Private Equity in the UK: Job Regulation and Trade Unions

Abstract

Private equity represents a ‘new actor’ in the British business system with the capacity to have a significant impact on industrial relations. However, while private equity and its associated business model appear as significant factors in corporate governance and industrial relations, neither the sector nor the business model has been evaluated theoretically or empirically. Indeed, for the UK at firm level the ways in which business strategy and job regulation are shaped by private equity are unclear other than by references made to institutional configuration in the business system — short-termism. This article outlines what private equity is, details its associated business model, describes how the sector affects workers and summarizes how trade unions have responded to the private equity business model.