TUC sets up institute to help partnership

The TUC is to deepen its commitment to partnership at work still further with the promised establishment of a Partnership Institute to provide consultancy, training and research to companies and unions.

The TUC Partnership Institute, which will open for business later this year, will provide:

* practical support in establishing partnerships in workplaces;

* support for a network of organisations learning from each other about successful partnerships; and

* research and policy development that promotes partnership at work.

The announcement was accompanied by the publishing of TUC research showing that companies that recognise unions and practice partnership with them perform better in their own terms.

The report, A boost to business, containing research, drawn from the government-sponsored Workplace Employment Relations Survey, shows that partnership companies are ahead of average on both financial performance and productivity.

TUC general secretary John Monks said the study showed that "unions can be a boost to business." But he added that "partnership is no easy process. It takes new skills and new attitudes from unions and managers. This is where the TUC's Partnership Institute will come in."