With the spending review due to be announced this week and last week’s announcements of quangos to be closed down sparking talk of a ‘quango bonfire’, union action is expected over government cuts – but how soon and in which sectors remains to be seen.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 10 October) the TUC will hold a rally and lobby of Parliament to protest against the Government’s planned cuts in public sector spending and employment.

At the same time international law firm DLA Piper will release a research study that measures the current temperature of employee relations in the UK. The company has asked 507 organisations, 75% of which were public sector, to see where attitudes towards employee relations currently lie. Well over half (61%) were employers of over 250 people and just over half, 53%, were London based.

There is likely to be a need for HR to feel confident working with unions, particularly in the public sector where action is more likely. The research from DLA Piper will look at how common disputes are in the business community and how far business leaders feel government should intervene with potentially damaging industrial action in key sectors, as well as how likely the leaders feel industrial unrest is to happen in their sector.