Threat From US Union Busters

Tactics used by US employers to keep unions out of the workplace are being increasingly used in the UK as employers here begin to hire firms of union-busting consultants to persuade their workers against the benefits of union membership, warns a TUC report published today (Tuesday).

To coincide with the report’s publication, the TUC and its American equivalent - the AFL-CIO - are joining forces to try to thwart employer efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to demonise trade unions and scare employees from joining up. The two union organisations plan to shed light on the underhand tactics used by the union busters to keep workplaces union-free.

The report, US Union Avoidance Consultants: A Threat to the Rights of British Workers has been written for the TUC by Dr John Logan from the London School of Economics. Describing the multi-billion dollar union busting industry in the US,  the report says tactics used by “consultants” are designed to frighten and intimidate workers away from any union attempt to recruit them at work. The union busters warn the workforce that the union will start harassing them in their homes, risk their job security, and cause them a loss of earnings and benefits. Employees are also given company leaflets warning them that if they join the union they are likely to be permanently on strike and under threat of violence should they join any picket line.

Dr John Logan, author of the report said, “For over three decades, so-called ‘union avoidance consultants’ have helped American employers undermine their workers’ fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively.

‘The United States has an entire industry dedicated exclusively to stopping workers from forming a union. Several of these US consultants are now operating internationally and are seeking to expand their business in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. It is essential that union busting is not allowed to flourish on this side of the Atlantic.”

AFL-CIO’s Director of Organising Stewart Acuff said, “The US’s $4 billion union busting industry is by far our worst export. As the industry grows in the UK, it makes sense that we band together to fight these highly paid, morally bankrupt agents of corporate greed. Our fundamental source of power is workers united and in motion.”

FE Still The Poor Relation

Further education (FE) colleges require greater funding and support if the government is serious about boosting skills, a parliamentary report has concluded.

Mind the gap: funding adults in Further and Higher Education, argued that further education is still seen as the poor relation of the university system in this country, despite it being key to the type of skills that UK employers typically need.

Read the full news story on the CIPD website.

Controlling Managers Hinder Productivity

New figures show that performance levels in workplaces across the UK are suffering as overbearing and dogmatic management practices top the list of management styles. The Quality of Working Life report, which questioned 1,511 managers, also found a high rate of sickness and absence levels in organisations exhibiting ‘negative’ management styles.

The report, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Simplyhealth, assessed the impact of differing managerial styles on motivation, health and productivity.

The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). Worryingly, all three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent.

Only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with ‘innovative’ and ‘trusting’ cultures. This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were ‘suspicious’.

Jo Causon, director, marketing and corporate affairs, at the Chartered Management Institute, said: “The effect of management styles on performance can be marked and has a direct bearing on the levels of health, motivation and commitment linking employers and staff. Of course, improving the sense of wellbeing, determination and productivity is no easy task, but one that cannot be ignored. Left alone, it will only serve to reduce morale and lower the quality of working life.”

The Effects of Festive Hangovers

It’s that time of year again when companies publish their more unusual survey results. The latest, reported by People Management, looks into the effects of hung-over workers, including where in the workplace they have been sick!

Indeed, according to research by Travelodge, hung-over workers will cost the UK £790 million this Christmas.

A poll of 4,500 employees revealed that the average worker wastes two-and-a-half hours staring into space the day after the office Christmas party because they are too hung over to work. And 21 per cent said they had been sick in the workplace as a result of ill-effects from the night before. While over three-quarters (77 per cent) said they made it to the toilet in time, the remaining respondents, somewhat worryingly, admitted to being sick at their desk, in the car park or even during a meeting.

You can read more at People Management Online.

Misuse Of Power Most Prolific Type Of Bullying

Two-thirds of UK managers believe that lack of management skills is the major factor contributing to bullying at work, according to new research. Misuse of power was listed as the most prolific type of bullying used within the workplace.

