UK employee relations have seen significant changes over the last 30 Essay

UK employee relations have seen significant changes over the last 30 years. Evaluate the importance of these changes and how the - Essay Example One of the other changes that have occurred since 1980 is the growth of non-standard employment, which includes short fixed-term contract, temporary employment, freelance work, outwork, homework and part-time work (Millward et al., 2000, p. 44). As far as part-time employment is concerned, 25% of firms had part-time workers in 1980, while 44% of the firms had part-time workers in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 44). The ever-increasing use of part-time workers has implications for unions, as part-timers are much less likely to be a part of a union, and workplaces that employ a substantial number of part-time workers are less likely to recognize trade unions (Millward et al., 2000, p. 45). With regards to workers with short fixed-term contracts, this number rose from 19% of all firms answering they had at least one employee with a short fixed-term contract in 1980 to 35% answering this question in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 46). With regards to temporary employment, the percentag e increased from 20% of all firms answering in the affirmative whether they had at least one temporary worker in 1980 to 28% answering this same question in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 47). With regards to free-lance workers, the data is unclear as to whether this number has risen or fallen between the years 1980 and 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 48). Employee relations have also undergone a big shift since 1980. One of the shifts is in regards to whom manages the employees – in 1980, employees were managed by a generalist; in 1998, the shift was towards management by a specialist in employee relations and line managers. In 1980, generalists accounted for 75% of all managers; in 1998, they accounted for only 46% (Millward et al., 2000, p. 52). One of the reasons for this shift is the increased prevalence of foreign firms, as they rely more upon employee relations specialists, such as human resource managers than domestic workplaces (Millward et al., 2000, p. 54). What t he shift towards employing ER specialists for employee relations shows is that firms increasingly see employee relations as a position that requires a professional with formal credentials (Millward et al., 2000, p. 81). Another major change is that more women are managing employee relations – just 12% of employee relations positions were held by women in 1980, while 39% of employee relations positions were held by women in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 59). Another of the broad changes has concerned unionism. In particular, unionism has fallen considerably since 1980. In 1980, 73% of workplaces had one or more union members; that number fell to 54% in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000, p. 84). Moreover, the density of union members fell from 47% in 1980 to 36% in 1998, with the fall most steep in the private sector, with the public sector showing much less of a decline (Millward et al.., 2000, p. 103). With the decline in numbers came an attendant decline in clout, with collectiv e bargaining coverage declining during the period between 1984-1998 (Millward et al., 2000, pp. 180-181). In 2004, around 34% of all employees were union members, and there were still roughly 36% of workplaces with a union, mainly in the public sector (Kersey et al., 2004). However, the decline of unions did not mean that employees lost their voice – there simply was a shift from union representatives being the voice of employees to the implementation of channels where employees can communicate directly with