is that the effects of not introducing new technology to the
office are likely to be as bad as, if not worse
than,
those
resulting from introducing the equipment.
Duplication of Effort and Lack of Unanimity
in Recommendations
Much can be said in favour of the time and effort expended
by the various unions in carrying out research into the many
aspects of new office technology. Such programmes of
research,
however, are very demanding on resources and
inevitably result in a considerable duplication of effort which
could have been eliminated if a common programme had
been established. Several advantages would have resulted
from such a common programme of research. In the first
place,
the total resource commitment could have been
reduced or the extent of the research increased. Second,
all unions would have had access to the total findings, in-
stead of the situation at present in which the information
provided by each union differs according to the union's
resource commitment and the research emphasis. A third
advantage is that the trade union movement would have
been seen to "speak with one voice" which most likely
would have led to an increase in its authority and influence.
There certainly would have been much less opportunity for
management to play one union off against another, and the
confusion caused in several instances by different union
recommendations on the same point could have been
eliminated.
No doubt, some problems, particularly over finance and
areas of specialist interest, would have arisen if a common
programme had been adopted. Some of these problems
could have been eased by running the research programme
under the auspices of the TUC whilst an individual union,
where necessary, could have carried out additional research
in the specialist area.
Problems with the Implementation of Policies
An examination of trade unions at national and branch level
has highlighted a number of problems which have occur-
red in the implementation of union policies.
One problem the unions recognised at an early stage was
the need to provide training for their officials on new
technology and its implications. In many cases, branch of-
ficials did not possess much prior knowledge of computer
technology. To meet this need, individual trade unions, as
well as the TUC and the STUC, organised training program-
mes,
many of which were fairly comprehensive and involv-
ed action-based learning, for example, the courses organised
by APEX and ASTMS. Discussions with branch officials in
Scotland indicated that a substantial proportion of them had
attended such courses and judged them to be very helpful.
Despite all these efforts, however, there is still a tendency
for many officials to concentrate on traditional areas of union
concern,
such as numbers of jobs and remuneration, to the
detriment of other areas, such as job redesign and
ergonomic, health and safety factors. Support for this state-
ment came from comments made by union officials at
*This article is based on the findings of a research programme undertaken
for a Master's degree awarded by the University of Strathclyde in 1984.
ER 7,5 • 1985 29
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