Solution

Increase in Strike Activity and Working Days Lost

The UK industrial relations climate has witnessed sharp increase in strike activity, which is one of the most significant recent trends. More than 3.9 million working days were lost to labour disputes in the 12 months leading to May 2023, the highest since the 1980s, as recorded by the Office for National Statistics (Stone et al., 2023). However, this surge has been especially pronounced in public sector services, such as rail, healthcare, refuse collection and education. For instance, nationwide rail strikes and teachers’ walkouts caused far reaching operational disruptions and frequently affected public services and customer satisfaction directly. An increased use of strike action has given employee groups and trade unions the power to negotiate better pay settlements and better working conditions. This awakens management teams to the need to take a more proactive approach in dealing with staff concerns. However, high levels of strike action can harm public confidence in vital services, as well as introduce operational uncertainty (Hughes & Dundon, 2024). If not properly managed and early intervention not considered, the newly merged organisation would suffer from lower morale among staff, service disruption and reputational harm.

Growing Use of Online Petitions

A second noticeable trend…..

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