Union Membership Down According To Government's National Stats

A National Statistics publication, 'Trade Union Membership 2007' was published 31st July by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). The report, which uses information taken from the Labour Force Survey for the fourth quarter 2007, had the following key findings:

The rate of union membership (union density) for employees in the UK fell by 0.3 percentage points in 2007, down from 28.3 per cent in 2006 to 28.0 per cent. Trade union density in the UK has now fallen 4.5 percentage points since 1995.

Amongst all those in employment in the UK, union density fell from 25.6 per cent in 2006 to 25.3 per cent in 2007.

For the sixth consecutive year, a higher proportion of women than men were trade union members. Union density among women was 29.6 per cent in 2007, while for men it was 26.4 per cent.

Private sector union density fell by 0.5 percentage points to 16.1 per cent in 2007, whereas public sector union density rose 0.3 percentage points in 2007 to 59.0 per cent.

Across all sectors, just under half of UK employees (46.6 per cent) were in a workplace where a trade union was present. Over one-third of UK employees said their pay and conditions were affected by a collective agreement.

Collective agreement covered around one in five private sector employees, while in the public sector collective agreement coverage was over three and half times greater at 72.0 per cent.

The hourly earnings of union members, according to the LFS, averaged £12.74 in 2007, 15.6 per cent more than the earnings of non-members (£11.02 per hour).

Interstingly the press release does not associate the number of workplace injuries and deaths with the ratio of trade union membership within companies where such incidetns have occurred.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is responsible, in conjunction with the Office for National Statistics, for publishing the National Statistics on trade union membership.

Official government statistics on trade union membership have been collected regularly for over a century. Data based on union administrative records began in 1892; they are currently published in the annual report of the Certification Officer.

An annual question on trade union membership was introduced into the Labour Force Survey in 1989. Questions on trade union presence and recognition were added in 1993, and the question on collective agreements was introduced in 1996.

Download full report in pdf form here

Source:News Distribution Service

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