tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/zero-hour-contracts-13632/articlesZero-hour contracts – The Conversation2020-11-26T17:07:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1509142020-11-26T17:07:59Z2020-11-26T17:07:59ZSpending review: key workers on zero-hours contracts overlooked again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371593/original/file-20201126-23-zat4az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=291%2C0%2C6418%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cleanerhospital-cleaningcleaner-mop-uniform-cleaning-hall-1279052104">Silarock/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To deal with the “economic emergency” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a series of measures at the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/spending-review-2020-the-experts-react-150875">spending review</a> to try and stabilise the economy. One of the central pillars of the review focused on jobs and help for low-paid workers – with an increase in the national living wage or minimum wage from April 2021 of 19p to £8.91 an hour. </p>
<p>While these may sound like positives, the announcement did not deal with any of the deep-rooted structural issues around low-paid employment in the UK. In particular, those workers on <a href="https://theconversation.com/zero-hour-contracts-take-a-huge-mental-and-physical-toll-poor-eating-habits-lack-of-sleep-and-relationship-problems-119703">zero-hours</a> and highly variable short-hours contracts, whose employment is uncertain and precarious. </p>
<p>This seems very shortsighted given the fact that many people on zero-hours contracts are “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision">key workers</a>” – employed in the care sector, retail and cleaning. And these are jobs that have proved to be vital to keep the country going in the face of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Zero-hours contracts have become a prominent and permanent feature of the labour market in the UK. Under these types of contracts, employers are not obliged to provide any minimum working hours, and the worker does not have to accept any work offered. </p>
<h2>Zero job security</h2>
<p>It’s estimated that prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, close to 1 million workers were employed on a zero-hours contract in their <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/february2020/relateddata?:uri=employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/february2020/relateddata&page=2">main job</a>. And this is a <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/emp17peopleinemploymentonzerohourscontracts">figure that has risen</a> throughout the pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/business/research/research-centres/forgotten-workers/">Our research</a> is the first UK study to focus on workers in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-low-pay-workforce-when-seven-jobs-just-isnt-enough-106979">multiple low-paid jobs</a>. And we were surprised and alarmed to find a number with four, five, six and even seven different jobs.</p>
<p>We interviewed 50 low-paid workers in multiple employment in the regions of Yorkshire and the north-east of England. We found 21 were employed on zero-hours contracts, with a further eight retail workers employed on highly variable short-hours contracts. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man working in kebab shop, wearing hair net, gloves and mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371597/original/file-20201126-21-1g11131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zero-hours work is marked by low pay, irregular hours and job instability.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/restaurant-workers-wears-mask-on-his-1677160312">Abed Rahim Khatib/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In terms of education, 12 of these workers had A-levels, nine had degrees and three even had master’s degrees. All of these workers had multiple jobs and zero-hours contact work due to low-wages, insufficient working hours and insecure employment. </p>
<p>Workers we interviewed on zero-hours contracts could work from zero to 60 hours a week. Similarly, those employed in the retail sector could work from as few as four, six, eight or ten hours a week, right up to more than 40 hours. Many felt pressurised into accepting any hours offered, as they feared that turning down shifts would mean that they would not be offered anymore work – as one interviewee, Jack, explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You wait in all day for a phone call. You have no guarantee of an income whatsoever. You could essentially be sacked at any time – [management] just don’t have to give you any hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many struggled financially due to irregular hours and spoke of “panicking” and “scrambling” to acquire sufficient hours to make ends meet. Ella who has three zero-hours contact jobs – two in education and one in social services – told us how challenging this can be: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s no transparency around who gets what hours. You are pitted against a pool of other employees who want those hours as well – they all want as much as possible. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Finding ‘good work’</h2>
<p>It wasn’t that long ago that we were all being encouraged to <a href="https://clapforourcarers.co.uk/">clap for carers</a> and speaking about how we wanted the world to change for the better after the pandemic. This dream of a more sustainable economy should not be forgotten in favour of continuation of low paid and insecure employment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="'Thank you keyworkers' written in large chalk letters on wall in front of houses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371599/original/file-20201126-17-1iuplop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Let’s not forget about the people who have kept this country running.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/welling-kent-uk-5th-april-2020-1695136891">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>This comes at a time of increased focus as to what <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-getting-rid-of-shit-jobs-and-the-metric-of-productivity-can-combat-climate-change-123541">good work</a> or a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262335410_The_quality_of_employment_and_decent_work_Definitions_Methodologies_and_ongoing_debates">good job</a> should actually look like. For an employer, this could mean paying the real living wage, guaranteeing working hours, offering training and career development opportunities and supporting people’s work-life balance. And from the employee’s perspective, fair treatment at work along with guaranteed working hours and pay would go a long way. </p>
<p>All of the workers we interviewed wanted employment stability and security, with better pay and good terms and conditions of employment. Many sought standard employment of “one decent full-time job” with stable hours. Control over working time was also a key issue – to have guaranteed working hours and flexibility to spend quality time with family and friends. </p>
<p>Employment security and income stability would mean that these key workers would not have to constantly worry about income, working hours and being able to pay bills. Indeed, the people we spoke with wanted dignity at work and trade union representation, which is a lot more than the 19p an hour offered in the spending review.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of people on zero-hours contracts has increased during the pandemic, but they don’t seem to figure in the chancellor’s recovery plans.Andrew Smith, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, University of BradfordJo McBride, Associate Professor (Reader) of Industrial Relations, Work and Employment, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1370372020-05-01T13:00:12Z2020-05-01T13:00:12ZCoronavirus shows key workers need better pay and protection – here’s what has to change<p>The UK government message is clear: we are all in this pandemic together. Everyone is urged to stay at home and the businesses that are losing out from lockdown have been offered significant financial assistance.</p>
<p>But the reality is that, depending on the type of job you have and the industry you work in, you will be affected very differently by the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the crisis highlights how many of society’s key workers – from carers to supermarket employees and delivery drivers – are in extremely precarious situations. Many are on zero hours contracts and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2b34269a-73f8-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca">struggle to make ends meet</a>. To paraphrase <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/all-animals-are-equal--but-some-animals-are-more-equal-than-others">George Orwell</a>, we’re all equal but some are more equal than others.</p>
