Unionised workplaces

Amid the range of not-so-comforting statistics about union membership comes one piece of good news: the proportion of unionised workplaces with shop stewards in place has remained stable in the last seven years.

The 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) — the largest study available looking at these issues — reveals that some 27% of unionised workplaces had on-site union representatives in 2011 compared with the 26% found in the last equivalent survey in 2004.

And although slightly fewer workplaces had recognised unions than in 2004 —21% compared with 24% — the survey authors found that this was “not a statistically significant change”.

The proportion of employees who work in a union-recognised workplace did not alter over the period. However, the proportion of workplaces with any union member present shrank from 29% to 23%.