Board talk

The Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry (JIB) was formed in 1968 by the forerunner bodies of what are now the ECA and the AEEU. It was created specifically to improve the very poor industrial relations climate which existed at that time and do so through industrial partnership.

Over the years, the JIB has encouraged long-term agreements designed to prevent annual wage confrontations. It oversees training and apprenticeship and it grades operatives. The JIB also provides a system for dealing with disputes and a package of welfare, health and safety agreements and benefits.

While the aims, objectives and structures of the JIB have remained largely unchanged over a generation, much has altered in the electrical sector. Not everyone in the ECA appreciates the JIB. Some grumble about it, or regard it as a relic of a 1960s era of corporatism which has long since passed.

Some see it as a heavy on-cost (although the total cost of the organisation is very modest for such a high value technological industry). Others point to the mechanical sector of the m&e industry which does not have a JIB but does have a national wage agreement with a trade union (the MSF).

The JIB was well aware of these criticisms. At its conference in Harrogate in 1996 it sought to meet them with a wide ranging programme of potential reforms and changes. However, the Board can only proceed at the pace of its member organisations. There was considerable hesitation by some members when reports were given to them after the conference. Subsequent progress was disappointing.

However, the problems did not go away. The industry continued to change and face new pressures. It was increasingly obvious that the JIB must again look at its methods of working and the content of its agreement.

We also believed that soundings should be taken with other organisations to see if they were interested in a joint m&e agreement

As a related but separate issue, there was growing pressure from members of the Joint Major Contractors Group of the ECA/HVCA for an agreement which would relate to mechanical as well as electrical contracting, because their firms spanned both disciplines. There was also well publicised concern about industrial relations difficulties on certain large sites.

The 1998 JIB conference was not the venue for a further strategic review along the lines of Harrogate 1996. It was necessary to use it to explain and discuss the proposed new training scheme.

It was subsequently decided to hold an “Away Day” for the National Board of the JIB in Kettering, where the vital strategic questions could be addressed again. Expert independent facilitators were retained, and over a Friday evening and Saturday last March we looked at three separate areas.

We concluded that it was necessary to update and revise the JIB agreement to meet modern conditions in the industry. We felt that the JIB’s own internal structures needed a hard look to ensure that they were lean and effective in their use of the time of employer and trade union representatives.

We also believed that soundings should be taken with other appropriate organisations to see if they were interested in a joint mechanical and electrical agreement, perhaps also including plumbing, which could be United Kingdom in scope.

The Away Day has been followed up seriously by the parties to the JIB, both in their own joint task forces and in constructive discussions, both formal and informal, with other organisations. The JIB agreed that another Away Day should take place six months later to review progress. That duly happened in mid-October, with a half day in London, with further external facilitation by the same experts who had helped us at Kettering.