Non-union employee representation

Abstract

Employer-sponsored non-union employee representation (NER) forums have attracted interest from human resources management practitioners, policy-makers and scholars, particularly in Anglo-Saxon liberal market contexts. NER bodies may take a wide variety of forms, constituting a potential alternative voice channel to trade unionism. Yet NER bodies remain relatively rare, perpetuating a significant representation and voice gap for most workers across the Anglo-Saxon world. Employers may have multiple reasons for introducing NER bodies: sometimes, but not always, to avoid unions. This depends on the contextual circumstances of different employers. NER bodies tend to lack independence and genuine power-sharing for mutual gains because they are management controlled. This is unlikely to change in the current political economy context, which provides limited scope for employee participation in workplace governance. Fresh thinking about alternative models of industrial democracy is required.

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