Contemporary workplace occupations in Britain: Motivations, stimuli, dynamics and outcomes

In: Employee relations, Band 33, Heft 6, S. 607-623

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the more militant response of a minority of workers to collective redundancy and restructuring in Britain since 2007.Design/methodology/approachThe paper deploys secondary sources to develop a series of grounded micro‐factors to help explain the presence and absence of the deployment of the occupation tactic.FindingsSome headway is made in explaining why only a limited number of occupations took place against redundancy and restructuring.Practical implicationsThe method of occupation was not shown to be as effective as might have been thought in opposing redundancies.Social implicationsThese concern union strategies and tactics for resistance to redundancy and restructuring.Originality/valueThe paper provides a grounded explanation of the phenomenon and incidence of worker occupations against collective redundancy and closure.