Reflections on the Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy, 1975–1977, Chaired by Alan Bullock

The Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy, 1975–77 (chair: Alan Bullock) was established to explore the Trades Union Congress’s proposals for board-level workers’ representation, which it saw as a means to locate workers’ interests within corporate strategy. Two issues emerged in the committee’s work: the macro division of class and ideology chiefly between union and union-sympathizing advocates of worker directors on the one hand, and business and business-sympathizing opponents on the other hand; and the micro division within the trade-union movement over worker directors. Two reports were published: the Majority Report recommended that one-third of company directors be elected, on a statutory basis, by union members employed in the company, whereas the Minority Report proposed the establishment, on a voluntary basis, of below-board committees elected by all workers. The Labour government did not accept the Majority Report and its White Paper proposed a diluted version of the Minority Report. There was no attempt to legislate. Comparing the Bullock Committee with the Low Pay Commission (of which he was the first chair) reinforced a central tenet of Bain’s experience of industrial relations, which is that meaningful redistribution of authority from employers to workers has only ever been achieved in the UK with a level of government support that is sufficient to override business opposition.