Hybrid Working and Union Membership; Does Working from Home Undermine Union Power?

This study assesses the effect of hybrid working on union membership. The investigation focuses on whether the provision of hybrid work arrangements at the workplace, in and of itself, exerts an influence on workplace social norms, or if its significance stems from individual experiences of hybrid working, or a combination of the two. The analysis is based on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) for the period between 2010 and early2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that the provision of working from home arrangements have an adverse effect on union membership, irrespective of individuals’ decision to work from home regularly or not. The effect is driven by the trade unions’ inability both to recruit new members and to retain existing ones. A plausible pathway for this may be that hybrid working arrangements erode trade-union social customs at the workplace and weaken social unity, thus undermining trade-union’s ability to organise the workforce.