Increase in industrial action

June 12, 2008

I’ve been discussing a lot of instances of industrial disputes and strikes in the last couple of months, and recently commented that it appears to me that this is on the increase, although I wasn’t sure if I was just becoming more aware of these sorts of situations. Well now it seems the figures are there to show that my observations were correct – information collated by the Office for National Statistics has shown that the number of working days lost to strikes increased from just over 750,000 in 2006 to just over a million in 2007. If the news so far this year is anything to go by, I bet that increases again in 2008. The figures also showed that there are now more days lost than the average figure for the nineties (although unsurprisingly it’s no where near the figures of the 70s and 80s).

I wonder what the reason is for this increase? It could be due to the fact that the laws have changed slightly on the processes relating to industrial action since the 90s, when it was quite difficult to gain protection from legal action or dismissal for organising or taking part in industrial action. For example workers are now protected from unfair dismissal in the first 12 weeks of industrial action as long as it is official, which they did not have in the 90s. However I’m not sure how much of a difference to the amount of industrial action these relaxations of the law and additional protections to workers will have made.

Maybe it’s the fact that the economic climate is changing, and the more insecure workers feel and the tighter the pinch on their living costs they experience, the more workplace disputes are likely to occur. This is clearly the case with the current issue over the Shell delivery drivers, where it feels like a kick in the teeth to employees delivering for a company that has publicly enjoyed record profits whilst motorists around the country experience enormous price hikes. In these instances, issues such as pay, which is very high on most people’s agenda anyway, become more heightened.

I think that HR has an important job to do in managing the employee relations of the organisations they support, in terms of reassuring staff where possible of the financial stability of the company or handling unstable situations carefully and compassionately. Communication is the most important aspect of this job, and ensuring the right messages are being sent out consistently both internally and externally to avoid the kind of stress and anger that can ultimately result in some sort of industrial action.

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Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under Employee Relations 

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