The promotion and prospects of partnership at Inland Revenue Employer and union hand in hand?

It has been argued that previous studies have often failed to locate the debate about partnership sufficiently within an historical, political and economic context, that they have given inadequate consideration to the workplace and the significance of internal union processes, and have sown confusion over the definition of partnership (e.g. Kelly 2001; Whitston 2001; McBride and Stirling 2002). This chapter aims to take these criticisms into account through a study of the historical development of partnership between union and employer at Inland Revenue. In doing so it considers the evolution of the union’s approach to industrial relations from its consensual traditions, through the Thatcher era, to the post-1997 period of Labour government.