Nick Clark
Position
Employment Relations Senior Research Fellow
Background/Career
Nick has been active at all levels of the trade union movement, beginning as a shop steward, then national negotiator, in a packaging multinational (1978-1983). Following this he carried out research at the Labour Research Department (1983-87) and print union SOGAT (later the GPMU). Moving to the TUC in 1994, he led a project to engage UK unions in establishing European Works Councils, going on to develop the TUC’s work on migrant workers.
In 2003, he was seconded as a Visiting Fellow to Corpus Christi College, Oxford to conduct a programme of study on Migrant Workers and Trade Unions. He represented the TUC on the board of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority from its formation in April 2005 until January 2009.
In 2005, he took up a policy post in the General Secretary’s office at the Public & Commercial Services Union, before joining WLRI in April 2009.
Research interests and expertise
Trade unions and politics, collective bargaining, European Works Councils, temporary agency work, organisation of migrant workers, privatisation and restructuring.
Contact details
Working Lives Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
31 Jewry Street
London EC3N 2EY
Tel: 020 7320 3019
e-mail:
n.clark@londonmet.ac.uk
Publications
Book Chapters
2007
European Union enlargement, workers and migration: implications for trade unions in the United Kingdom a3019nd Poland, (with Jane Hardy) in Trade union responses to globalization: A review by the Global Union Research Network, (ed. Verena Schmidt); ILO and GURN, Geneva; ISBN 978-92-2-119860-4
2004
Migrant workers employment rights, (with Alison Balchin), in The Newcomers Handbook; CESI, first edition; ISBN 1-870563-74-3
2002
Relationship between EWC members, with the workforce, and with the trade unions (with Sean Bamford) in European Works Councils - cases of good practice; CC.OO, Alpha Conseil, FNV Formaat & TUC. Report of an international "study circles" project involving a group of EWC members from four countries, funded by the European Commission
Booklets
1997
European Works Councils - what will the opt-in mean? (TUC)
1985
Sick Pay, a Negotiators’ Guide (LRD)
1986
Part Time Workers (LRD)
Reports
2006
Building a stronger union - is merger the way forward for PCS? (PCS) Analysis of pros and cons of merger with Prospect, in the context of mergers in the wider TU movement.
2004
'Propping up rural and small town Britain: migrant workers from the new Europe’ TUC. Published to coincide with a major TUC conference on migration. Showed that of those migrant workers who have registered with the Home Office, more than 40 per cent of those from the new accession countries to the EU are working in rural areas, mainly in food processing, hospitality and agriculture. The report stresses the need for improved protection for them. ISBN: 1 85006 724 4
Gone West: Ukrainians at Work in the UK (with Stepan Shakhno) TUC Examines experience of Ukrainian workers in UK, the economic position in Ukraine, and the legal and economic context in Britain
ISBN: 1 85006 701 5
2003
Overworked, Underpaid and Over Here, TUC. Shows how the lack of legal protection for migrant workers is giving the green light to unscrupulous gangmasters to exploit foreign workers. Calls on the Government to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families. ISBN: 1 85006 681 7
1985
Sheffield Jobs Audit (with Roger Critchley, Roger Kline, Dave Hall& Dexter Whitfield) Compared the approach of Sheffield City Council, who were investing in public sector employment, with that of Dudley, who were following an orthodox monetarist approach. Sheffield City Council Department of Economic Development, 1985.
Papers
2007
NEW EU MEMBERS? Migrant Workers' Challenges and Opportunities to UK Trades Unions: a Polish and Lithuanian Case Study, (with Bridget Anderson & Violetta Parutis) A COMPAS report written for the Trades Union Congress, analysing questionnaire survey of migrant workers. Showed typical problems faced (including with housing), types of employer, and migrants’ attitudes to trade union membership.
www.tuc.org.uk/extras/migrantchallenges.pdf
1987
From Productivity to Flexibility. Based on a questionnaire survey of 140 trade unionists first published in
Bargaining Report 56 (November 1986) and presented at "From Productivity Deals to Flexibility at Work" conference at University of Warwick, 15th December 1986. Published in the conference proceedings, Ed. Peter Fairbrother. ISBN 0 947829 06 7
