Partnership
agreements between management and trade unions can have a positive impact on
the financial performance of firms during turbulent conditions, according to a
new report.
Research
from the Policy Studies Institute, commissioned by the DTI, also found that
trade unions had no detrimental effect on workplace performance or the
industrial relations climate.
The
study, Collective Bargaining and Workplace Performance, is based on data
collected since 1998, with 3,000 managers and almost 30,000 employees.
The
report also found that if staff thought managers were taking trade unions
seriously, it improved the perception of employee relations, even if the unions
were not officially recognised.
However,
there was a massive gap between management and staff over the state of employee
relations, with 90 per cent of bosses rating the climate as good or very good
compared to only 55 per cent of staff.
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