- Following the election of the Conservative Thatcher government in 1979, there was a decisive shift in public sector policy as neo-liberal reforms aimed to limit public expenditure and the size and role of the state
- Privatisation of major parts of the public sector between 1979-1997 reduced the size of the public sector from 30% to 22% of the labour force while public sector pay was restrained
- Privatisation and deregulation of the public sector had profound effects on employment relations, including the fragmentation of work across organisational boundaries
- The British state remains a large employer, employing approximately one quarter of all workers in Britain in 2008
- 1997-2010 Labour Governments modified, but did not fundamentally change the framework of the IR laws introduced by the Conservatives between 1979-1997
- Key changes include the introduction of a national minimum wage in 1999 and the Blair Government’s opt-in to the Maastricht EU Social Protocol, which has strengthened statutory employment rights
- Such changes constitute a slight shift towards workers’ interests and towards juridification in the regulation of minimum employment standards
History of early British unionism - As Britain was the first country to industrialise, it probably has the longest history of unionism
- Early unions were formed by and were exclusive to skilled craft workers; some began before in the nineteenth century
- Widespread unionism of semi-skilled, unskilled and female manual workers began in the late nineteenth century
- Prior to World War II, the majority of unionised white-collar workers were in the public sector
- After 1960, substantial numbers of private sector white-collar workers were also unionised
The level and density of unionisation has fluctuated since the end of World War II
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