Poll results: Should employers work closely with unions?

Strike action taken by employees has filled headlines recently, which has shone a light on unions and their relationship with employers and workers.

For example, the most recent example is that of train workers who went on strike for three days in June after rail union RMT was unable to secure an adequate pay proposal for staff.

Now, other workers are considering going on strike over pay disputes including Post Office staff and British Airways workers.

There also seems to be more interest from employees to join unions based on these actions, as analysis of Google search data found that the term ‘join union’ boomed by 184% in the UK as of 22 June, 2022.

According to Workello, this is the highest level in over a year, while searches for ‘how to strike’ reached 135% since the rail strikes began last month.

With so much interest in unions from employees currently, Reward Strategy asked LinkedIn users whether they think employers should work closely with them.

57% of respondents agreed that they should work with unions, while 24% stated that they should at least be open to welcome one.

In contrast, 16% said organisations should avoid working with them.

The remaining three percent chose other, with one LinkedIn user sharing their thoughts in the comments.

Jane Vivier, a freelance reward consultant who previously worked at charity Sue Ryder, explained that most of the time employers can work in harmony with unions, adding that issues only tend to crop up when a dispute takes place.

She explained “Many organisations already do and have a mutually respectful and productive relationship. The issue of unions only comes up when there is a dispute – in practice they are few and far between. On a day-to-day basis there’s quite a lot of harmony!”

Speaking to Reward Strategy, Mateusz Bratko, consultant solicitor at IMD Solicitors LLP, also expressed some of the benefits of working alongside unions.

Bratko continued: “Trade unions give employees voice, representation and protection at minimal cost, whilst being a good partner to businesses in discussing employee related matters.

“There are numerous benefits for employers to work alongside unions. A union’s job is to listen to its members, think critically about the issues at stake and suggest collective solutions. It sifts issues, to focus on the most important ones and allows for streamlined discussions with an employer. Unions allow for no nonsense dealing with problems at work.”

This topic will be explored in more detail in the next issue of Reward Strategy magazine, which will be published later this month. In the meantime, check out past issues here.