Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) is a national survey of the state of employment relations and working life inside British workplaces. The purpose of WERS has been to provide large-scale, statistically reliable evidence about a broad range of industrial relations and employment practices across almost every sector of the economy in Great Britain. This evidence is collected with several objectives in mind. It aims to provide a mapping of employment relations practices in workplaces across Great Britain, monitor changes in those practices over time, inform policy development and permit an informed assessment of the effects of public policy, and bring about a greater understanding of employment relations as well as of the labour market. The Secure Access version of the WERS data for 2004 is held under SN 6712. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is one of the largest surveys of the earnings of individuals in the UK. Data on the wages, hours of work, and pensions arrangements of nearly one per cent of the working population are collected. Other variables relating to age, occupation and industrial classification are also available. The ASHE sample is drawn from National Insurance records for working individuals, and the survey forms are sent to their respective employers to complete. While limited in terms of personal characteristics compared to surveys such as the Labour Force Survey, the ASHE is useful not only because of its larger sample size, but also the responses regarding wages and hours are considered to be more accurate, since the responses are provided by employers rather than from employees themselves. The Secure Access version of the ASHE data for 2004 is held under SN 6689. The Office for National Statistics Virtual Micro-data Laboratory has created a combined WERS-ASHE dataset. These combined data were constructed by linking observations from the WERS 2004 Survey of Managers to data from the ASHE. Researchers who apply to use these data should be aware that they will only receive access to the combined data from the WERS Survey of Managers dataset and the ASHE dataset. If researchers wish to access other WERS 2004 data (i.e. the Survey of Employee Representatives, the Survey of Employees, and the Financial Performance Questionnaire data), they should also apply for SN 6712. Geographical references: postcodes The postcodes available in these data are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes are not available due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. In the dataset, the variables of the replacement postcodes are 'new_wPC' (work) and 'new_hPC' (home). Main Topics: The WERS 2004 Survey of Managers contains questions on:recruitment and trainingconsultation and communicationemployee representationpay determination and payment systemsgrievance and disciplineequal opportunitieswork-life balancehealth and safetyflexibilityestablishment performancechangeattitudes to workIn addition to the main topics covered by the WERS 2004 Survey of Managers, the dataset includes survey data from the ASHE. The ASHE contains a small number of variables relating to:wageshours of workpension arrangementsoccupation and industrial classificationsage and date of birthemployment size and legal status of employerpay setting (i.e. whether this is agreed with trade unions)