<p>In many ways, the coronavirus crisis is a magnifying glass showing the depth of inequity that characterises British society. Inequality in the labour market is, in large part, due to cost cutting by businesses and deregulation of how they operate. Might now be an opportunity for the UK labour market to reform? We call for three fundamental changes to enable this.</p>
<h2>1. More core and less periphery workers</h2>
<p>The UK labour market has largely adopted the flexibility model <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10301763.1997.10722002">of core and peripheral workers</a>. Broadly speaking, core workers are deemed essential to an organisation and tend to be on permanent contracts. Peripheral workers, deemed less essential, are more likely to be on temporary contracts and brought in when needed. They are less likely to receive training and development opportunities and are more likely to have their wages cut or not have their contracts renewed. </p>
<p>This flexible model can help organisations respond to changing environments, although it tends to benefit shareholders and higher skilled temporary workers. But for each <a href="https://theconversation.com/flexible-work-how-the-gig-economy-benefits-some-more-than-others-67865">well-paid contractor who advises industry</a>, many more lower-paid gig workers face perilous precarity and, with the onset of COVID-19, life-threatening jobs. </p>
<p>Our recommendation is to convert more workers from the periphery to the core. This will demonstrate commitment to all employees, something that has been in decline over the last few decades in the drive to get more for less through precarious insecure work. </p>
<h2>2. Higher pay and protection</h2>
<p>Many gig workers are not eligible for employment protection and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/16/more-than-1m-uk-workers-denied-legal-holiday-pay-analysis">do not receive paid holiday</a> and significant numbers <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/797675/Non-compliance_and_enforcement_of_the_National_Minimum_Wage_WEB.pdf">do not even make the minimum wage</a>. We are currently running a survey of key workers that has so far found 28% are being paid below the living wage (the amount needed to pay for basic needs). This exacerbates their vulnerability and <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/020518-health-wellbeing-survey">encourages them to work when ill</a>, in order to earn vital income – <a href="https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/presenteeism-costs-twice-much-sickness-absence/">putting themselves and others at risk</a>.</p>
<p>Many of these are on the front line – care workers, food producers and deliverers – risking their own health for the benefit of those who have assurances of state furlough money. These key workers need the same level of security as employees. A universal basic income would provide all citizens with a sum of money, regardless of income, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-the-uk-needs-a-basic-income-for-all-workers-134257">would ensure protection for everyone in society</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Elevating the status of key workers</h2>
<p>If every cloud has a silver lining, then a legacy of coronavirus might well be that key workers are accorded the value they deserve. This includes the essential role played by carers, supermarket shelf stackers, bin men and delivery drivers.</p>
<p>This higher status should manifest itself through recognising, paying and protecting these workers through this crisis. That means giving them the same benefits as employees, ensuring crucially that no one is left to fall through the net. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/care-workers-owed-badge-applause-pay-rights-coronavirus">A badge</a>, as suggested by the government, is not enough.</p>
<p>The two nurses that Prime Minister Boris Johnson <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/13/uk/boris-johnson-nhs-nurses-coronavirus-scli-gbr-intl/index.html">recently thanked</a> for caring for him in intensive care were both immigrants. One is from New Zealand and the other from Portugal. This reflects the high level of diversity among key workers. A total of <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/internationalmigrationandthehealthcareworkforce/2019-08-15">23% of hospital staff</a>, 20% of agricultural workers <a href="https://www.ippr.org/blog/migrant-workers-and-coronavirus">and 40% of food production workers are migrants</a>.</p>
<p>Yet migrant workers – despite often fulfilling key worker roles – <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0950017018755653">face multiple disadvantages</a>. This is something we have witnessed through our research with Roma people, who experience the <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Supporting-Liverpool's-Roma-community%3A-an-via-of-Collins-Harrison/0a13b8b3ba97ccb172498f71314305eace505342">lowest outcomes on all measures</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, the UK government’s latest policy toward immigration is to introduce a points-based system, which would disqualify <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-employer-information/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-an-introduction-for-employers">many key workers entry to the UK</a>. Many care workers and drivers would not meet the minimum salary requirements, and food production workers would not meet the skills requirements. The fact that the UK has <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-flying-in-fruit-pickers-from-countries-in-lockdown-is-dangerous-for-everyone-136551">had to fly over fruit pickers</a> from countries in lockdown shows how dependent the country is on these essential workers.</p>
<p>When we consider the gargantuan effort to deal with the coronavirus pandemic – from new hospitals to a huge economic guarantees from the government – it shows that big changes are possible when there’s the political will to act. Plus, appreciation for the real key workers in society has never been higher, as evidenced by the regular clapping turnouts each week. </p>
<p>But the pandemic presents us with a paradox: the status and risk involved with being a key worker has been elevated, but nothing has been done to improve their pay or conditions of employment. We argue that a more equal and fair society is possible. One where the key workers that make our lives easier, safer and more manageable are treated appropriately.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Harrison is a member of the Labour Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Collins receives funding from MHCLG for the REAP project (Roma Education Aspiration Project). </span></em></p>Significant numbers of key workers barely make the minimum wage.Patricia Jolliffe, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Liverpool John Moores UniversityHelen Collins, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1257432019-11-01T14:36:09Z2019-11-01T14:36:09ZKen Loach’s new film on the gig economy tells exactly the same story as our research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298562/original/file-20191024-170449-4wlpvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C53%2C3940%2C2395&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ricky, from Sorry We Missed You.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joss Barratt/Sixteen Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ken Loach’s film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359816/">Sorry We Missed You</a>, tells the harrowing tale of Ricky, Abby and their family’s attempts to get by in a precarious world of low paid jobs and the so-called “gig economy”. </p>
<p>But how realistic is it? Can Loach’s film be accused of undue pessimism? After all, UK government ministers <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-gig-economy-damian-green-speech-holiday-minimum-wage-sick-pay-hours-a7421071.html">have applauded</a> the gig economy and the freedom and flexibility of being an “everyday entrepreneur”. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/youth-enterprise-and-precarity-or-what-is-and-what-is-wrong-with-">new study</a> by myself and employment expert <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/business-school/staff/profile/andreasgiazitzoglu.html#background">Andreas Giazitzoglu</a> investigates what we know about the gig economy, in order to get a clearer picture of what is really going on in the contemporary world of work in the UK. </p>
<p>Narrowly conceived, the gig economy means workers (as independent contractors) doing discrete, short-term tasks – or “gigs” – for companies via <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-making-the-world-a-more-complicated-place-104372">digital platforms</a> such as Deliveroo, Amazon or Uber. As <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0950017017719839">one study</a> describes them, these are “labour contracts that are as temporary as is possible for them to be”. </p>
