Working with Trade Unions
Serco employs over 45 000 people on more than 600 contracts. Given those numbers, you might expect a complex if not difficult Industrial Relations arena. However, Serco enjoys very productive and effective long working partnership with unions and employees across the vast majority of the sites and projects in which the business operates. We are a very long way from an old-fashioned adversarial approach to trade unions engagement, preferring to work closely with the unions to establish effective partnerships for the benefit of employees, the business and our customers. Because our contracts are wide-ranging and varied, the exact ways in which we consult and negotiate are best developed locally. At over 60% of our UK operating businesses we have some kind of collective consultation and participation forum. Meanwhile, 35% of our employees across all sectors of the business are covered by formal recognition agreements with trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining – almost double the average figure for the UK private sector. We have over 80 recognition agreements with over 20 trade unions in the UK.
In fact Serco are currently working with a number of unions to significantly improve their involvement in strategic issues which impact our business. We work with RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and UNITE in the rail industry in particular. We also recognise UNITE in other divisions such as Serco Integrated Services and Serco Defence, Science and Technology. Prospect is also recognised within Serco Defence Science and Technology. Amicus has a strong presence in our Serco Integrated Services division. The PSU union is recognised within Serco Civil Government. Quite significant in IR terms is that due to our efforts on workforce communication, engagement and collaboration at all levels we have successfully avoided significant IR unrest and industrial action over the the last 10 years.