UK labour relations will benefit from US example

A more radical and innovative approach to labour relations by UK contractors and unions is called for in a new report prepared by one of construction’s leading independent consultants.

It suggests that the domestic industry can learn valuable lessons from the “massive ingenuity” displayed by the electrical contracting sector in New York in formulating its industrial relations policy.

The report looks at the development of the Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Industry (JIBEI) in New York. It was commissioned by the body’s UK counterpart, the electrical contracting Joint Industry Board (JIB). It may have a wider significance at a time when the engineering construction industry, for example, is re-writing its own national agreement on terms and conditions of employment.

The report concludes that the US board has “managed to generate regulations, policies and practices, which more successfully bind its membership to compliance with its working rules than is the case in the UK.”

In particular, it suggests that the UK industry might learn some lessons from the New York board’s requirements that:

■ all labour should be recruited through the JIB;

■ employer associations must meet the debts of members defaulting on benefit payments, etc.

The research paper was compiled by Ivor Williams. He is the author of the original report, which introduced the concept of partnering to this country, an architect of engineering construction’s NAECI agreement.

The New York board was formed by employers and unions in 1941 after a period of industrial strife. It is financed by a percentage levy on the gross payroll of contractor members. It regulates employment conditions, but is equally involved in a vast range of benefits.

The parties have a no-strike agreement, with a disputes conciliation and binding arbitration procedure. There have been only two incidents of industrial action in the board’s history. A productivity deal encourages new methods and positive teamwork. There are strict limits on overtime, plus work sharing provisions in times of high unemployment.

[Contract Journal, 25 October 2006, p 6]