ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the scene for the detailed analysis of workplace employment relations that follows. It provides an overview of the main structural characteristics of workplaces in Britain with 25 or more employees. These include the number of employees at a workplace, the industry to which it belongs and whether the workplace is privately-or publicly-owned. Such features provide the basis for much of the discussion, scrutiny and analysis in later chapters, and an examination of them will help to ground that discussion. They help to illuminate, as well as explain, some of the variation in employment relations practices.
