Statutory recognition and employment relations — the impact of statutory union recognition Sian Moore and Sonia McKay with Sarah Veale Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

• Date: 01 July 2016
• Author: Jereme Snook
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12127

Book reviews

Statutory recognition and employment relations —the impact of statutory union

recognition

Sian Moore and Sonia McKay with Sarah Veale

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

This important publication presents a new analysis of the statutory recognition proce-

dure from the year 2000. It provides a comprehensive appraisal of the so-called vol-

untarist procedure, which earmarked the start of the recognition era. The key

elements are the legal framework supporting the Act 2000 and its application in the

workplace, and also the role of union strategies in promoting worker mobilisation

and membership. The authors employ both a theory-based and a case study method-

ology to explore the realities of worker mobilisation and emphasise that a key objec-

tive for trade unions remains the securing of recognition deals. The eight case studies

capture environments where employer hostility to recognition was encountered with

the significant role of agency and activists prevalent in overcoming barriers.

Specifically, Chapter one presents the operation of the law in the UK and other sys-

tems such as the USA. The sense that successive Government’s gradually abandoned

support for collective bargaining as a means of ensuring productive industrial rela-

tions underpins the introductory chapter. This chapter contains excellent reviews of

statutory procedures and the increased legalism that emerged once the recognition

procedures were tested in courts (AEEU and Honda TUR1/129/2001). It is easy to

comprehend after reading these interesting examples that once the ‘shadow effect’

of voluntary agreements in some workplaces had subsided, the recognition proce-

dures were more limited in scope and reflected the cautious approach of the Central

Arbitration Committee (CAC) towards the legislation and, in particular, its attempts

to avoid judicial review, leading to the will of the majority to be by-passed (which is

the subject of later chapters).

Chapter’s two and three consider negotiations leading to the legislation and the his-

tory of the CAC in adjudicating decisions ranging from statutory and semi-voluntary

agreements suggesting some convergence between them. It also traces the declines in

applications sometimes linked to difficulties in defining bargaining units or failures to

reach the 40 per cent threshold needed in recognition ballots. Chapter four presents

an evaluative review of employer behaviours in prompting union avoidance or limita-

tion tactics (i.e. the TGWU’s story at ASDA in Falkirk, Scotland and also William

Morrison’s in Wakefield, England); these examples illuminate sometimes profound

difficulties encountered by unions in attempts to secure recognition deals at those

businesses often by navigating the legislation and when faced with the entrenched po-

sitions of the employer. The variety and complexity of admissible tactics and strate-

gies employed to disrupt, stall or circumnavigate applications (i.e. pre-emption,

contestation and intervention) to the CAC for recognition deals make for a fascinat-

ing read, and the authors have paid particular attention to relating the intricacies of

these events and others with accuracy, objectivity and insight.

Industrial Relations Journal 47:4, 396–399

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd