Governance processes, labour-management partnership and employee voice in the construction of heathrow terminal 5

Industrial Law Journal

Volumn 38, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 365-389

  Deakin, Simon ^a   Koukiadaki, Aristea ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70849136676     PISSN: 03059332     EISSN: 14643669     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/indlaw/dwp022     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. B. Kersley, C. Alpin, J. Forth, A. Bryson, H. Bewley, G. Dix and S. Oxenbridge, Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (London: Routledge, 2006).
2. S. Deakin and D. H. Whittaker, 'Re-embedding the Corporation? Comparative Perspectives on Corporate Governance, Employment Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility' (2007) 15 Corporate Governance: An International Review 1.
3. For a critical review, see A. Pendleton and H. Gospel, 'Markets and Relationships: Finance, Governance, and Labour in the United Kingdom', in H. Gospel and A. Pendleton (eds), Corporate Governance and Labour Management: An International Comparison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
4. J. Armour, S. Deakin and S. Konzelmann, 'Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance' (2003) 41 British Journal of Industrial Relations 531.
5. Takeover Panel, The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, 8th edn. May 2006 and since then periodically updated, available at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
6. See Pendleton and Gospel, 'Finance, Governance and Labour', n 3 at p 62.
7. T. Edwards, 'Corporate Governance, Industrial Relations and Trends in Company-level Restructuring in Europe: Convergence towards the Anglo-American Model?' (2004) 35 Industrial Relations Journal 518, 526.
8. On the distinction between 'liberal market' and 'coordinated market systems' see P. Hall and D. Soskice, 'Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism' in P. Hall and D. Soskice (eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
9. H. Gospel and A. Pendleton, 'Finance, Corporate Governance and the Management of Labour: A Conceptual and Comparative Analysis' (2003) 41 British Journal of Industrial Relations 557, 559.
10. A. Shleifer and L. Summers, 'Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers', in A. Auerbach (ed), Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1988), pp 41-2.
11. 'Finance, Governance and Labour', n 3, p 79.
12. However, the authors (ibid) also recognise that the network of relationships between firms and major investors also provides a quick and effective means for investors to force changes on management when a firm is in difficulty.
13. S. Deakin, R. Hobbs, S. Konzelmann and F. Wilkinson, 'Anglo-American Corporate Governance and the Employment Relationship: A Case to Answer?' (2006) 4 Socio-Economic Review 155.
14. Ibid p 171.
15. Ibid p 157.
16. See Pendleton and Gospel, 'Finance, Management and Labour', n 3.
17. See J. Rogers and W. Streeck (eds), Works Councils: Consultation, Representation and Cooperation in Industrial Relations (Chicago, IL: Russell Sage Foundation, 1995).
18. Lord Wedderburn, The Worker and the Law, 3rd ed (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), ch 4.
19. D. Guest and R. Peccei, 'Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage' (2001) 37 British Journal of Industrial Relations 367.
20. See M. Terry, 'Can "Partnership" Reverse the Decline of British Trade Unions?' (2003) 17 Work, Employment and Society 459, 463.
21. G. Dietz, 'Partnership and the Development of Trust in British Workplaces' (2004) 14 Human Resource Management Journal 5
22. D. Guest, W. Brown, R. Peccei and K. Huxley, 'Does Partnership at Work Increase Trust? An Analysis Based on the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey' (2008) 39 Industrial Relations Journal 124.
23. M. Hall, A. Broughton, M. Carley and K. Sisson, Works Councils for the UK? Assessing the Impact of the EU Employee Consultation Directive (London: Eclipse Group, 2002), p 27.
24. Information and Consultation Regulations 2004, SI 2004/3426.
25. Directive 2002/14/EC.
26. See P. Davies and M. Freedland, Towards a Flexible Labour Market: Labour Legislation and Regulation since the 1990s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp 150-9.
