Work/life balance and trade unions – Evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2011

To inform debate following the passage of the 2016 Trade Union Act the TUC commissioned UCL/NIESR to undertake a three-pronged investigation into the nature of unions and their effects on employers and employees:

• a review of existing literature on union effects
• new analyses of the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (WERS) on issues such as wages, training and workplace performance
• a more detailed investigation of the links between unionisation and work/life balance(WLB).

This report focuses on the third element, a detailed investigation of the links between unionisation and WLB based on new analyses of the 2011 WERS.