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Trade union membership, tenure and the level of job insecurity

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Abstract

Recently there have been suggestions that job insecurity is on the increase. Two factors which may explain this are the reduced role of the trade unions and increasing flexibility in the labour market with an associated reduction in the proportion of workers in permanent fulltime employment. For the first time the relationship between trade union membership, tenure and the workers perception of job insecurity is examined using British data (drawn from the 1986/7 Social Change and Economic Life Initiative). Econometric evidence supports in part the view that while job insecurity encourages workers to join trade unions, overall trade unions tend to increase job security and also suggests that there is a strong relationship between tenure and job insecurity.
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... Unions can protect workers from job losses, leading to a higher feeling of security (e.g. Bender and Sloane, 1999;Anderson and Pontusson, 2007). Given insecure labour market conditions and the perception of job security by unionized employees, the following hypothesis is proposed: ...
... This finding is not new (cf. Anderson and Pontusson, 2007;Bender and Sloane, 1999) but provides corroboration in the Australian workforce, and in the context of growing insecure work. Notwithstanding, union members were reported to have more negative assessments of work prospects and suggested to have higher standards for what constitutes an "acceptable job" (Anderson and Pontusson, 2007). ...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study job attitudes between unionized and non-unionized employees in Australia as recent research on attitudes among unionized employees has centred on topics such as attitudes towards unionization and involvement, but not on work-related attitudes. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a data set of over 5,000 responses from the Australia at Work survey. Ten attitudinal survey questions adapted from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes were used to compare work-related attitudinal differences between unionized and non-unionized employees. Findings Findings show that unionized employees perceive less manager–employee consultation, health and safety, dispensability, time flexibility, workload flexibility, managerial trust, fair treatment and pay equity. Originality/value Not much is known about the attitudinal differences between unionized and non-unionized employees, given the paucity of research on unionist job attitudes. Recent research in this area has centred on employee attitudes towards unionization and involvement as opposed to studying work-related attitudes. The findings can help the management predict behavioural responses between unionized and non-unionized employees for improved decision making.
... According to Weiling (2001), job security is the likelihood of keeping a job until the person decides otherwise, or it can be measured in terms of unemployment prospect. In some surveys, respondents are asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement "My job is secure" (Bender & Sloane, 1999). However, this type of question may lead the respondents to consider the wider implications of insecurity, such as the stability of their employment conditions (Burchell et al., 1999). ...
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Paid work is of fundamental importance in modern societies. For individuals, it serves not only to provide them with a means of financial income but also plays an important role in determining social status and prestige. Based on a quantitative study of 141 bank employees, this paper empirically explores the predictors and consequences of job insecurity components among bank employees in Malaysia. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of job security satisfaction in predicting organizational commitment and job performance among bank employees in Malaysia. Furthermore, the study explores the contribution of certain demographic variables such as monthly income, age, marital status, education level, job level, tenure in present job and tenure in present organization, as well as organizational factors such as an organization's activity and training for explaining variations in the levels of satisfaction with job security among individuals. This study suggests that the relationships between job security satisfaction and both organizational commitment and job performance should provide managers with valuable information for developing plans to inspire and retain organizational commitment and to enhance employees' performance.
... Endast ett fåtal studier har undersökt hur anställningsotrygghet kan påverka fackliga organisationer. Anställningsotrygghet kan vara ett skäl att gå med i facket för att uppnå ett bättre skydd i turbulenta tider (Bender & Sloane 1999). Men det kan också upplevas som att facket inte förmått skydda ens trygghet i anställningen (Mellor 1992). ...
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Anställningsotrygghet – en oro för att mot sin vilja förlora jobbet – är något som de flesta anställda idag upplever under sina yrkesliv. Den beteendevetenskapliga forskningen inom detta område har skjutit fart sedan millennieskiftet, vilket motiverar behovet av en uppdaterad litteraturöversikt. Översikten omfattar prediktorer och konsekvenser av anställningsotrygghet samt vilka faktorer som har identifierats som viktiga när det gäller att mildra anställningsotrygghetens konsekvenser.
... A third aim of this study is to provide further evidence on the determinants of job insecurity. Whereas the influence of workplace characteristics and the state of the external labour market have been analysed in previous research (Bender and Sloane, 1999; Green et al., 2000), the institutional framework has been ignored. Although there is some empirical evidence on the relationship between EPL and employment and job mobility (Sousa-Poza and Henneberger, 2004), I am not aware of studies that document the relationship between EPL and job insecurity. ...
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In most European countries, there is some evidence that jobs became, and to an even greater extent were perceived to have become, increasingly insecure in the 1990s. In Switzerland, where unemployment has long been far lower than the European average, unemployment increased in the same period. Yet in general, job stability has remained remarkably constant in the past decade, and instability far below the European average. Only with regard to voluntary job-to-job mobility can a significant increase in the second half of the 1990s be observed; involuntary turnover has actually decreased. As Switzerland is a small, open economy with weak union power and employment protection legislation, this article casts doubts on the extent to which exposure to globalization can influence job instability. Instead, consensus- and stability-oriented industrial relations and management practices, as well as the state of the external labour market, appear to shape both job stability and security.
... In order to offset this bargaining disadvantage—and the insecurity that comes with it—there is a clear interest in being part of a larger countervailing power notwithstanding the wage compression that this entails (Galbraith, 1956). In effect, Bender and Sloane (1999) showed that unionized workers feel more secure in their jobs and Anderson and Pontusson (2007) find that the social protection measures that unions fight for effectively reduce employment insecurity. It is also important to note that Acemoglu and Pischke (1999) found that unionization and wage coordination are associated with higher levels of training. ...
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