27. See Rogers and Streeck, Works Councils, n 17.
28. D. Grimshaw, M. Marchington, J. Rubery and H. Willmott, 'Introduction: Fragmenting Work across Organisational Boundaries', in M. Marchington, D. Grimshaw, J. Rubery and H. Willmott (eds), Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organisational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
29. M. Marchingto n, J. Rubery and F. L. Cooke, 'Prospects for Worker Voice across Organisational Boundaries', in ibid p 244.
30. Legislation imposes information and consultation requirements in respect of certain events, such as impending redundancies (Ch II, Part IV of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992), as amended) and transfers of undertakings (The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, SI2006/246) and in respect of multinational companies through the European Works Council model (Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, SI 1999/3323).
31. R. Stake, 'Case Studies', in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000).
32. Eleven interviews took place between autumn 2006 and spring 2008 on the basis of a common template covering the general industrial relations background to the T5 project, and the origins, operation and impact of the MPA and SPA. Their length was between one and three hours.
33. Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Construction Statistics Annual 2007 (London: The Stationery Office, 2007).
34. See Kersley et al, Inside the Workplace, n 1, pp 110, 119.
35. H. Gospel and J. Druker, 'The Survival of National Bargaining in the Electrical Contracting Industry: A Deviant Case?' (1998) 36 British Journal of Industrial Relations 249.
36. B. Flyvbjerg, N. Bruzelius and W. Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
37. The second phase is due to open in 2011.
38. See generally, S. Doherty, Heathrow's T5: History in the Making (Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, 2008).
39. Construction Taskforce, Rethinking Construction: The Report of the Construction Task Force (London: Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998).
40. T. Brady, A. Davies, D. Gann and H. Rush, 'Learning to Manage Megaprojects: The Case of BAA and Heathrow Terminal 5, Programme Project and Risk Management' (2008) 29 Project Perspectives 32, 35.
41. Ibid p 34.
42. A. Wolstenholme, I. Fugeman and F. Hammond, 'Heathrow Terminal 5: Delivery Strategy' (2008) 161 Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering 10, 11.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid p 10.
46. C. Wolmar, 'Project Management at Heathrow Terminal 5' (2006) Public Finance, April.
47. Wolstenholme et al, 'Heathrow Terminal 5: Delivery Strategy', n 41, p 12.
48. Doherty, Heathrow's T5, n 37, p 237.
49. Wolstenholme et al, 'Heathrow Terminal 5: Delivery Strategy', n 41, p 13.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid, p 14.
52. On diversity issues at T5, see L. Clarke and M. Gribling, 'Obstacles to Diversity in Construction: The Example of Heathrow Terminal 5' (2008) 26 Construction Management and Economics 1055.
53. They are separate in the sense that in the continental tradition there is a clearer separation between negotiation through collective bargaining, which is the domain of the trade union at sector level, and information/consultation, which is the domain of the works council (in the German-influenced systems) or enterprise committee (in the French-influenced ones) at enterprise level. These distinctions have been blurred since the 1980s by, for example, the expansion of works councils' negotiating powers, in Germany, and by the enactment of legal duties to bargain, with a corresponding increase in the role of trade unions, at firm-level in France, but they remain important: See the essays in Rogers and Streeck, Works Councils, n 17.
54. See Davies and Freedland, Towards a Flexible Labour Market, n 25, pp 137-9.
55. MPA, cl. 1.4.
56. MPA, cl. 11.2.
57. MPA, cl. 11.3.
58. MPA, cl. 12.4.
59. SPA, Appendix 3; this provision was also contained in the MPA, cl. 15, 'Efficient use of working time'.
60. S. Brawley, 'This Time It's Terminal' (2004) October Electrical & Mechanical Contractor 41.
61. MPA, cl. 20.
62. The identities of the interview respondents and their companies have been anonymised.
63. Two lives were lost, against an expectation of six deaths for a project of this size. In terms of major injuries, T5's record was three times better than the industry average (Doherty, Heathrow's T5, n 37, p 112). In employee surveys, more than 75% of the workforce felt that T5 was the safest site they had worked on and more than 60% thought it was a good place to work (ibid p 106).
