Disability and Trade Union Membership in the UK

Presented by Melanie Jones

In this session I will present early findings from analysis of data from two national surveys, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey and the Workplace Employment Relations Survey, exploring the disability gap in union membership in the UK. Disabled employees are found to be 4 percentage points (16%) more likely to be union members than non-disabled employees after controlling for differences in other personal, job-related and workplace characteristics. We explore whether this reflects differences in the actual or perceived benefits to membership. The latter is confirmed, with disabled employees expressing more positive perceptions of union effectiveness than their non-disabled counterparts. In contrast, we find no evidence of differences in outcomes as measured by differences in disability-related inequality between members and non-members.

This seminar is part of the Cardiff WISERD Lunchtime Seminar series. If you are an external guest, please email us WISERD.Events@cardiff.ac.uk to confirm availability of places.