Membership of trade unions has fallen to just under a third of all employees, with the sharpest decline seen in the health and construction sectors, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey.

Published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) the figures show that union membership rates fell to 31.5% in Q2 2007, continuing a trend of annual decreases that began in Q2 2003 when 37.4% of employees were union members.

-- Advertisement --

Part-time employees are far less likely to be union members than their full-time counterparts. In Q2 2007, 34.6% of full-time employees stated that they were members of a trade union, compared to just under 19% of part-time employees.

Employees who usually work 30-34 hours per week were almost 10 times more likely to be members of a trade union than those working 1-9 hours per week.

The survey also revealed that the youngest and oldest employees are the least likely to be union members.

The overall trend of decreasing union membership between Q2 2005 and Q2 2007 was reflected across all sectors.

The largest decreases were in the Health and Construction sectors, where membership rates fell by 4.1% and 3.6% respectively.

(VB/JM)