|
The UK’s work-life balance: the limits of employer policies and legal regulation? |
|
|
|
Written by Gary Daniels and Steve French
|
|
Tuesday, 09 May 2006 |
|
In this feature, we report the main findings from the latest annual survey on flexible working and work-life balance in the UK. The survey finds that a “long hours culture” persists in the UK and that legal regulation and a range of employer policies appear to have had little impact upon this.
Gary Daniels and Steve French, Centre for Industrial Relations
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Sound of Silence |
|
|
|
Written by Alex Bryson
|
|
Saturday, 06 May 2006 |
|
Willman, P., Bryson, A. and Gomez, R. (2006) ‘The Sound of Silence: Which Employers Choose ‘no voice’ and why?’, Socio-Economic Review, 4: 283-299 Whether employees have ‘voice’ at work is determined, in large part, by employers’ decisions as to whether to adopt a ‘voice’ regime. In Britain during the 1980s and 1990s, the employer’s decision was largely unconstrained by the law. Under these conditions, we argue that whether an employer adopts a voice regime turns on employers’ perceptions of the net benefits of worker voice to the firm. This is confirmed in empirical analyses which point to independent associations between ‘no voice’ and workplace size, organisational complexity, industrial sector, and workforce composition. We show that the size and composition of the ‘no voice’ sector has remained fairly constant over the past two decades.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Slivers-of-Time Working: a new form of Flexible Working |
|
|
|
Written by Wingham Rowan
|
|
Wednesday, 26 April 2006 |
|
Slivers-of-Time Working is a new contribution to the flexible working debate. Only now viable because of the complex technology required, it allows individuals to sell their "spare hours" around other commitments to local employers who need ad hoc top-up workers.There are millions of people in the UK who need to find work around other commitments (eg childcare, medical constraints, existing part-time work, caring for a dependant adult, job-seeking, studying or starting their own enterprise.)There are many employers who would like access to a pool of local individuals willing to work odd hours to cover peaks in demand or absences. If those workers could show they were reliable it would become worthwhile paying for their induction so their skilled time could be bought from that point on.This is a highly complex market, but one that is desperately needed by workers, employers and recruitment agencies (who currently find it uneconomic to deal with truly flexible bookings). Currently the best way for employers and workers to meet this need is often in the informal economy.Such a market can only be made truly safe, enticing and cost effective if it is based on the Internet. It requires technology way beyond the simple listings found on job-boards or auction sites. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have funded a Slivers-of-Time pilot marketplace in East London. It is currently in testing mode but looking to expand to other parts of the UK where there are funds being spent on local work by local people.This new way of working offers a radical proposition for unions. It is an infinitely more worker friendly way for companies to engage an ad-hoc workforce than US style "Workforce Management" tools. These are driven by employer need and work most effectively for the biggest corporates. If Slivers-of-Time Working is embraced by unions as an alternative they could add enormous value by underpinning worker conditions, perhaps in return for a micro-payment within each booking.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Seven years on -- the UK minimum wage |
|
|
|
Written by Deborah Littman
|
|
Friday, 21 April 2006 |
|
When the UK minimum wage came into force in 1999, the rate was set at £3.60 an hour. The trade union movement argued at the time that this was too low to make a significant impact on poverty pay, while the business community claimed that the minimum wage would price workers out of the market and drive small businesses to the brink of extinction.
The same debate is now taking place in other countries, such as Germany and Israel. This article examines the evidence on the impact of the minimum wage on jobs, youth employment and the economy. It also looks at the relationship between the minimum wage and the living wage.
A full set of additional references and links are provided so that readers can pursue various elements of the debate.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Regulating Work-life Balance |
|
|
|
Written by Gary Daniels and Steve French
|
|
Saturday, 08 April 2006 |
|
In this feature we discuss the growth of ‘work-life balance’ policies within the context of British employment relations. Recognising structural changes to the UK labour market, such as growing female labour market participation and intensification of competition, which have dramatically changed the market relations upon which labour is hired, we seek to place the work-life balance debate within the context of managerial relations and employee voice.
After a brief overview of current research into the work-life balance, we highlight the need to locate this debate within a framework of the study of employment relations. We argue that the current focus upon stress, ill-health, ‘negative spill-over’, and gender inequalities need to be rooted within an analysis of the problems of enforcing external forms of job regulation and of the decline in bilateral internal job regulation.
Our analysis is based on the 2005 ’24-7 work-life balance survey’, run by the Work-life Balance Centre (Leicester), Keele and Sheffield Universities. This was an Internet survey which ran between 8th September and 31st October 2005, and received 1,654 responses. The research findings focus upon the awareness, application and enforcement of the existing Working Time Regulations, as well as the availability, utilisation and perceived effectiveness of employer policies in the area of work-life balance.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
| Results 19 - 27 of 27 |