SURVEY: Research shows union-management co-operation results in greater employee flexibility and better business performance, Padraig Yeates reports.

Almost 80 per cent of companies with union-management partnerships in the workplace reported a greater willingness on the part of union members to embrace change, according to a major survey by the former director of the National Centre for Partnership Mr John O'Dowd.

Sixty-five per cent of companies surveyed said workplace partnerships had had a beneficial impact on business performance

General employee willingness to give greater flexibility rose by 71 per cent, suggesting that bringing unions on board may yield higher results than where they are excluded.

The survey covered human resource managers in 88 major companies, employing 126,000 people. Most of them were in manufacturing. The rate of unionisation ranged from 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

It was the most extensive survey of its type ever undertaken in the Republic. All the companies were identified by Mr O'Dowd as operating some level of workplace partnership. Most were large, foreign concerns, and 65 per cent employed over 250 people.

While 51 per cent of companies described trust levels between management and unions as "low" and only 18 per cent described them as "high", this had not prevented both sides adopting a partnership approach. In 55 per cent of companies the initiative had come jointly from unions and management.

Despite frequent criticism from union leaders that employers have little interest in workplace partnership, management had initiated the process in 37 per cent of the workplaces surveyed, compared with unions seizing the initiative in only 8 per cent. Alternatively, it could be argued that these were companies with the most positive approach to partnership to start with.

Mr O'Dowd, who is also a former general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, said the findings indicated managers "regard partnership as having made a positive contribution to management-union relationships, to the quality of collective bargaining as well as to company performance".

It also indicated that "a strong business case" for workplace partnership existed alongside whatever ideological arguments its advocates might wish to advance.

The survey was conducted as part of a doctoral study through the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business in UCD. Significantly, 74 per cent of respondents said they had commenced partnership between 1997 and 1999, sugesting that workplace partnership has increased dramatically since similar previous studies.

The survey did not include union representatives, mainly for practical reasons, such as the high turnover of shop stewards in many firms. Despite low trust levels, 28 per cent of HR managers described the quality of relations with unions as "high" or "very high", compared with 25 per cent describing them as "low" or "very low". This suggests that traditional collective bargaining is alive and well, but not geared to tackle many of the modern problems confronting industry.

This is borne out by managers' perceptions that collective bargaining is a much better mechanism for tackling traditional problems, such as pay, conditions and grievances, than for dealing with organisational change. Twenty-seven per cent of managers rated collective bargaining as "very low" and 40 per cent as "low" as a process for managing change. Only 10 per cent of managers rated it highly and a mere 3 per cent rated it "very high".

However, 19 per cent of managers said the effectiveness of collective bargaining had improved "significantly" as a result of partnership, and 57 per cent said it had improved "somewhat". The remaining 24 per cent rated the situation as "just the same" and none said it had worsened.

The incidence of industrial relations grievances raised with management had increased slightly in some companies, possibly reflecting more opportunities to raise issues in the new structures. On the other hand, managers found that employees and their unions were much more willing to embrace change with the new structures.

Employee flexibility was rated as "much higher" by 20 per cent of managers and "slightly higher" by 51 per cent. Twenty-seven per cent saw no obvious change and only 2 per cent described it as "slightly lower". None said it was "much lower".

Twenty-five per cent of managers said union members' support for change was "much higher" under partnership and 54 per cent said it was "slightly higher".

Only 20 per cent reported no obvious impact by partnership. One per cent said union support for change was "slightly lower" and none rated it "much lower".

Sixteen per cent of managers rated productivity "much higher" and 56 per cent said it was "slightly higher". Only 25 per cent saw no change; 4 per cent said it was "slightly lower" and none said it was "much lower".

Business performance was "much higher" according to 12 per cent of managers, and "slightly higher" according to 53 per cent. There was "no obvious effect" according to 34 per cent of managers and it was "slightly lower" for 1 per cent.

None rated business performance as "much lower" under the partnership regime.