<p>We argue that it is better to see the gig economy as part of a wider shift towards insecure forms of work. Long-term unemployment is no longer a serious social policy problem, but standard, full time, long-term employment is also much less common. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299670/original/file-20191031-187912-e8cc9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our study in illustrated form, by Dr Cheryl Reynolds, University of Huddersfield.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Cheryl Reynolds</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More and more people are churning from “one shit job to another shit job”, as Ricky puts it in Loach’s film, punctuated with periods of unemployment. And as Loach observed (in a Q&A session following a preview), Sorry We Missed You is a sequel to the 2016 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/">I, Daniel Blake</a>, which explores the degradations of the UK’s benefit system. </p>
<p>These are two sides of the same coin, as <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/book-review-poverty-and-insecurity-life-in-low-pay-no-pay-britain/">research</a> on “the low-pay, no-pay cycle” has shown. Many of these jobs are on zero-hours contracts, which although illegal across much of the EU, have boomed in the UK.</p>
<hr>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-showed-i-daniel-blake-to-people-living-with-the-benefits-system-heres-how-they-reacted-73153">We showed I, Daniel Blake to people living with the benefits system: here's how they reacted</a>
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<p>There were <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/april2018">fewer than 200,000</a> of these contracts in 2007. Ten years later, in 2017, there were over 1.8m. </p>
<p>Employers insist that workers want this “flexibility”. But <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/nearly-million-people-are-zero-hours-contracts-it%E2%80%99s-time-government-act">two-thirds</a> would prefer a fixed-hours contract. </p>
<h2>Degraded work conditions</h2>
<p>The government celebrates high levels of employment but <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105210312tf_/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/self-employed-workers-in-the-uk/2014/rep-self-employed-workers-in-the-uk-2014.html">two-thirds of employment growth</a> since the 2008 financial crash has been in self-employment or <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2019/01/Setting-the-record-straight-full-employment-report.pdf">other forms of “atypical work”</a>. Much of this self-employment appears to be bogus. Just like in Sorry We Missed You, employers designate workers as “independent contractors” to cut wage costs and employment rights</p>
<p>Investigative journalism <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/amazon-drivers-forced-deliver-200-11668823">has exposed</a> the degraded work conditions of “self-employed” delivery drivers like Ricky: intense pressure to meet delivery schedules, breaking speed limits, snatching meals on the run, urinating into plastic bottles rather than stopping, barely making the national minimum wage. </p>
<p>Even a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmworpen/847/84703.htm#_idTextAnchor003">government inquiry</a> found that “some companies are using self-employed workforces as cheap labour”, damaging workers’ well-being in order to “increase profits”.</p>
<p>If not bogus, then much self-employment is likely to be “forced”, perceived as the only alternative to being unemployed. This was typical of the “young entrepreneurs” <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017096103002">I interviewed</a> in the 1980s. </p>
<p>Held up as role models for Margaret Thatcher’s “enterprise culture”, their ambitions were, in fact, much more prosaic. Rather than go on the dole, they used the (recently re-launched) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/new-enterprise-allowance-campaign">Enterprise Allowance Scheme</a> to set up “micro-businesses” – knitting jumpers, repairing bicycles, freelance photography – keeping going by undercutting other businesses and by gross self-exploitation. Very few succeeded over the long term. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ysjwg-MnZao?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Most plodded along until, exhausted, demoralised and in debt, they closed down their businesses. Low pay is also typical of more recent forced self-employment and has been a key factor in the UK’s shift towards low paid work.</p>
<p>Across the research, we found ten things that were common to workers’ experiences of this new, insecure labour market: </p>
<ol>
<li>Modest aspirations (people were not looking to get rich quick but wanted regular work and to be able to pay the bills)</li>
<li>Lack of choice </li>
<li>Disempowerment (employers now have “disciplinary discretion” to withhold offers of work to people on zero-hours contracts)</li>
<li>Insecurity of work<br></li>
<li>Insecurity of income </li>
<li>Low pay </li>
<li>Debt </li>
<li>Exploitation </li>
<li>Self-exploitation </li>
<li>Anxiety </li>
</ol>
<p>One of the duties of critical social science is to question fashionable ideas. We should be particularly alert when comfortably placed, middle-aged politicians exhort younger people to “take up opportunities” that they themselves would never dream of going near. </p>
<p>Would government ministers be quite so <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-gig-economy-damian-green-speech-holiday-minimum-wage-sick-pay-hours-a7421071.html">“excited”</a> about the gig economy if they had to surrender their fixed salaries, paid holidays and pension schemes in favour of working a daily schedule so gruelling that toilet stops are impossible and the minimum wage cannot be earned?</p>
<p>All of us – the public who rely on the services of the gig economy just as much as the politicians who proclaim its virtues – need to wake up to the reality that, in this instance, “flexibility” is just another word for exploitation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert MacDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Flexibility is just a euphemism for exploitation.Robert MacDonald, Professor of Education and Social Justice, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1102522019-01-23T14:28:22Z2019-01-23T14:28:22ZEmployment may be at an all time high in the UK, but austerity, low pay and zero hours contracts inflict misery on millions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254815/original/file-20190121-100270-1x469bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">But that counts people working less than six hours a week on zero-hour contracts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Conservative & Unionist Party</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government has <a href="https://twitter.com/Conservatives/status/1084856517613010944">asserted</a> that “employment is at a record high” with 32.5m people in work, the highest figure since 1971. It took to Twitter to trumpet its success but failed to mention further findings from the <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/mission/">Resolution Foundation</a>, a non-partisan think tank that aims to improve living standards for those on low and middle incomes. In response, the foundation <a href="https://twitter.com/resfoundation/status/1084805715116650501">tweeted</a> that this “impressive employment record” takes place alongside the “biggest pay squeeze” in over two centuries and huge cuts to state welfare. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1084807034569138176"}"></div></p>
<p>This government narrative betrays the reality behind its statements about record employment. For many towns across the UK, high levels of unemployment are directly linked to Conservative <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/centres/chrp/spendingcuts/resources/reports-uk/">austerity</a> policies. Places such as <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157411/report.aspx?town=dundee">Dundee</a>, <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157060/report.aspx?town=middlesbrough">Middlesbrough</a>, <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157097/report.aspx?town=Preston">Preston</a> and <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157393/report.aspx?town=swansea">Swansea</a> are not experiencing the benefits that might be expected under record high employment.</p>
<h2>The public sector and austerity</h2>
<p>Take Dundee as an example, a post-industrial city <a href="https://www.insider.co.uk/news/dundee-waterfront-development-completion-date-12012176">reinventing</a> itself as a tourist destination with its new <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/about-us">V&A</a> design museum. The city is also one of Europe’s leading digital economies specialising in <a href="https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/719929/groundbreaking-9-million-gaming-research-centre-to-be-established-in-dundee/">video game design</a> – now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/30/uk-games-companies-leaving-brexit-vote-eu-workers">under threat</a> because of Brexit, according to a <a href="http://ukie.org.uk/brexit">report</a> by the industry trade body <a href="https://ukie.org.uk/">Ukie</a>.</p>
