Inside the workplace

Findings from the 2004 workplace employment relations survey

Barbara Kersley, Carmen Alpin, John Forth, Alex Bryson, Helen Bewley, Gill Dix, Sarah Oxenbridge, Routledge, 388 pages, paperback, £23.99

This book is for anyone with an interest in the contemporary British workplace.

It is based on an analysis of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), the fifth in a series of surveys conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, and the Policy Studies Institute.

It describes industrial relations and employment practices across most sectors of the British economy and is based on extensive research, including interviews with managers and worker representatives in over 3,000 workplaces and over 20,000 employee questionnaires.

As well as providing contemporary analysis, the book also looks at how the workplace has changed by drawing comparisons with the previous 1997/8 survey.

All of the book's contents are relevant to trade unionists with chapters on a range of issues such as employment relations, equal opportunities, work-life balance, and workplace conflict.

The results show unions making progress in larger workplaces but as would be expected encountering more difficulties with recruitment and organisation in small, private sector workplaces (see September's Labour Research).