Trade Union Presence and Employer-Provided Training in Britain

Abstract

Using linked employer-employee data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS), we estimate the correlation between union presence and private sector employer-provided training in Great Britain. Our measure of union presence is workplace union recognition. We find this is positively correlated with the individual training probability for non-manual men and women and manual men (but not for manual women) and we offer some explanations for this correlation. We then investigate various avenues through which union recognition might affect training by interacting recognition with three types of bargaining institution: the closed shop, the level at which pay-bargaining takes place, and multi-unionism. We also investigate whether or not training is increased by direct negotiation between management and worker representatives.