<p>A decade of austerity has had a significant effect on Dundee’s labour market. The same effect is playing out in towns in the north of England like <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157060/report.aspx?town=middlesbrough">Middlesbrough</a> and <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157097/report.aspx?town=preston">Preston</a>, which also have even higher levels of unemployment, and have seen <a href="http://www.visitmiddlesbrough.com/visitor-info/middlesbrough-history">hard manufacturing</a> decimated over the past <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/06/the-legacy-of-leaving-old-industrial-britain-to-rot-is-becoming-clear">40 years</a>. Following Wales’s post-industrial <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/timeline-welsh-economy-industrial-revolution-9482596">decline</a> in the 1960s, Swansea shifted focus to the service sector, and now also <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157097/report.aspx?town=preston">relies heavily</a> on public-sector employment. This reliance on the service sector to provide employment is a familiar story <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2ce78f36-ed2e-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4">across the UK</a>.</p>
<p>Austerity was implemented by the 2010 Tory/LibDem coalition in an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/04/george-osborne-eliminating-current-deficit-austerity-terrible-cost-hubris">unsuccessful attempt</a> to reduce the budget deficit by 2015. It saw public-sector jobs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/03/years-austerity-tide-starting-turn-public-sector-job-cuts">slashed</a> by 17%, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/10/civil-servants-pay-stagnated-decade-real-rise">led</a> to a 1% pay cap on public sector workers wages in 2010 – since <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-pay-policy-2019-20/">lifted</a> by Wales and Scotland and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44933009">in part</a> by Westminster.</p>
<p>This is significant for Dundee as more than <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/gor/2013265931/report.aspx?town=dundee">40%</a> of its employment is provided by the public sector. According to the Office of National Statics (ONS), in 2018 <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157411/report.aspx?town=Dundee">69%</a> of Dundonians were <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity">economically active</a>, as opposed to the UK average of <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157411/report.aspx?town=Dundee">78%</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254817/original/file-20190121-100261-1eyk4mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dundee’s new V&A Design Museum has lifted the city’s profile, but unemployment is still a blight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1180049866?src=gP5-ddmoJrRYk7U7El__NQ-1-39&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Towns and cities of similar sizes in Wales and the north of England also derive between <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157097/report.aspx?town=preston">39%</a> and <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157060/report.aspx?town=middlesbrough">45%</a> of employment from public services. Where reliance on public sector employment is around 40%, economic activity amongst residents is between <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157393/report.aspx?town=swansea">8%</a> and <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157060/report.aspx?town=middlesbrough">10%</a> lower than the UK average.</p>
<p>In contrast, towns of similar size in the south of England yield different results. St Albans, for example, has less than <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157227/report.aspx?town=st%20albans">18%</a> of employment provided by the public sector and nearly <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157227/report.aspx?town=st%20albans">83%</a> of residents economically active. A similar story can be found in towns like <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157289/report.aspx?town=windsor">Windsor</a> and <a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1941962882/report.aspx?town=high%20wycombe">High Wycombe</a>. This suggests that where public sector jobs provide a substantial part of a town or city’s employment, then higher unemployment can follow because of austerity. This stems from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/03/years-austerity-tide-starting-turn-public-sector-job-cuts">extensive cutting</a> of departmental budgets across public services.</p>
<p>Dundee has pinned high hopes on the service sector, tourism and creative industries to boost local employment levels. In its <a href="https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/city-plan-for-dundee-2017-2026">City Plan for Dundee 2017-2026</a> the council claims these sectors could help overcome the city’s unemployment. But life sciences and digital technology aside, the city is effectively depending on a sector with low pay and precarious working arrangements to fix its employment woes. </p>
<h2>Zero-hours contracts and the ‘employed’</h2>
<p>Being <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46264291">classed</a> as “employed” in the UK means working just one hour a week according to the ONS – regardless of how precarious that employment might be. The ONS claims that setting the bar higher could <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46264291">risk</a> missing out people who are technically economically active.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255151/original/file-20190123-135136-1sglf06.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/workers-poverty">Joseph Rowntree Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although numbers of people working <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46264291">fewer</a> than six hours per week in the UK are “low”, working such hours could not be deemed quality employment. For Dundee, poorly paid jobs or those offered on a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23573442">zero-hours contract</a> basis might “boost” the population’s economic activity on paper. But offering uncertain hours, limited rights and fluctuating earnings, they would not provide the secure, quality jobs needed to provide financial stability.</p>
<p>The financial and general job insecurity attached to zero-hours contracts is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/whats-the-problem-with-zero-hours-your-questions-answered-9306346.html">well documented</a>. They can also result in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-zero-hours-contracts-could-be-making-you-ill-77998">poor</a> physical and mental health for employees. Worryingly, these types of contracts are more commonly <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/april2018">taken up</a> by women and young people.</p>
<h2>Real solutions</h2>
<p>Dundee needs a stable and fair job economy which is underpinned by well-funded public services and the likes of <a href="https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/733758/anger-as-dundee-decommissioning-bid-ran-aground-over-water-depth/">oil rig decommissioning</a>. In 2018, the Scottish government announced the opening of its <a href="https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/">Social Security Scotland</a> office which reports say will provide <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/first-scottish-social-security-agency-will-create-1-500-jobs-9nfq9wxf7">more than 1,500</a> secure public administrative jobs in the city.</p>
<p>As for places like Middlesbrough and Preston, if the government actually <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/01/tories-northern-powerhouse-transport-system-cities-george-osborne">followed through</a> with its <a href="https://northernpowerhouse.gov.uk/">Northern Powerhouse</a> project and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/03/years-austerity-tide-starting-turn-public-sector-job-cuts">reversed</a> austerity job cuts in the public sector, that would help overcome general unemployment and improve the quality of jobs. And Wales would have benefited from a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44329668">tidal lagoon</a>, providing <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/how-swansea-bay-tidal-lagoon-12441049">construction and permanent jobs</a> to the area, had the project not been ditched by the UK government. Similarly, planned electrification of its railways to improve its dated network was also <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44168633">abandoned</a> by Westminster.</p>
<p>More broadly, the UK government should stop presenting its hollow assertions of high levels of employment “success” and look to regulate the zero-hours contracts which leave millions of workers across the country in poverty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Stuart Finlay is a member of the Scottish Green Party, NUJ Trade Union and UCU Trade Union.
