The Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS) series was designed to contribute to a better understanding of the processes which underlie employment relationships by making available for the first time large, systematic and dispassionate evidence about a broad range of industrial relations and employment practices across almost every sector of the economy. The main areas covered in the survey include: basic establishment data for industrial relations; union organisation; bargaining structure; procedures; payment methods; industrial action; the introduction of technical and organisational change and a variety of other factors.