Research conducted earlier this year by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and consultants Harvey Nash demonstrated that throughout the recession, employers and employees have shown an unprecedented willingness to cooperate in an attempt to avoid job losses. But will this culture of collaboration survive beyond the recession?

According to the CBI, it will. In a press release published in November, the organisation stated: “The CBI believes the spirit of collaboration that forged these changes remains strong and marks a permanent change that will benefit the UK’s labour market flexibility beyond the recession”.

The extent of this collaboration was very widespread in 2009. Recent research reported by Personnel Today indicated that over half of the UK’s working population took some form of action to help their employers weather the storm of the recession.

Some of the steps that workers have been prepared to take in order to safeguard their jobs and assist their employers have included short-time working and pay freezes.

In fact, pay freezes have been prevalent this year. For the first time in its 25-year history, the IRS’s pay databank has recorded a pay freeze as the median pay award in 2009.

However, IRS pay expert Sarah Welfare cautioned that employees may not be so content to settle for a pay freeze once signs of economic recovery start to become evident.

She warned that, “employers still finding business difficult next year will nevertheless be under pressure from employees who accepted pay freezes as a ‘one off’ in 2009 and will not be happy to accept another one in 2010. The psychology of pay negotiations in 2010 will be interesting.”

Technorati Tags: Employment Law