He has also received funding from Strathclyde University to complete his PhD in Strathclyde Business School. </span></em></p>The government insistence of an employment success story betrays the reality of austerity job cuts and pay squeezes for manyBrian Stuart Finlay, PhD Candidate - Work, Employment and Organisation, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069792018-11-30T11:05:04Z2018-11-30T11:05:04ZThe rise of the low-pay workforce – when seven jobs just isn’t enough<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246720/original/file-20181121-161609-14pz74k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK is experiencing <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/october2018">record levels of employment</a>, with over 32m people in work. But many workers and their families <a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-britain-a-land-where-jobs-may-be-plentiful-but-are-more-and-more-precarious-87423">continue to struggle to survive financially</a> – it’s estimated 5.5m workers are paid below the <a href="https://home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2017/11/kpmg-living-wage-research-2017.html">Real Living Wage</a>, which is set at a level at which people can afford to “live”, based on the <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk">minimum income standard</a>. </p>
<p>But what’s missing from these statistics are those people who have to work in more than one low paid job to make ends meet. This is the focus of <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/business/research/research-centres/forgotten-workers/">our research</a> – which has never been conducted in the UK before. </p>
<h2>The Forgotten Workers</h2>
<p>We interviewed 50 low paid workers in multiple forms of employment in the regions of Yorkshire and North-East England. We expected to speak to workers with two or three jobs, but were surprised and alarmed to find a number with four, five, six and even seven different jobs.</p>
<p>All of the workers we spoke to had multiple jobs as they were struggling to make a living, and some made use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-the-growth-of-food-banks-matter-58000">food banks</a>. Ages ranged from late-teens to 60s and education levels varied: a minority had no qualifications, but many had NVQs, GCSEs, O-levels, A-levels, good quality degrees and even masters degrees. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247029/original/file-20181123-149335-1dlzmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A culture of low pay is trapping people in poorly paid jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The workers we interviewed were employed in cleaning, catering, the entertainment sector, the care sector, bar work, security, DIY, social services, public services, libraries, education, retail, administration, accountancy and IT services. These occupations spanned the private, public and third sectors, but a number of public sector jobs had been outsourced to private contractors due to austerity cuts. </p>
<p>In terms of employment contracts, there was a combination of full-time, part-time, agency, temporary, seasonal, term-time only, casual and zero hours. </p>
<h2>Job insecurity</h2>
<p>We believe the rise of multiple jobs is due to the creation of a deregulated “flexible” labour market. Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlighted the <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/monitoring-poverty-and-social-exclusion-2016">expansion of insecure work</a>. The TUC, which comprises the majority of the UK’s major trade unions, has also reported that only one in 40 jobs <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/labour-market-and-economic-reports/only-one-everyforty-net-jobs-recession-full-time">created since the recession is full-time</a>. </p>
<p>The workers we interviewed had to acquire additional jobs as a result of low wages, limited working hours, under-employment and job insecurity. Additional factors include the proliferation of part-time, zero hours contracts and temporary <a href="https://theconversation.com/jobs-figures-mask-bogus-self-employment-in-the-shadow-economy-58017">and casual contracts</a>. Many of the people we spoke to were experiencing job insecurity and instability, and having to work for employment agencies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246722/original/file-20181121-161609-10onmll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People are working multiple part-time, low-pay jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The workers we spoke to were also acutely aware of these issues and the associated challenges of insufficient wages and hours in order to make ends meet – as Anna, who works four jobs, two cleaning, one in catering, and one as a shop worker, explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m exhausted. I get up at 4:30 in the morning. I leave the house at 5:10 for a 6am start and 10am finish. Then I come here [to my second job] at 11am and I’ve got all day here. I finish at 4pm here, get across the water and go to my son’s and get a sandwich or something and then go to my next job. </p>
<p>That one is five nights a week and it’s a very hard job. The evening job is really hard. I get really tired when it’s about 8pm. It’s about midnight when I get to bed. But if I didn’t do these jobs I wouldn’t be able to live. I wouldn’t be able to survive. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Decent working hours</h2>
<p>The changing world of work has thrown up a range of challenges and the voices of these forgotten workers can no longer be ignored. These workers are not in this position out of choice. These were the only jobs available – leading them to have to take on more than one job due to low wages, limited working hours and opportunities.</p>
<p>Our research affirms the necessity for the adoption of the Real Living Wage. This is set at £9/hour, (£10.55 in London), whereas the National Minimum Wage (£7.38/hour) and National Living Wage (£7.83/hour) are set at a lower level. Indeed, some workers we spoke to who received a National Living Wage pay rise had their hours cut by their employer to compensate for the rise, so they actually ended up worse off. </p>
<p>Along with a recommendation for more effective wage regulation, there also needs to be stronger regulation of working time arrangements with guaranteed hours. Many of the workers we spoke to worked zero hours or highly variable short hours contracts. These recommendations are important because it is very clear that more people need access to secure jobs with decent working hours and opportunities for progression, if this situation is to be improved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows high numbers of people in the UK are working multiple low-paid jobs.Andrew Smith, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, University of BradfordJo McBride, Associate Professor (Reader) of Industrial Relations, Work and Employment, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/996172018-07-11T11:13:01Z2018-07-11T11:13:01ZTwo tiny but mighty new trade unions offer UK a better way to ‘take back control’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227133/original/file-20180711-27021-14h4usm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eorphotography/8076759765/in/album-72157631744579023/">Eyes On Rights / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people in the UK interpret “take back control” as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321586299_Take_Back_Control_of_Our_Borders_The_Role_of_Arguments_about_Controlling_Immigration_in_the_Brexit_Debate">close the borders</a>”. But there are other ways for people to restore their communities and standard of living without trying to keep out the immigrants. Two small unions, the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) and United Voices of the World (UVW), show us how.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://iwgb.org.uk/about/">IWGB</a>, formed in 2012, and the <a href="https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/about/">UVW</a>, formed in 2014, organise the most vulnerable of London’s immigrant workers: low paid, outsourced, often employed as so-called “independent contractors”. They include cleaners, carers, couriers, bar staff and security guards. These men and women, working alongside their British-born colleagues, are the very people supposedly <a href="https://theconversation.com/rivers-and-swarms-how-metaphor-fuels-anti-immigrant-feeling-33556">swamping the country</a> and driving down wages. </p>
<p>Yet through these two unions they have taken on powerful employers, from global giants like Uber and Deliveroo to outsourcing companies at the Royal Opera House, the London School of Economics, and other cultural meccas. And they have often won. I spoke to the leaders of IWGB and UVW to and found out how – through self-reliance, community building and collective action – they have taken back control.</p>
<h2>Self reliance</h2>
<p>The prevailing emotion among low-paid workers is fear: fear of management and fear of getting the sack. They have little experience with unions, and no control over their jobs. </p>
<p>IWGB and UVW organisers must first convince workers that they have the power to act and that they can cause change. They try to avoid what the UVW’s general secretary, Petros Elia, calls a “doctor-patient relationship”, where workers wait for a quick consult with the organiser, who then cures their ills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UVW members making themselves heard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/uvwunion/photos/a.786502864751288.1073741832.703269199741322/1747899611944937/?type=3&theater">UVW</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They preach instead the gospel of self-reliance, or at least a version of it. The IWGB’s Ecuadorian-born president, Henry Chango Lopez, puts it simply: “We let the workers run their own affairs.” New members compile their own demands and plan their own campaign, while organisers provide guidance and head office provides legal support. Workers are encouraged to trust their own abilities, and take control of their own campaigns. </p>
