Industrial relations in britain

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Bog'liq
8 industrial in UK

The ‘voluntarist’ system

Voluntarism arose out of trade union immunity legislation such as the Trade Disputes Act 1906
Principal features of voluntarism included:

non-legally binding collective agreements
voluntary union recognition by employers
low level of formalisation of industrial relations structures
voluntary framework of state-provided dispute resolution facilities (no power of the State to arbitrate)

In an attempt to reverse economic decline, governments from the 1970s onwards legislated industrial relations reform
The most radical of these reforms were those of the Conservative Thatcher Government (1979-1990) which aimed to reduce the power of the unions
Some have characterised this point in British history as the shift from a voluntarist to a neo-liberal interventionist state

1945-1979: Keynesian consensus on state-directed income redistribution and full employment
1979-1997: Radical shift to neo-liberal reform including deregulation, flexibilisation of the labour market and control of inflation
1997-Current: Continued focused on inflation control; recent challenge of the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent challenge to recover from and cut the deficit

The state has long provided conciliation and arbitration services to supplement voluntary collective bargaining and dispute procedures
Since 1975 these services have been offered by the independent Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) under the Employment Protection Act
ACAS is a governmental agency governed by a tripartite council, of employer and union nominees with a balance of independent members e.g. academics
ACAS offers industrial relations advice as well as conciliation and non-compulsory and non-binding arbitration services to the parties to individual and collective agreement disputes

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