A recent trend among some employers is to performance manage workers through technologies that continually monitor and assess their ability to meet targets. Gareth Murphy, who is Head of Industrial Relations and Campaigns at the Financial Services Union and also a PhD student at Queen's Business School, discovered that these technologies are increasingly popular among employers in modern banking.

Performance management is becoming increasingly more pervasive and more intrusive. For example, many employers are shifting from traditional annual performance assessments to continuous day-to-day evaluations.

Research by Professor Niall Cullinane and Gareth Murphy looked at how trade unions can develop alternatives to improve or replace these performance management technologies in the banking sector across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Previous research published by the International Labour Organization has shown that performance management technologies may harm workers by intensifying their work and causing work-related stress due to increased surveillance and the elimination of job autonomy.

While there is some research on the impact of performance management on workers, Gareth and Niall found little existing scholarship on the relationship between performance management and trade unions. Their research sought to discover how unions might challenge and moderate employers' use of such practices in the workplace to ensure greater fairness for workers.

Understanding the Research

The research, published in the ABS3* journal New Technology, World and Employment, drew on fieldwork in a major retail Irish bank: an industry first mover in adopting performance management technologies. The research involved interviews with union and employer representatives at the company and branch level, 166 documents regarding performance management, a union survey of 679 members and a virtual focus group with 167 union members in the bank.

Gareth and Niall found widespread discontent among employees with the performance management practices used at the bank. They also found that the employer unilaterally designed and implemented the performance management system without workforce consultation or negotiation. Gareth and Niall concluded that the union could utilise employee discontent as a source of leverage in opening negotiations with the employer to reform existing practices.

The impact of the research led the union to develop a coherent position on performance management. At the same time, the research encouraged union members to resist certain aspects of performance management systems by taking up collective grievances with their employer.

Due to such actions, the employer invited the union to participate in modifying the performance management system at the bank. The subsequent resolution has since acted as a pattern setter in how the union approaches performance management in other banks in the industry.

The outcome is that the union, in several banks, engage more in designing and using performance management systems. Performance management is now a subject for collective bargaining in a way it was not before the research. Employees and their union representatives now have more voice on what performance management is and is not to be used for.

Measurable impact of the research:

1. Change of the wording of objectives in the performance management target criteria. The pre-loaded target rate of ‘attaining 100% accuracy’ in the processing of work was changed to ‘striving to achieve 100% accuracy’ in the processing of work.
2. A retail bank group’s Head of HR responded to union pressure by inviting ongoing engagement about improving performance management in the bank.

Below is a quote from one of the employer representatives, observing that the union's influence on performance management practices has grown:

"So, for quite a while, the argument was around whether we would even talk to the union. At a certain point, you get enough noise in the system that it makes sense to talk to them. As [the campaign] developed, [union] representations were around collective targets, collective representations, what the system was doing, pressure, the unfairness of processes. Unions would then have been brought in more to objectives and targets discussion because business managers felt less noise if we talk to the union. [The retail bank] might not give any credit, but it would not have happened for the union. There is an absolute union influence over performance management." (Employer Representative).

Knowledge translation and policy formulation:

Gareth and Niall also wrote a position paper for the Financial Services Union on collective bargaining and the legal system of collective bargaining in the Republic of Ireland.  The paper has changed the Financial Services Union's policy position on collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining is a process where an employer and a trade union negotiate pay and conditions of employment. The objective is to reach mutually acceptable agreements on pay and conditions like working time, leave, training, the introduction of new technology, employment, and productivity.

Measurable impact from the FSU position paper:

1. Developed into a cross-union working group with three other unions.
2. Influenced a position paper for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
3. The report led to discussions with Sinn Fein’s spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Sinn Fein is the major opposition party in the Irish parliament) about how Sinn Fein would adopt aspects of the proposed policies should they become the next government.
4. Possibly become the trade union movements position.

Sinn Féin said:

"We know instinctively that workers need the right to organise and to bargain collectively - having this piece of work means that we can back up that assertion with research and facts. This research has been useful for us in formulating policy and informing debate within the party."  (Louise O’Reilly, Sinn Féin)

The Financial Services Union said:

"The research Niall and Gareth did on collective bargaining allowed us, FSU, to publish a position paper on this crucial topic not just for us but also the wider trade union movement. Since then, it has shaped our unions campaign and influence over both the Irish Government’s High-Level Report on Collective Bargaining and on the EU Directive on Minimum Pay (which also deals with collective bargaining) through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. From this research we now have a number of unions working together to develop a cross union position on the right to join a trade union which will be used to shape the transposition of the EU Directive in Ireland and a wider organising campaign through ICTU." (John O’Connell, General Secretary, FSU)

These position papers hope to influence legislation being drawn up by the Irish government towards the end of this year. The position paper will be the negotiating position of the trade union movement.

Anticipated future measurable impact from proposed legislative changes:

1. Workers will have more legal protections to join and form a trade union.
2. Negate employer hostility toward unions.
3. Minimize worker victimization by their employers for trying to join a union.
4. Improve anti-victimization legislation.
5. Statutory rights for union reps to have the right to attend training.
6. The right for union reps to hold meetings with co-workers.
7. Workers will have the right to talk about contracts and pay with co-workers.

Link to the position paper: https://www.fsunion.org/collective-bargaining

 

Gareth Murphy

PhD Research student