ABSTRACT
Britain has had a slow growth rate since the end of World War II, with just over 2 per cent per annum, the lowest in western Europe, along with a chronic balance of payments problem, which affected and was in turn influenced by, the fact that sterling was a world currency. The Labour government brought in an incomes policy with union support which later crumbled, and legislation about industrial disputes which they later withdrew. The Labour government attempted to bring in reforms designed to inhibit unofficial strikes through fines and by setting up a Commission of Industrial Relations, to provide legislation on unfair dismissals, to register collective agreements and to review trade union rules. There was a revival of interest in industrial democracy in the 1960s, partly as a militant left-wing leadership came into power in some unions who recognised the growing power of shop stewards and saw an opportunity to create ‘democracy on the shop floor’.