<h2>Strength in numbers</h2>
<p>But they do not do this alone. The IWGB and UVW place more stress on strikes and other kinds of collective action than most other unions. This is partly because the employers they encounter – outsourcing companies, “platforms” such as Uber and Deliveroo, and other hirers of low-cost labour – are even less likely than others to grant demands such as the London living wage without a fight.</p>
<p>Their campaigns are noisier and more raucous than the average picket line. Strikes by IWGB cleaners at the University of London, for example, were set to <a href="http://theprisma.co.uk/2013/03/03/why-the-cleaners-bang-on-drums/">banging drums</a>. UVW cleaners at 100 Wood St, home to investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, staged loud protests, organised flash mobs and occupied buildings for 61 days during the <a href="https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/100-wood-street/">longest strike</a> in the history of the City of London. At these times, Chango Lopez says, “invisible workers become visible” – not to mention audible. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"989420354924941312"}"></div></p>
<p>Isolated individuals change nothing – but even the most vulnerable people, some of whom speak few words of English, can change a great deal if they come together. Chango Lopez remembers how cleaners at the University of London – outsourced, marginalised and on minimum wage – used to suffer harassment and feared losing their jobs and being unable to pay their bills. </p>
<p>After eight years of sustained protests, strikes and campaigns they have transformed their situation, won the London living wage and will soon be brought back <a href="https://iwgb.org.uk/2018/05/24/iwgb-campaign-wins-major-concession-for-outsourced-workers-at-university-of-london/">in-house</a>. British workers of all kinds should heed that lesson, as strikes fall to their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/30/strikes-in-uk-fall-to-lowest-level-since-records-began-in-1893">lowest point</a> in more than 100 years.</p>
<h2>Building community</h2>
<p>These strikes and campaigns all rest on the wider community of members. The IWGB and UVW both aim, as Elia puts it, “to build as many links of solidarity as possible between members, and between workplaces”. When one branch decides to take action, head office encourages the other branches to lend their support by joining their protest and writing letters and emails to the employer in question. Head office becomes the hub of a community in which each branch knows that the rest have their back. </p>
<p>Activists from both unions try to make their office a place where first-time visitors come back twice. They encourage new recruits to meet members seasoned by strikes and campaigns who can pass on their experience and the conviction that fighting and winning is possible. Formal meetings double as social events, where everyone can relax and get to know each other over a drink and to the sound of music. Activists at the UVW offices rate themselves as highly on the dancefloor as on the picket line.</p>
<p>They have built these communities despite the many linguistic and cultural cleavages among their membership. Members come from all over the world – including Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia and the UK. The majority of UVW members – and a large minority of IWGB members – hail from Latin America. Spanish is spoken more often than English at the UVW head office, and their long, sprawling meetings take place in Spanish and Portuguese as well as English. Both unions run English language classes for non-native speakers, so they can work more closely with their colleagues and better understand what employers tell them. </p>
<p>Some people fret that immigrants won’t assimilate. But they can rest assured that the UVW and IWGB do more to integrate their foreign-born members than the government, which has <a href="http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Safe-but-Alone-final.pdf">slashed funds</a> for English teaching for new migrants. And they have a thing or two to learn from this varied collection of British and foreign-born workers, who have overcome their vulnerabilities to better their pay and working conditions.</p>
<p>Forget closing the borders, or maintaining the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-immigration-policy-has-made-britain-a-precarious-place-to-call-home-95546">hostile environment</a>” against migrants. Working people shouldn’t rely on Brexit – or the European Union – to protect their jobs, communities and lives. The self-reliance, collective action and community spirit practised by the Independent Workers of Great Britain and United Voices of the World are a much better way to take back control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Parfitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And it doesn’t involve immigrant bashing. Quite the opposite.Steven Parfitt, University Teacher in History, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874232017-11-21T11:27:34Z2017-11-21T11:27:34ZWelcome to Britain: a land where jobs may be plentiful but are more and more precarious<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195468/original/file-20171120-18555-ao78xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On the edge. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The British chancellor, Philip Hammond, was <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/philip-hammond-latest-chancellor-no-unemployed-people-annual-budget-jobless-a8063416.html">roundly criticised</a> on November 19 after claiming there were “no unemployed people” during a BBC interview with Andrew Marr.</p>
<p>While the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/november2017">a fall in unemployment in the UK</a>, there are still 1.42m out of work. And there is growing concern about the UK’s increasingly precarious and insecure labour market. </p>
<p>The numbers of people who do <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/underemploymentandoveremploymentemp16">not have enough work</a>, are on <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43586/">temporary or zero-hours contracts</a>, and who are classed as self-employed but are actually working <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/international-trends-insecure-work">just for one employer</a> still remain higher than before the recession of 2008.</p>
<p>This is coupled with welfare reforms that have affected those claiming unemployment benefits. Not least has <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-its-like-to-transition-on-to-universal-credit-85190">been the introduction</a> of Universal Credit, a one-stop benefit, which has intensified the conditions that are placed on people before they can receive welfare payments. This type of “welfare conditionality”, which includes demonstrating up to 35 hours per week job search activity, also applies to people who receive Universal Credit but are working. </p>
<p>We have been involved in several research projects about the issues facing people who move from the benefits system into insecure work. As part of an ongoing national study focusing <a href="http://www.welfareconditionality.ac.uk/">on welfare conditionality</a>, one man talked about his experience of starting zero hours work in food processing in the north of England. In his first week, he was told he would receive a text message saying whether he was needed the next day. For two days he didn’t receive any messages. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then the third day they gave me an option to just go up there and be a spare, so literally if people don’t turn up you can go up there and stand around for half an hour and if they don’t turn up then they’ll use you. So I went up there, it was quite early in the morning, 7 o'clock; I was up at 5.45 to get there. I hung around for half an hour. I wasn’t offered any work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This man did manage to secure more hours, but the job was still temporary and he remained on Universal Credit throughout this experience, knowing that he would be relying on the benefit again once the temporary work ended. This meant that in addition to worrying about whether or not he would have work from one day to the next, there were also still expectations on him from the Jobcentre to attend appointments and continue looking for work. </p>
<h2>Corralled into precarious jobs</h2>
<p>Precarious workers often work in several jobs, but can still live in <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017017728614">deep poverty</a>. People with precarious work often have unpredictable or insufficient working hours and schedules which lead to irregular income and significant pay penalties. This can in turn <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0950017014559264">cause</a> increased levels of debt, a limited choice of housing, or even eviction, as well as negative consequences for <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/42283/">personal well-being</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195469/original/file-20171120-18561-5bqwhx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UK unemployment rates (aged 16 and over), seasonally adjusted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Office for National Statistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another of our <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43586/">studies</a> showed that the first contact with precarious jobs often starts at the Jobcentre where claimants are encouraged, directed or coerced to apply for low-skilled, low-paid and precarious jobs, such as temporary agency work and zero-hours work. </p>
