EMPLOYABILITY AND SECURITY IN A FLEXIBLE GLOBAL LABOUR MARKET New patterns of employment and human resource management British unions lack legal or regulatory support Briefing German delegates on the position and role of trade unions within the management process in Britain, Lionel Fulton of the Labour Research Department outlined some fundamental differences between the two countries. Unlike their German counterparts, British trades unions have no guaranteed right to participate in the management process, nor do unions have a legally enforceable right to represent the interests of workers. Nor, apart from recent legislation on the minimum wage, are wage levels regulated. Only 23 per cent of managers responsible for conducting industrial relations in Britain are specialists in this field, and of these over a quarter had no professional qualification. About 36 per cent of employees are subject to national wage agreements, and this proportion is declining rapidly. National agreements are still widespread in public administration(covering 78 per cent of employees), in utilities such as gas, water and electricity(64 per cent), and in education(63 per cent). However, in manufacturing such agreements apply to only 31 per cent of workers, and in the hotel and catering industries to just 9 per cent. As a result of the limited regulation of wage levels and the decline of nationally negotiated wage agreements, decisions about wages are increasingly taken by individual managers who are answerable to no one but shareholders. Mr Fulton cited Vodaphone as a major British company which claimed to have developed systems for the representation of employee interests with no trade union involvement. In theory, modern human resources management practices aimed to produce a fully committed workforce, giving careful attention to recruitment, training, reward and communication. Rewards should relate to performance, and should also be in line with market conditions. They should be based on performance assessment, and should be flexible enough to take account of regional variations in the market place. In practice, however, reward systems are often complicated and difficult to implement, and are not accepted as fair by employees. The theory cannot accommodate issues such as equal pay legislation or the prospective legislation for information and consultation rights at a national level. Nor can it take adequate account of issues of increasing importance to many employees, such as stress and the work/life balance. 14 © Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society