Employee Relations Report

Writing a report based upon specific terms of reference of a minimum of 2000 and maximum 2500 words (not including the list of references).
Furniture-co, an American furniture retail company, is planning to open six new furniture stores across south west London, employing 800 people. As experts in employee relations, the company’s chief executive has asked you to write a report outlining information on the employee relations system in the UK and providing a recommendation about what system of employee representation Furniture-co should adopt in its new stores.

The CEO explains that, following the company’s policy in the US, it is intended to set up an Employee Forum to which employees from each of the London shops would send two representatives. This would meet on a monthly basis and provide employee representatives with an opportunity to raise issues of concern with management. In addition, weekly team meetings would be held at each store so that management could inform employees about how the business is performing, get their views and answer any questions they might have.

The CEO wonders whether this would be an appropriate and effective system of employee representation, given her impression that “trade unions are so important in the UK.” A central aim of the report is to consider and evaluate this issue.

Furniture-co will also be adopting the following employment/HR policies in London:

Pay rates: the starting rate for employees will be £8.50 an hour, which compares with an average of £6.50 for other retail outlets in the area
Pension scheme: all staff members will be entitled to join the company’s pension scheme
Working hours: full-time staff will work 37.5 hours a week. Working hours will be from 9.30 to 6 with employees having an hour for lunch
Training: All staff will be provided with an intensive two-week initial training course and be offered the opportunity to do an NVQ in retail management. The company will also provide employees with more than a year’s service with a £500 voucher to undertake further education/training on a part-time basis

Your report should contain the following elements:

(a) A brief overview of the British employee relations system, outlining (i) the historical role or position of trade unions in the management of employee relations (ii) trends in union density and collective agreement coverage in the UK on a year-by-year basis from 2001 to 2010 (iii) a brief evaluation of the key causes or influences accounting for these trends, and (iv) an outline of current levels of union density in London (40% of marks).

(b) In light of the evidence outlined in part (a), the readings below and the nature of Furniture-co’s proposed employment policies, provide a discussion and evaluation of whether the proposed employee representation arrangements at the new stores would be likely to work well, or whether the company would be better advised to recognise a trade union for the purposes of collective bargaining (50% of marks)

Guidance on Structure
Parts (b) should be somewhat longer than part (a) given that it accounts for 10% more of the marks. All reports should contain the following sections: executive summary, introduction, main sections (i.e. where the key issues/tasks raised in the assignment are addressed), conclusion, list of references, appendices (where relevant).

Sources of Information on Trends in Union Density & Collective Bargaining Coverage
The best source of Information on trends in union density and collective bargaining coverage is the Department for Business, Innovation & Skill’s webpage on trade union membership (http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/employment-matters/research/trade-union-stats ). This contains links to reports on union membership and collective bargaining coverage, which draw figures from the quarterly Labour Force Survey.

Readings
A number of readings are outlined below. However this is not an exclusive list and textbook chapters and workshop readings relating to a number of topics covered in the first semester (e.g. role of third party institutions and UK & EU governments) may also be used in writing the report if they are seen to be relevant.

Daniels, K. (2006): Employee Relations in an Organisational Context, London: CIPD, chapters 6, 7 & 8 (other chapters may also be relevant).

Noon, M. and Blyton, P. (2007), The Realities of Work, Basingstoke: Palgrave, chapter 11, ‘Representation at Work.’

Kersley, B., Alpin, C., Forth, J., Bryson, A., Bewley, H., Dix, G. and Oxenbridge, S. (2006): Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, London: Routledge, chapter 5.

Diamond, W. and Freeman, R. (2003): ‘Young Workers and their Willingness to Join Trade Unions’ in H. Gospel and S. Wood (eds.) Representing Workers: Trade Union Membership and Recognition in Britain, Routledge: London. (available via StudySpace)

Lloyd, C. (2001): ‘What do Employee Councils do? The impact of non-union forms of representation on trade union organisation’, Industrial Relations Journal, 32 (4): 313-327. (available on-line via library web pages)

Abbott, B. (2004): ‘Worker Representation through the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux’, pp. 245-263 in G. Healy, E. Heery, P. Taylor and W. Brown (eds.) The Future of Worker Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave. (available via StudySpace).