Partnership agreement adoption and survival in the British private and public sectors

Abstract

This article assesses the adoption and survival of labour-management partnership agreements in Britain. In contrast to predictions that British employers will avoid partnership agreements, significantly more agreements have been signed than expected with 248 partnership agreements signed between 1990 and 2007. Partnership agreements covered almost ten percent of all British employees in 2007 and one-third of public sector employees. The majority of agreements are now in the public sector as part of government plans to reform the delivery of public services and in the devolved health services of Scotland and Wales as part of the potentially distinctive social democratic approach adopted by the devolved Governments. In contrast to predictions that, once signed, partnership agreements are unlikely to survive, four-fifths (80 percent) of all agreements survived to the close of 2007. Public sector agreements appear particularly robust.