Performance‐related pay and trade union membership

Discusses how an earlier article in this journal (Vol. 19 No. 3) examined the extent to which the spread of individual performance‐related pay (IPRP) and was associated with trade union derecognition. Builds on that analysis and uses the same set of data to examine whether this kind of payment system is associated with trade union disorganization, with the detachment of employees from union membership. Concludes that, while there is some evidence of IPRP leading to a reduced identification with trade unionism among employees, there is countervailing evidence of a fresh demand for union protection where IPRP is introduced. Case studies from local government, however, suggest that local union representatives have been ill‐equipped to meet this demand and have failed to exploit a diffuse sense of grievance about the operation of performance pay among local authority workers.