Shop-floor Industrial Relations: The Public Sector

Abstract

Governments have little direct control over industrial relations in the private sector. Of course, they can introduce and operate statutory incomes policies which fundamentally constrain collective bargaining. However, this was never an option for the Conservative Government. Otherwise, a government can only alter the legal framework within which shop-floor industrial relations operate. This legal framework may have a significant effect on relations between employers and unions but the extent of this effect depends most upon strategic decisions taken by employers. In the public sector, in contrast, government has the potential for greater direct control over industrial relations. It can attempt to force management to take a firmer line with unions by cutting back grants, establishing cash limits, establishing profit targets and encouraging the import of private sector management methods. As such, government can exercise a more direct influence over the context within which public sector industrial relations takes place. However, it cannot determine those outcomes which still depend on the history and current state of the relations between management and unions within the particular section of the public sector.