Revisiting voluntarism: Private voluntary regulation by Employer Forums in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The abstract contributes to the literature by identifying a new form of voluntarism, the employer-led voluntarism of Employer Forums in the United Kingdom. Forums carry out private voluntary regulation to raise labour and social standards within their member firms through introducing codes of conducts and implementing norms through assessments, benchmarking, and certification. The article compares this new form with the traditional approach where unions and employer associations regulate jointly through collective bargaining. While the scope, scale, and impact of new and traditional voluntarism diverge, both are underpinned by the regulation of Employment Relations by non-state actors. Voluntarism is not in secular decline, but instead continues through the emergence of new employer-led forms.

The motivation and engagement of student volunteers in volunteerism at the University of Gondar

“…Moreover, the study outlined that encountering real-life situations in a particular professional area is valuable to students, and the acknowledgment of this work on their curriculum vitae is a significant underlying factor in their participation in volunteer work. Similarly, Demougin et al [10] suggest that, in a study of university students in the United Kingdom, the opportunity to increase employability was the main reason for some participants' first becoming involved in volunteering. In the influential Irish report entitled "Lending a Hand," Sidder [37] draws attention to the idea that job and career development are not the most influential motivations for volunteering among youth participants.…”

Resilient or declining? An institutional analysis of employer associations and their implications for companies in the European Union

“…This regulation is entirely unilateral on the part of member companies and is supported in sectors that are highly exposed to public opinion and keen to maintain a positive image with the final consumer. Some other sectors have lacked incentives to implement these internal codes of fair treatment in industrial relations (Demougin et al, 2021).…”

“…Notwithstanding the above, employer associations (EAs) have been the subject of far less literature than unions (Barry and Wilkinson, 2011; Brandl and Lehr, 2019: 933; Demougin et al, 2019: 2). Even so, this has been changing recently, as there has been a substantial growth in EA research over the last few years (Bergamante et al, 2020; Brandl and Lehr, 2019; Croucher et al, 2006; Demougin et al, 2021; Gooberman and Hauptmeier, 2022; Gooberman et al, 2018, 2019b; Sánchez-Mosquera, 2022; Sheldon et al, 2016, 2019; Silvia and Schroeder, 2007).…”

City regions and decent work: Politics, pluralism and policy making in Greater Manchester

“…employers and worker representatives negotiating directly), in many cases bargaining takes place in the 'shadow of hierarchy' where social partners are strongly incentivised to self-regulate to avoid further state intervention in the form of legal regulation and stronger penalties for non-compliance (Meyer, 2013). In contrast, business interests in the UK are less well organised at both national and local level, and instead rely on permissive employment rulemaking without much in the way of a state mandate (see Demougin et al, 2021). Therefore, individual employers are less likely to respond uniformly to either market signals or government policy signals promoting employment equality, representation and inclusion.…”