Documents Ingram, Peter 5 results

"The number of strikes reported in British industry has been on a downward trend over the past two decades, falling in 1998 to its lowest level since records began. This may indicate that relations within British industry have improved; however, the same period has also witnessed a sharp increase in the number of individual ACAS and employment tribunal cases. We discuss possible reasons for the changes in the patterns of industrial unrest over time and use individual micro-data to examine whether the observed decline in strike activity has actually been associated with an improvement in perceptions of workplace industrial relations."

"Wage claims have been an important feature of British industrial relations during the postwar period. They help set the boundaries within which wage negotiations take place and provide an insight into the conduct of negotiations, especially during periods of change in industrial relations. Despite this, claims remain an underinvestigated area. This article provides a unique investigation of the dimensions of wage claims over a period of free collective bargaining. The number of wage claims declined along with unionisation but, over a period of economic turbulence, the conduct of British wage setting began to change. We examine data on claims and investigate the influences on changes in those claims over time. We find that external factors (inflation, unemployment and legislative control of unions) were more prominent in shaping the development of claims than changes in the composition of groups who continued to post claims."

"We examine representative, group-level wage settlement data to augment the debate on nominal pay rigidity in Britain. We investigate the characteristics of groups that settle at zero and the role of within-firm and external influences. Nominal settlement cuts are rare. Zero nominal wage settlements are more common, but still relatively unusual, highest during (low-inflation) recessionary periods. Small groups, above all firms under duress, appear most likely to settle at zero. Once a group settles at zero it is unlikely to do so again in the short run."