Sectoral Bargaining: The First 100 Years — and Beyond?

The article combines an empirical historical overview of sectoral bargaining with a legal analysis of the post-1994 legislative framework for sectoral bargaining. The empirical evidence provides strong indications that deindustrialisation and the burgeoning services sector are undermining industrial unionism and the system of sectoral bargaining, with the exception of centralised bargaining in the public service. The legal analysis builds on this assessment by highlighting the 1995 Labour Relations Act’s failure, although aiming to promote sectoral bargaining, to take account of the changes emerging in the labour market in its provisions for collective bargaining. While subsequent amendments have sought to catch up with labour market developments and shore up the bargaining council system in the private sector, they have fallen short. The root of the problem is the failure to provide a mechanism to include non-standard employees and other marginalised workers in the collective bargaining system, either via existing unions or by allowing scope for their organisations to participate in collective bargaining. The article ends by proposing some guidelines for a social dialogue process that would extend the reach of sectoral bargaining.