64. Doherty (ibid p 208) reports that 'while coming very close to disputes on a few occasions, with the most militant being the mechanical and electrical workforce, there was ultimately a T5 strike for seven days among the civil engineering workforce'.
65. Baker Mallett, A Study of the Implementation of the Major Projects Agreement on the BAA Terminal 5 Programme (Stockton-on-Tees: Baker Mallett, 2005).
66. Ibid p 4.
67. Ibid p 5.
68. Ibid pp 6 and 7.
69. Ibid pp 12 and 13.
70. Ibid p 15.
71. Ibid p 17.
72. Ibid p 18.
73. Ibid p 19.
74. Ibid p 20.
75. Baker Mallett, BAA Heathrow Terminal 5 Programme - The Major Projects Agreement (Stockton-on-Tees: Baker Mallett, 2008), p 16.
76. National Audit Office, Case Studies: Improving Public Services through Better Construction (London: The Stationery Office, 2005).
77. T. Kochan and S. Rubinstein, 'Toward a Stakeholder Theory of the Firm: The Saturn Partnership' (2000) 11 Organization Science 367.
78. Ibid p 369.
79. R. Lane, V. Lepardo and G. Woodman, 'How to Deal with Dynamic Complexity on Long, Large Projects', in W. Sproule and S. Jansen (eds), Designing, Constructing, Maintaining, and Financing Today's Airport Projects (Reston, VA: ASCE, 2002).
80. See also C. Harty, 'Innovation in Construction: A Sociology of Technology Approach' (2005) 33 Building Research and Information 512.
81. Doherty, Heathrow's T5, n 37, p 205.
82. Deakin et al., 'Anglo-American Corporate Governance and the Employment Relationship', n 13.
83. See also N. Conway, S. Deakin, S. Konzelmann, A. Rebérioux and F. Wilkinson, 'The Influence of Stock Market Listing on Human Resource Management: Evidence for France and Britain' (2008) 46 British Journal of Industrial Relations 631.
84. Competition Commission, Airports Market Enquiry: Summary of Hearing with the Civil Aviation Authority (London: Competition Commission, 2007), p 1.
85. S. Gordon and M. Mulligan, 'Fears for Ferrovial over Burden of Debt at BAA' (2008) Financial Times, 25 March.
86. Competition Commission, Provisional Decisions on Sale of Three Airports and Other Remedies to Competition Problems (2008) Press Release, 17 December, available from http://www.competition- commission.org.uk/press_rel/2008/dec/pdf/40-08.pdf.
87. M. Mulligan and A. Sakoui, 'Ferrovial Secures £7.65bn BAA loan' (2008) Financial Times, 2 June.
88. M. Mulligan, 'Ferrovial Resigned to Divestiture' (2009) Financial Times, 19 March.
89. In November 2008, it was reported in the construction industry magazine Contract Journal that BAA was undergoing a 'major belt-tightening', which would 'usher in a new era of procurement practices', as 'the current downturn, and a change of ownership after the Ferrovial takeover, means BAA is believed to be taking a different approach [from that of the T5 Agreement], including plans to use cheaper foreign labour'. A contractor was quoted as saying, 'We've heard that BAA is considering plans to bring in workers from abroad, including Spain, for future works and paying them as little as £6 an hour. That is a million miles away from the rates established during the construction of T5 and goes against everything established on that job'. A BAA spokesman was quoted as saying in reply that there was no current proposal to source workers from Spain and that it was too early to comment on the possible resourcing strategy for Heathrow East. See 'BAA Plans to Reduce Construction Costs with Cheap Foreign Labour' (2008) Contract Journal, 12 November.
90. G. Prior, 'Electricians Denied Pay Bonanza on 2012 Work' (2008) Contract Journal, 27 February.
91. Radio 4, File on 4 (2008) 29 April;
92. B. Webster, 'Project Management at Heathrow Terminal 5' (2008) Public Finance, April.
93. Ibid.
94. J. W. Peters and M. Maynard 'Lofty Promise of Saturn Plant Runs into GM's Fiscal Reality' (2005) The New York Times, 2 December. GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 1 June 2009.