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One seemingly incontestable fact about British industrial relations over the last quarter century is the decentralisation of private sector collective bargaining from multi-employer level to the level of the enterprise, division, or plant. This article explores what is often seen to be a deviant case, namely the electrical contracting industry, where multi-employer national bargaining is claimed to have remained strong. This resilience would seem to be despite the fact that, on a priori grounds, given industrial structure and work organisation, multi-employer bargaining would seem unlikely in this industry. The first part of the paper briefly outlines the wider context of collective bargaining trends in British industry. In the second section, the development of collective bargaining arrangements in electrical contracting is outlined. The third section then investigates recent developments and the degree to which arrangements in the industry have deviated from the rest of the private sector. In the final section explanations are offered and implications are explored. The industry''s bargaining arrangements are seen as having some positive outcomes in terms of the regulation of self-employment, employee benefits, and training.

This article examines the attempt to revive apprenticeship training in Britain in the 1990s. Traditionally apprenticeship had been the main formal method of training for manual workers and the principal means whereby intermediate skills were formed. However, from the late 1960s, apprenticeship training had declined. During the 1980s employers did little to sustain apprenticeships, and the Conservative government was suspicious of a form of training which it associated with trade unions. From the early 1980s, there was a growing discussion as to how far Britain lagged behind major competitors in terms of skill formation, especially at the intermediate level. In a significant change in policy in autumn 1993 the then Conservative government announced the Modern Apprenticeship. The first section of the article provides some definitions and a framework of analysis. The second section puts apprenticeship training into an historical and comparative context. In the next two sections the design and operation of the Modern Apprenticeship are considered. Finally conclusions are drawn and policy implications are considered.