The figures are reported on the OUT-LAW.COM website run by the law firm Pinsent Masons. They refer to a survey by the Ban Bullying at Work campaign which questioned 512 senior managers across the UK in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute.

The other main factors, given by managers themselves, which contribute to bullying at work included unrealistic targets (cited by 27%); authoritarian management styles (56%); personality (57%); and failure to address incidents (37%).

The survey also asked managers what they believed was the most prolific type of bullying used. Misuse of power was cited by 71% of managers while 63% cited overbearing supervision and 55% cited exclusion.

The fifth national Ban Bullying at Work day takes place on 7th November and is supported by the TUC and a range of other organisations. To raise awareness of the day, the Ban Bullying at Work campaign has produced a range of materials that can be bought online. There is also a very useful Reflection Questionnaire to profile your own behaviour and that of others.

Mixed Views on FE Reputation

New research into the status and reputation of our further education (FE) system has produced some mixed results. Commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Ipsos MORI research found that two-thirds of respondents believe FE has a major impact on the national economy and productivity, and three in five believe the FE system to be well respected. Half of the stakeholders interviewed said that choice of provision has improved with only less than a fifth saying it has got worse.

However, while users of FE are generally satisfied, they feel the system is invisible to the wider population. Stakeholders say the low profile is due to the absence of any “champion” for FE, the complexity of the system, and a general view that FE comes second behind higher education.

The research also found that training providers, and employers who do not use FE, are its fiercest critics, while FE and sixth form colleges, not surprisingly, are its loudest advocates. Other stakeholder groups such as schools and employers who have used FE, fall somewhere between the two viewpoints.

The priority most commonly cited by those interviewed was employer engagement and ensuring the system is demand led.

Commenting on the research, Mark Haysom, LSC Chief Executive said: “All of us in the sector must work together to develop the reputation and understanding of FE amongst our key stakeholders. This research helps us identify areas of concern, allows us to agree, with our partners, the direction of travel, and gives us the evidence we need to establish plans for the future.”

To download a pdf version of the research report, follow the link to The Status and Reputation of the Further Education System.

Employers Struggling To Keep Staff

Employers are struggling to retain staff as they deal with a difficult recruitment climate, according to the latest research from CIPD.

The number of respondents reporting retention difficulties rose to 78 per cent in 2006-07 from 69 per cent in 2005-06, according to the Recruitment, Retention and Turnover 2007 survey. The high staff turnover figures were caused mainly by employees leaving to change careers (52 per cent) or to take promotions elsewhere (47 per cent).

Managers and professionals, along with administrative, secretarial and technical staff, were the employee groups most likely to cause retention headaches. Organisations most frequently tried to address these shortfalls by providing more learning and development opportunities, improving selection techniques and increasing pay and benefits.

“There’s a huge jump in retention difficulties. Only the voluntary sector hasn’t been affected,” said Nicola Monson, CIPD research associate. “One reason for this may be that organisations seemed to be doing more in 2005-06 to address these difficulties in terms of improving learning and development and pay than in 2006-07.”

Eighty-four per cent of respondents reported experiencing more general recruitment difficulties – up from 82 per cent in 2005-06. Among these difficulties were problems finding people with the necessary specialist skills (65 per cent), candidates’ excessive pay expectations (46 per cent) and insufficient experience.

Survey Confirms Fears for Adult Learning

The annual Adult Learners’ Week survey on adult participation in learning, The Road to Nowhere? – commissioned by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) – reports half a million adults lost to learning in the last year. The proportion of adults currently learning or having done so in the last three years has fallen to 41%.

A third of all adults (34%) say they have done no learning whatsoever since leaving full-time education and the survey also shows – as in previous years - that no significant progress is being made to encourage those adults who left school earliest and those who are amongst the poorest in society to engage in learning. In fact overall participation of poorer people is around half that experienced by the upper and middle classes (27% of DEs compared with 55% of ABs and 48% of C1s).