Industrial Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Industrial Action - Essay ExampleThe collective bargaining process in the U.K. has been described as adversary in nature because of the arms length bargaining style and the negligible communications employed, although it is a representational system since the labor movement is not seeking to overcome the semipolitical economic system. In sum, the degree of external control placed on employers by unions in the U.K. is express in international comparison. Conditions of employment are set at the firm level and therefore to a greater extent likely to give employers more flexibility in adapting HR policies to the firm context, although at times these policies as well as limit managerial flexibility, to wit, the restrictive work practices that evolved in U.K factories. The extent of industrial action In the UK, functionary statistics on the use of industrial sanctions relate only to pick outs. They cadency three dimension of strike action mechanism their number (how frequent they are), their size ( number of workers involved) and their duration (the number of works days lost). This last measure is often distorted by a few big strikes. For example, in 1979 an engineering industry- wide strike accounted for 55 percent of the 29.5 million working days lost in that year. In 2000 the number of working days lost in the UK was 499,00. However, disputes still happen for example, the series of one day stoppages in 2002 on the railways over the widening of pay differentials between drivers, who were in short supply, and other railway employees.