The majority of workers in the UK are unorganised. There has been a steady decline in union membership among those in employment from 29% in 1995 to 26.2% in 2005 and among employees, from 32.6% to 29% (DTI, 2006). Approximately 70% of employees are not unionised, and two thirds have no collective bargaining coverage. Yet very little is known about how this majority of workers experience work, or
... [Show full abstract] deal with problems. The ESRC Project, The Unorganised Worker, Problems at Work, Routes to Support and Views on Representation, provides the first survey-based study of how non-unionised workers deal with problems at work. This was achieved by a telephone survey of a sample of 500 workers who were currently employed, or had been at some time in the past three years; were not unionised; earned at or below the median wage in their region and had experienced a problem at work. Previous Working Papers 1 and 2 discuss technical, methodological and conceptual issues and describe the sample. This Working Paper addresses the types of problems experienced by Unrepresented workers in any job during the three- years previous to the survey and, in greater detail, in one screened job.