<p>Not doing so might lead to benefit sanctions – meaning their benefits will be suspended. A man we spoke to who lived in Derbyshire told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I got offered a job with an agency in Manchester with no expenses for travel and so on. I said ‘no’ and then was sanctioned for refusing work.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Not what workers want</h2>
<p>Our research using the <a href="https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200002">Annual Population Survey</a> of over 100,000 employees in the UK is showing that precarious working contracts and conditions are driven mainly by employers’ <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43586/">demands for flexibility</a> – not what workers want. Only one in five of temporary agency workers in the UK included in the survey actually prefer to work in a temporary job. Many of the people we interviewed would not choose to work for an agency, would not recommend working for an agency and would like to see zero-hours contracts banned. This is contrary to what the prime minister, Theresa May, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-would-banning-zero-hours-contracts-harm-more-people-than-it-would-help-80933">claimed</a> earlier in the year.</p>
<p>Employer-driven flexibility also puts people in a situation where they have a limited power to negotiate their working conditions, as our research and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0950017017719839?journalCode=wesa">other</a> studies have found. We <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43586/">heard many stories</a> of how peoples’ working hours were cut, changed at a short notice or their jobs were taken away only because they weren’t – as one person we spoke to put it – “servile to management”. </p>
<p><a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43586/">Our research</a> also shows that precarious working arrangements are also often coupled with employment practices that disadvantage workers. Many are often not provided with an employment contract or wage slips, and are not paid for holidays, sick leave or lunch breaks. Others are not paid for their work, as firms claims the hours were only an “induction”. </p>
<p>While government statistics may show a decreasing number of unemployed people, it’s too easy to point to this as a success. These figures hide the harsh experiences of many in today’s job market, in which the precarity of employment can create a cycle of moving back and forth between periods of paid work and reliance on benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Scullion receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for research on welfare conditionality </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daiga Kamerāde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unemployment levels are low, but many people are being pushed into inadequately paid jobs by a punitive benefit system and lack of choice.Daiga Kamerāde, Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods, University of SalfordLisa Scullion, Reader in Social Policy, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827262017-09-08T15:45:56Z2017-09-08T15:45:56ZNot lovin’ it: how insecure work creates insecure lifestyles for the poorest in society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185253/original/file-20170908-25853-1s1whzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=lb-59856941&offset=1&sort=newestFirst">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The claim that Eskimos have 50 words for snow may be apocryphal, but it neatly illustrates the truism that our vocabulary becomes more extensive and nuanced for phenomena we encounter frequently.</p>
<p>The bog-standard job of the 20th century was formal, full-time and permanent. Recently the lexicon for other kinds of jobs has expanded. Work can be temporary, fixed-term, seasonal, project-based, part-time, on a <a href="https://fullfact.org/economy/facts-about-zero-hour-contracts/?gclid=CI2Kn7fomdQCFdRAGwoduBEGVA">zero-hours</a> contract, casual, agency, freelance, peripheral, contingent, external, non-standard, atypical, platform-based, outsourced, sub-contracted, informal, undeclared, insecure, marginal or precarious.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MxUYDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=%22Self-entrepreneurs%22+uber&source=bl&ots=Z3qPWTLBOM&sig=7WwQpfgj5pr7s5zilI8qZSdA3q4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid5aS195XWAhXBAsAKHa9wCkYQ6AEIMzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Self-entrepreneurs%22%20uber&f=false">Self-entrepreneurs</a>” now do “Uber-jobs” – a term that arose (mimicking the earlier pejorative term “McJobs” for low pay/quality work) to describe the use of workers who are technically self-employed in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38930048">gig economy</a>. The atypical job is no longer quite so atypical. <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/587285/IPOL_STU(2016)587285_EN.pdf">Insecure work</a> has become an important phenomenon. </p>
<p>Employment is a field where predictions of the future have been reliable, because the trends have been clear for some time now that growth in insecure employment has reached a point to become a subject of study. In the 1990s, management guru <a href="https://www.london.edu/faculty-and-research/lbsr/the-shamrock-organisation#.WZv-mzsrK1t">Charles Handy</a> talked about the organisation of the future having a clover leaf design, with three kinds of human resource: full-time employees, casual staff and outsourced workers.</p>
<p>This threefold division was echoed in economist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jan/09/politicalcolumnists.comment">Will Hutton’s</a> darker prediction of a society in which 30% of people were disadvantaged and marginalised, 30% led insecure lives and 40% were privileged. </p>
<h2>Visions of 21st-century careers</h2>
<p>Careers in the start of the 21st century, we were told, would become “boundaryless” (hopping from project to project, not limited to one organisation), “portfolio” (multiple parallel jobs with multiple employers), and “protean” (with shapeshifting workers reinventing themselves as required).</p>
<p>Careers experts began to argue that the workers of the future needed to be ultra-flexible. Say goodbye to the job for life. Learn career management skills to dance nimbly to the tune of the new labour market. But this prescribed wisdom is problematic for four reasons.</p>
<p>First, job insecurity is has always existed; it was once the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gig-economy-is-nothing-new-it-was-standard-practice-in-the-18th-century-81057">historical norm</a>. The construction industry has always been project-based and seasonal like agriculture; seafarers were traditionally hired for a voyage. The entertainment industry was literally the “gig economy”. These are among the industries that routinely discarded workers when the job was done.</p>
<p>What is new is the extension of insecure work into industries where it was not previously common. This has been facilitated by new technology and the widespread use of contractual arrangements that seek to limit workers’ rights.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185263/original/file-20170908-25859-1negzsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Companies like Deliveroo have been criticised for their pay and working conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/york-ukseptember-28-2016a-cyclist-increasingly-490881778?src=zMIbsaKIv2VtUCyXCZpw0w-1-8">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, the vision of a <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-2/career-concepts-21st-century">brave new world</a> of portfolio, boundaryless, and protean careers was intended for professionals who could sell high-value parcels of work. It suits those with enough economic confidence to fly without the safety net of a regular income. These ideas were not dreamed up for the bicycle courier, the taxi driver or the peripatetic care worker, and certainly not for those trapped in a <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/low-pay-no-pay-cycle-understanding-recurrent-poverty">low-pay, no-pay cycle</a>.</p>
<p>Third, the career management rhetoric lost sight of the distinction between <em>is</em> and <em>should</em>. Growth in atypical working patterns does not imply a moral imperative that workers should facilitate this development by shaping themselves into the desired mould. Particularly where some employers might be seeking to offload responsibility for sick pay, holiday pay, and travel between jobs.</p>
<p>Flexibility in human resources allows employers to scale operations up and down rapidly, and with minimal cost. This is not just about keeping wage bills down, but also about employers reducing levels of economic risk, while workers increase their share of risk bearing. The challenge of global competition may be inevitable, but an unquestioning compliance with employer regimes for sharing wealth and risk is not. </p>
<p>Finally, new technology facilitates rapid allocation of work tasks. At the same time it can dismantle jobs into discrete micro-tasks for which labour can be bought and sold remotely. In doing so it may have the side effect of de-personalising the relationship between worker and supervisor and removing workers from social interaction with their fellow staff. A lifestyle of isolated and isolating tasks make it harder to forge a strong sense of social identity.</p>
