Collective bargaining covers 35 per cent

Almost 8.5 million people - 35% of employees - have their pay determined by collective bargaining, according to an analysis of the Labour Force Survey in the journal Labour Market Trends. The figure is not directly comparable with those for previous years.

The coverage of bargaining varies across industries in a similar pattern to union density. But the likelihood is affected dramatically by the size of the workplace, particularly in the private sector, where only 10% of establishments with fewer than 25 employees have bargaining compared with 31% of those with 25 employees or more.

Just under half of all employees said that someone at their place of work was a union member. A question previously asked - on whether there was a recognised union at the workplace - has been dropped.