MAPPING OUT PARTNERSHIP

Projects receiving government funding for increasing partnership at work show that unions and employers are taking a step-by-step approach to co-operation. And job security, initially a top priority for partnership deals, is not on the menu.

Although the theme of "partnership" at work is strongly pushed by government, TUC and a number of unions, many are still unclear what it really means. Successful applications for the government's Partnership Fund, which is designed to encourage partnership initiatives, give an insight at least as to how the government views it.

Union support for partnership partly reflects an aspiration to be treated as equal partner in decisions about the future of the companies and organisations that union members work for. Among the hoped-for concrete benefits are training and job security, along with something less tangible - a new relationship with employers based on trust.

For management, on the other hand, partnership policy implies unions taking a higher degree of responsibility for the success of the business or service being provided.

One of 36 organisations to share in the first release of grants from the government's Partnership Fund, announced by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in March (see Labour Research April 2000, p5) was British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) Fuels Group at Springfields near Preston. Dick Anyon, engineering convenor and member of the AEEU engineers' and electricians' union, told Labour Research: "Our tradition says 'keep the last card up your sleeve', but if you carry on with that approach you won't work effectively in partnership".

A total of £5 million is available through the Partnership Fund over a four-year period, to be matched with equivalent funds by successful applicants. The 36 winners in the first round share £1.2 million, an average of £33,000 each, with a maximum of £50,000 of public money per application.

While BNFL more widely has attracted a lot of unfavourable publicity recently, the AEEU points out that one of the fruits of a partnership approach has been a dramatic fall in lost-time accidents at the Springfields site. A lot of work on "behavioural safety" has been done at senior management-union level over a number of years, and partnership funding will be used to extend this sort of approach. The union was fully involved in making the application to the DTI scheme.

Around half of the 36 successful bids are for specific projects at workplace or employer level, designed to "foster partnership and address directly related training, development and business issues". The rest are projects for the promotion of partnership principles and best practice, so-called "dissemination projects" (see box).

A look at the workplace-level projects provides a snapshot of what is actually being done under the partnership heading in the year 2000. They are dominated by schemes supporting very specific initiatives, like employee consultation and representation, training and health and safety, rather than partnership in general.

Surprisingly, job security as an issue seems to be largely absent from the list. Even more worryingly, from the point of view of unions, a few of the approved projects have no trade union involvement.

One of the projects that are based on unionised workplaces is at House of Hardy, a 100-year old fishing tackle manufacturer based at Alnwick near Tyneside. A new management team there sees employee involvement as a means to make the changes demanded to a more competitive environment and diversification into other product areas. Money from the partnership fund will be used to pay for employees to participate in "problem solving" groups.

Managing director Richard Maudslay told Labour Research that traditionally the workforce had "not been asked for their input" but that a more open approach was being adopted. With this had come increased training and other changes such as a new health and safety policy. T&G general union shop stewards at the company say there is now more dialogue and employee involvement.

Training is also a feature of a successful bid for funding at Northern Foods. This time it will be for employee representatives and managers involved in a new communication and consultation structure at the company, which employs 22,000 at workplaces in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands

The company's response to European works council regulations was to introduce a "broader based" approach involving an "employee communication and consultation forum" at each of its operating companies. These will bring together elected employee representatives and senior management to discuss strategic issues, and will also provide candidates for the Northern Foods Forum (the European works council). The plan has been fully negotiated with the unions (USDAW, BFAWU, TGWU, GMB and SIPTU).

A project to develop a new management style and increase staff involvement at Wolverhampton Health Care NHS Trust is seen as building a potential model for partnership in the rest of the health service. It has been helped along by the introduction of a staff-side representative on the trust's board since November.

The project, put forward by the trust, public services union UNISON and the NHS Executive, aims to explore what partnership in the NHS would "look like", develop a training package to encourage an "open and participative" leadership style, and identify the "behaviours and practices" that need to change to accommodate partnership.

Investment in job-related training is another common theme among the successful applications. One example is small construction firm Branlow, based in Warrington, which has been working on the development of new construction-related NVQ (national vocational qualification) standards and is currently co-operating with Business Link Warrington on developing a "world class" approach.

Others include Bridgenorth-based Lawson Mardon Star, which also has a project involving NVQ take-up, and food manufacturer Kears Group, which has a project focusing on "rewarding excellence". Approved applications also include a project to provide "confidential advisers" for staff experiencing bullying or harassment, put forward by UNISON at South Tees Acute Hospitals Trust.

But while most projects have either got union participation or are endorsed by unions, a number are going ahead with no union involvement.

The largest of these is at restaurant chain Pizza Express, which employs almost 6,000 staff scattered across 230 UK outlets (and some in Ireland). Pizza Express will be using partnership funding to help launch an "employee forum". Nick Taylor, group human resources director, told Labour Research that the company needed to improve communications between management and staff, but also has its eye on legal developments relating to works councils and union recognition.

The plan is for every restaurant to elect a representative, and they will be able to raise local issues at eight-weekly local meetings. There will be area and regional reps, who may eventually develop their skills and become the "first point of contact" for advice on employment and legal issues, and also national meetings. According to Taylor, Pizza Express hopes the new representative scheme will not develop into a union (on the basis that staff won't feel they need additional "external" help) but he acknowledged that it is impossible to predict "where it will end up in five years' time".

T&G regional industrial organiser Dave Turnbull told Labour Research that he had approached Pizza Express some time ago for an informal meeting to discuss individual representation on grievance and disciplinary cases, but the company had declined to meet the union. But the inclusion of non-union schemes in the first round of partnership funding does not appear to fit with statutory union recognition rights just around the corner.

The focus on particular aspects of employer-employee relations in many of the approved projects, rather than an over-arching partnership approach, may simply be a reflection of the comparatively small sums of money involved. On the other hand, it may indicate that employers and unions find it easier to make progress on a step by step basis, and comments made by some of the participants seem to support this. The second round of bidding for money from the Partnership Fund will accept projects to implement "family friendly" policies and this can only add to the diversity of "partnership" developments.

Successful "dissemination" projects

The AEEU union will receive money from the fund to promote the "practical value of partnership" while the BFAWU bakers' union has joined forces with British Bakeries, arbitration and conciliation service ACAS and the TUC to create a UK-wide partnership forum.

The Community and Youth Workers Union is working with Sefton Borough Council and the Red Cross to improve employment practice and partnership in the voluntary youth work sector. And steel union ISTC, together with Corus (formerly British Steel), is organising workshops aimed at developing lifelong learning strategies. Print and paper union GPMU and the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) are promoting the benefits of an existing Training and Development Charter.

The TUC has won three separate applications covering regional partnership conferences (with the Engineering Employers' Federation and the Bristol Chamber of Commerce), an educational project for those implementing partnership, and case studies showing how partnership can improve health and safety and reduce injury and illness rates (with the CBI). The Scottish Trades Union Congress has won funding for a project based on five West of Scotland further education colleges.

Other successful projects for the promotion of partnership include a website by the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), an initiative on employee ownership and "stake-holding" (Employee Ownership Scotland), and one by the Humberside Training and Enterprise Council.

Successful voluntary sector applications included one from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, and a joint project looking at the balance between work and home by the Daycare Trust, Maternity Alliance and New Ways to Work. Nottingham County Council won funding for a project to stimulate employee involvement through theatre.