The decline of collective industrial relations has shifted the focus of industrial relations research to the study of individual employment disputes. In this article, we investigate whether employer-initiated workplace voice is associated with improved resolution of individual complaints or grievances workers make against employers. We find that our measure of workplace voice is associated with less serious problems, more informal methods of dispute resolution, more satisfactory outcomes for workers and lower quit rates. However, these findings need to be set against generally low rates of satisfactory dispute resolution for all employees in our sample.

This article is a response to a critique of our paper, ‘De-collectivization and employment problems: the experiences of minority ethnic workers seeking help through Citizens Advice’, published in this journal in 2012. We feel the author misunderstands the main tenet of the paper (the paucity of individual employment advice and a growing crisis for workers’ rights with the decline in collective union representation) and makes quite strident allegations attacking the methods we used to gather information from our interviewees. We refute these points and particularly the author’s claim that Citizens Advice was a ‘failing organisation’ – indeed our article concluded by making the case that more money should be invested in organisations such as Citizens Advice to provide employment advice.

This article draws on a study of the experiences of (primarily non-unionized) minority ethnic workers in seeking advice and support for employment problems in the context of the de-collectivization of employment relations in Britain. It focuses on one of the main recourses identified in the research, the Citizens Advice Bureau, its relationship with community organizations and with trade unions. Workers' testimonies about their experiences of help with workplace grievances are supplemented with views of advice providers, community-based organizations and trade unionists. Findings illuminate the specific experiences of minority ethnic workers, as well as similarities with majority ethnic non-unionized workers and highlight the paucity of individual employment advice and a growing crisis for workers' rights with the decline in collective union representation.

What is the lived experience of routine wage labour? Why does it matter? In the mid-1970s, Miriam Glucksmann/Ruth Cavendish, committed as a socialist and feminist and frustrated at the political isolation of academia from working class life, went to find out. She worked in a factory, and while not originally intending to write about it, ended up producing a rich ethnography:Women on the Line. Why was it important, and does it remain so? In the preface toThe Making of the English Working Class, E. P. Thompson explained his choice of title: “Making, because it is the study in an active process, which owes as much to agency as to conditioning.” It is this interaction between agency and structure that is important to understanding how consciousness, identity, and action work—including the possibilities of challenging the status quo. Glucksmann gained the insight into what it felt like to “work on the line”; how work felt, the memories, experiences, everyday realities of her work colleagues; the control of the labour process, class and gender relations and collectivity; how wage exploitation operated; and resistance, including unionization, a dispute, division, and defeat.

Little is known about the experiences of Kurdish workers in the UK and even less about how they attempt to resolve any difficulties or problems that arise at work. In part, this is due to academic oversight, but it is also because Kurdish workers are difficult to identify from statistical data and thus understanding of their labour market position is largely based on anecdotal information. The paper explores these workplace experiences, highlighting the complex relationship between employment, identity, community organisation and exile politics and how these intersect and affect the behaviour of Kurdish workers. The paper draws upon 61 interviews with workers from a variety of employment backgrounds to explore the experiences of workers from this ‘invisible’ community.

This paper reports on a study of the experiences of minority ethnic workers in seeking advice and support for workplace problems. Our focus on three minority ethnic groups (Kurdish, Black Caribbean and South Asian) in three specific localities of London is unique in that it provides new micro-level qualitative data on whether or not local social networks are utilised to assist with employment problems. The research explores workers' knowledge of what employment advice is available in their localities and their experiences of seeking advice. Interviewees included community advice workers, trade unionists, lawyers and funding bodies about the extent of local employment provision. The findings show that there are few places to turn and a dearth of individual employment advice.

Young workers are concentrated in low-waged, poorly organized industries. Although poorly unionized, evidence suggests that they are positively predisposed towards unions. Most research on youth and unionization is attitudinal, however, with little evidence on the kinds of problems they face and how they respond. This article contributes findings from a British survey in 2004 of 501 low-paid, unorganized workers and focuses on two groups of young workers: those between 16 and 21 years and those aged between 22 and 29 years. It shows commonalities and contrasts between these age groups in terms of typical workplace, types of problems encountered, responses to them, including collective action, views on trade union support and likelihood to join as a result of grievances. The older group is more active individually and collectively towards resolving problems at work. Yet both youth groups are as keen, or more so, on trade union help, than the wider sample.

The majority of British workers are non-unionised. They face grievances at work alone. For the low paid among them, the main source of advice and support is the voluntary sector, in particular the Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres. This article presents findings from a survey of front-line employment advisers in Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres that show how under-funding by government at a time of rising demand from workers has affected the service they are able to provide and the quality of their own working life.

This paper is concerned with the social and spatial processes adopted by workers who face problems at work. Using interview data with minority ethnic workers in three local communities in London, the paper explores the mechanism people use to seek help and advice and what resources are available from local community organisations. Key findings suggest that many workers, both unionised and non-unionised find themselves isolated and unable to access the support they need.

Drawing on a 2004 survey of 501 low-paid, non-unionized workers with problems at work, this paper explores the types of difficulties encountered and responses to these, including expressions of collectivism. It finds that not only did most workers take action to resolve their problems, but a quarter did so collectively. However, such spontaneous collectivism did not develop into effective mobilization of power. The paper also explores workers’ views on trade unions. While most workers were broadly pro-union, this was no more likely among those who attempted collective resolutions than it was among others. The relationship between collectivism in consciousness, and action and positive attitudes to union representation, remains as complex a problem among today’s unorganized workers as ethnographic studies demonstrated several decades ago.

In the ‘Warwick Agreement’ with trade union leaders in 2004, the British government pledged support for ‘vulnerable workers’ and developed this policy in 2006. However, there is no policy acknowledgement that weak collective organization is the cause of worker vulnerability. This article is based on a definition of vulnerability as non-unionism and low pay and presents findings based on in-depth interviews with low-paid, non-unionized workers with employment grievances who approached the major British charity providing free advice, the Citizens Advice Bureau. This is framed in a contemporaneous survey of 500 low-paid, non-unionized workers with problems at work, which provides data on the kinds of problems experienced, responses to them and the pattern of outcomes for such workers. The study found a very low level of successful resolution. The significance of the qualitative evidence is that it illuminates the lived experience of isolation and poor resolution among workers seeking external help.

This article investigates the experience of low paid workers without union representation. It reports on the findings of a recent survey of 501 low paid, non-unionized workers who experienced problems at work. The results demonstrate that problems at work are widespread and, despite a strong propensity to take action to try to resolve them, most workers failed to achieve satisfactory resolutions. In the light of these results, we argue that the current UK Government definition of vulnerability is too narrow because our results suggest that a large proportion of low paid, unrepresented workers are at risk of being denied their employment rights. Therefore we question the ability of the UK's current system of predominantly non-unionized employment relations to deliver employment rights effectively and fairly.

Journal Article Union Decline, Minority Ethnic Workers and Employment Advice in Local Communities Get access Jane Holgate, Jane Holgate Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University j.holgate@londonmet.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Janroj Keles, Janroj Keles Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University j.keles@londonmet.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Anna Pollert Anna Pollert Bristol Business School, University of West of England anna.pollert@uwe.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Industrial Law Journal, Volume 38, Issue 4, December 2009, Pages 412–416, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwp023 Published: 01 December 2009