Trade unions and Learning: learning agreements in action

1
Trade unions and Learning learning agreements
in action

• Mark Stuart
• Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and
  Change
• Leeds University Business School

2
Research Programme

• Number of studies conducted at Leeds since 1992
  to investigate the impact of trade unions on
  learning processes and outcomes. Most recently
• Case studies of organisations where learning
  agreements have been concluded

3
CONTEXT

• Union role in training and learning
• Unions have been campaigning for learning to be
  part of new bargaining agenda since early
  1990s.
• Supports offered by Labour government learning
  a natural issue for partnership. ULF and ULRs.
• Points of debate
• Impact Negotiation over training takes places in
  only 9 percent of workplaces ULRs present in
  only 12 percent of recognised workplaces. (WERS,
  2004) but negotiation increased 3 fold between
  98-2004
• Function and role of unions dilution of
  representative and regulatory function and
  emergence of supply-side trade unionism.
  Re-emergence of public administration function,
  union role in delivery of policy (agents of the
  state)
• Still voluntarist no rights to bargain no
  obligations on employers employer-led
• But evidence of institution building
• 18, 000 ULRs signature of learning agreements
  learning centres etc

4
Learning agreements Research approach

• Case studies of 6 organisations where learning
  agreements concluded
• Included public transport heavy engineering
  shipbuilding transnational logistics company
  passenger transport company local authority
• Interviews with over 50 respondents

5
Background to agreements

• Learning agreements arose from, or were designed
  to support partnership-based approaches to
  learning
• Key drivers were external (skills shortages,
  recruitment difficulties) and internal (skill
  gaps, learning cultures)
• Statutory rights for ULRs and ULF a major
  catalyst
• Learning and the potential for mutual gains the
  union role regarded as complimentary to the HR
  function

6
The nature and scope of learning agreements

• All are framework agreements underpinned by the
  principles of partnership and the objective of
  creating a separate space for learning
• In most cases union-led
• All have established reciprocal expectations of
  employers and unions
• All have established procedural arrangements
  (committees, joint forums etc)
• All link, but not in a uni-linear way, to broader
  substantive agreements (eg. paid time off for
  employee learning)
• Big question over whether they should be stand
  alone agreements or linked to existing
  bargaining machinery? (Firewalling!)

7
Learning agreements employee access and
participation

• Employee participation in learning (and
  opportunities) increased in most organisations
  in some cases dramatically, through use of
  learning centres (eg, 20-50 percent usage)
• Focus on non-vocational learning transferable
  skills
• Unions reps developing strategies to engage more
  cynical line managers and increase leverage and
  negotiation (eg. links to H S, quality)

8
Learning agreements sustaining partnership

• Communication and trust between management and
  union reps improved by the process of learning
  agenda
• Union expertise seen as a resource
• Non-traditional learners
• Expertise in access funding sources
• New management cohorts
• Agreements facilitate the achievement of mutual
  gains
• For unions more learning opportunities for
  members increased influence over learning and
  (sometimes) broader agendas
• For employers skills gaps/shortages addressed
  Increased labour flexibility improved corporate
  image (IiP accreditation)
• General sense of momentum in most cases, although
  tracing through hard gains will take time
  formal evaluation in one case

9
Learning agreements key findings

• Commitment to partnership-based approach to
  learning more significant than formal learning
  agreements
• . But learning agreements embed union
  involvement in developing the learning agenda and
  thus sustain partnership
• Extent of employee learning greatest, and
  learning cultures strongest where learning
  partnerships based on labour parity rather than
  employer dominance.

10
Learning agreements Key issues

• Evidence of progress, but issue of sustainability
  remains some evidence of this (new
  institutions, new learning initiatives/investment
  by management)
• Link between learning agenda and broader IR
  sensitive and fragile concern
• Commitment to making the procedural aspects work
  an issue in some cases
• Resourcing and capacities of ULRs an issue in
  some cases (know what to do, but not how to do
  it)

11
Broader concerns

• Impact In broad terms clearly limited but
  evidence building of qualitative impact of ULRs
  and Learning agreements and can be seen as an
  example of innovation in British IR.
• Function and Role of unions State-led union
  modernisation to some extent, but unionlearn
  should not be seen as counter to representative
  and regulatory role of unions how can this
  develop through new institutional structures (eg
  SSC)?
• Role of regulation
• It is not the role of the state to drive the
  demand side (minister for employment and
  welfare, June 07)
• unions can continue to lobby for legal rights and
  for obligations on employers, but will
  increasingly have to engage with soft forms of
  regulation and state emphasis on steering and
  benchmarking (eg. the Pledge)