The bitter recent history of employee involvement at Royal Mail: An aggressive management agenda versus resilient workplace unionism

Abstract

Focused on a large, diverse branch of the British postal workers' trade union, workplace union responses to Royal Mail's employee involvement initiatives are examined through a two-stage longitudinal case study. Royal Mail -the letters section of the British postal service -has carried out a series of managerialist experiments with employee involvement and participation in the last few decades, providing the basis for an important research literature on union and worker responses to new management initiatives, participation and HRM. Findings suggest that these management initiatives and union responses have mutated over time, with an ever-growing gap between management rhetoric associated with employee involvement and increasingly punitive management practice; and with changing but relatively resilient, oppositional workplace union responses. These developments are closely related to the entrenched, confrontational nature of Royal Mail industrial relations that has persisted since the mid-1980s.

Public sector restructuring and the re‐regulation of industrial relations: the three‐decade project of privatisation, liberalisation and marketisation in Royal Mail

“…The 1997-99 research is discussed elsewhere (Beale, 2003) and was followed up with 20 interviews with 23 participants from the same region in 2009-10 ( Beale and Mustchin, 2014). This large branch was deemed to be broadly representative of the national context as its geographical spread contained both rural and urban areas and largely reflected the national politics of the union.…”

“…These initiatives, as with new management practices since the 1990s (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Darlington, 1993;Martinez Lucio et al, 2000a), were perceived as attempts to strengthen identification with the employer rather than the union and a precursor to privatisation, tensions that were integral to the dynamics of industrial relations in Royal Mail since the early 1990s. These initiatives, as with new management practices since the 1990s (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Darlington, 1993;Martinez Lucio et al, 2000a), were perceived as attempts to strengthen identification with the employer rather than the union and a precursor to privatisation, tensions that were integral to the dynamics of industrial relations in Royal Mail since the early 1990s.…”

“…In Royal Mail, two decades of state-driven marketisation of the sector (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Darlington, 1993;Gall, 2003;Martinez Lucio et al, 1997) building up to eventual privatisation have embedded these changes in an employer once relatively insulated from such market pressures. In Royal Mail, two decades of state-driven marketisation of the sector (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Darlington, 1993;Gall, 2003;Martinez Lucio et al, 1997) building up to eventual privatisation have embedded these changes in an employer once relatively insulated from such market pressures.…”

“…Nationalisation and privatisation remain contested forms of ownership, as seen with the Labour Party's 2017 election commitment to bring Royal Mail back into public ownership; therefore, more research on the characteristics and nature of industrial relations in organisations under different forms of ownership is required. From the late 1980s, industrial relations in Royal Mail became increasingly conflictual (Darlington, 1993;Gall, 2003), wide-ranging human resource management interventions were introduced (Beale, 2003;Martinez Lucio et al, 1997;2000a;2000b), followed by liberalisation and active state promotion of competition since 2006 (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Beirne, 2013), and ultimately, privatisation through share divestment. Batstone et al, 1984).…”

“…Batstone et al, 1984). From the late 1980s, industrial relations in Royal Mail became increasingly conflictual (Darlington, 1993;Gall, 2003), wide-ranging human resource management interventions were introduced (Beale, 2003;Martinez Lucio et al, 1997;2000a;2000b), followed by liberalisation and active state promotion of competition since 2006 (Beale and Mustchin, 2014;Beirne, 2013), and ultimately, privatisation through share divestment. These developments have impacted markedly on work and the labour process, but union influence, particularly at the level of the workplace, has remained comparatively strong in Royal Mail.…”