<h2>Insecurity in the UK</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627671/good-work-taylor-review-modern-working-practices-rg.pdf">The Taylor Review</a> of Modern Working Practices is intended to signal that the UK government has woken up and smelled the coffee. It advocates the introduction of a new “<a href="http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/what_dependent_contractor_taylor_review.aspx">dependent contractor</a>” status for workers, but for the most part its recommendations are timid. Recently, the gig economy’s biggest fish, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/25/uber-deliveroo-chiefs-grilling-mps-gig-economy-self-employment">Uber and Deliveroo</a>, were taken to task by MPs. But so far it has been in employment law disputes, and not in Whitehall, that things have moved on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185254/original/file-20170908-25875-1j16319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Theresa May launched a review to secure better protections for workers, but it was largely regarded as timid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/search-results/fluid/?q=The%20Taylor%20Review&amber_border=1&category=A,S,E&fields_0=all&fields_1=all&green_border=1&imagesonly=1&orientation=both&red_border=1&words_0=all&words_1=all">PA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Insecure workers may have to adapt. But they can resist too, although it is not easy. They are not well placed to afford trades union membership membership, being troublesome can lead to reduced work offers, and their identification with a trade may be limited. Nonetheless in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/19/uber-appeal-uk-employment-ruling-drivers-working-rights">early skirmishes</a> of what is likely to be a long-running social conflict it is the unions that have emerged with initial success.</p>
<p>The latest example is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/mcdonalds-workers-strike-cambridge-crayford">McDonald’s</a>, where staff at two fast food outlets have just taken the unusual step of striking to demand better pay, more secure contracts and union recognition. </p>
<p>This is not just an issue of workers’ rights. When people become locked into long-term lifestyles of insecure work, it interacts with other issues. With the high cost of housing, it traps individuals in a life cycle limbo of dependency on parents. There are reasons to believe that poor quality jobs with insecure work patterns have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-zero-hours-contracts-could-be-making-you-ill-77998">harmful effects on health</a>. These detriments fall disproportionately on those in the least prosperous socio-economic groups. </p>
<p>As for the way we educate young people about careers, exhortations to flexibility are good only up to a point. We need to equip workers of the future to collaborate to promote and safeguard their interests, and give them a fair chance to redress the power imbalance in contemporary labour markets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Robertson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When people get locked into the gig economy, it adversely affects other areas of their lives, from health to housingPete Robertson, Associate Professor, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/749492017-09-07T11:18:36Z2017-09-07T11:18:36ZZero-hour contracts are turning university lecturers off the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183827/original/file-20170829-6665-1xjdo5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There have been changes within higher education over the last few decades. Ongoing fee rises and an increasing focus on finances most recently. These changes have inevitably had an effect on working conditions and there is now a tendency towards casual and temporary employment across much of the higher education sector in the UK. </p>
<p>According <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/staff">to the Higher Education Statistics Agency</a>, 128,300 permanent and 70,035 fixed-term academic staff worked at universities in the UK in the 2014 to 2015 academic year. On top of that, there were 75,560 casual academic staff in the same year. Based on these figures, the majority of staff in UK higher education work on a temporary basis.</p>
<p>The way academics are expected to work is also changing. This is a time of increased focus of online technologies – such as email, online education and digital registers for research, teaching and administration purposes. All of which means more time spent online and the blurring of work space and personal space on a daily basis.</p>
<h2>Job insecurity</h2>
<p>As part of my <a href="http://www.allmer.uti.at/">recent research</a>, I set out to find out how academics perceive the existing working conditions that are shaped by political and economic conditions. I conducted a small case study in 2016, interviewing academics at various higher education institutions in the UK. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183828/original/file-20170829-6675-4b8u2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Up all night.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Focus was given to people who were employed “atypically” such as on fixed-term, casual, and zero-hour contracts contracts, or paid on an hourly basis – and I asked people how far they were confronted with job insecurity in their current post. </p>
<p>Most of the participants said they were concerned about the uncertainty surrounding their job and would like more economic security. A female researcher told me that she could not concentrate on her work anymore due to the uncertain nature of her job situation. As she explained, the precarious nature of the job worried her and was constantly in her head:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the moment it is just the insecurity, the precarious nature … when it gets to next year, what if I don’t get anything, it is that worry. Constantly in your head, that worry.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>On all the time</h2>
<p>Academics also reported receiving and responding to emails out of working hours – including evenings and weekends – both at home and while to and from work. An interviewee I spoke to checked his emails regularly in the morning from home before heading to the office. Another one looked at emails regularly on his mobile phone, while another responded to student emails occasionally at one o’clock in the morning. </p>
<p>While some felt such an email communication pattern was necessary, others found it annoying that emails interfered with their private life. </p>
<p>Many interviewees also mentioned a division among staff, especially between casual and permanent staff – and said that this also affected “solidarity” and “politics” within their department. </p>
<p>An hourly paid lecturer explained how she was not invited to any meetings or any other department related business:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I tip in and out. You have to imagine … I run in on Tuesday, coming away from my other job, I park the car where I don’t have to pay parking fees, run to university, go in, get the register, run to my class, do my class, run home.</p>
<p>I don’t have time to talk to people. I don’t talk to people, I am just running.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also said she didn’t feel affiliated to the department physically as she did not have her own desk, and explained how she wasn’t politically involved in the department because of the hourly paid contract.</p>
<p>The sad thing is, these experiences are not one-offs, as recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/16/zero-hours-contracts-at-universities">freedom of information requests</a> by the University and College Union found. They revealed that more than half of the 145 UK universities that responded, and two-thirds of further education colleges, use zero-hours contracts – which do not guarantee work and can deny holiday and sick pay.</p>
<p>Sometimes referred to as “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/academic-capitalism">academic capitalism</a>”, the “<a href="http://hepgjournals.org/doi/abs/10.17763/haer.72.4.0515nr62324n71p1?code=hepg-site">corporate university</a>” and “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-uberfication-of-the-university">Uber.edu</a>”, it’s clear the marketisation of universities is having a direct impact on people’s jobs. The question is how long will it be before it also starts to impact the standards of teaching?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Allmer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reality of life as an academic – not quite as comfortable as you might think.Thomas Allmer, Lecturer in Digital Media, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/832602017-09-01T06:40:55Z2017-09-01T06:40:55ZHow striking McDonald’s workers are taking on the fast food giant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184021/original/file-20170830-24226-vny1in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Workers in two McDonald’s restaurants will make history on September 4 when they become the company’s first ever workers in Britain to go on strike. They will join a growing band of McDonald’s employees around the world that have unionised to fight one of the biggest and best known global fast food operators.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bfawu.org/bfawu_press_release_regarding_potential_industrial_action_at_mcdonalds">issues</a> at the two restaurants – one in Cambridge, the other in Crayford, southeast London – relate to cuts in hours so that workers there cannot make a living wage and regarding allegations of bullying. This led 96% of union members, numbering around 40, <a href="https://fastfoodrights.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/its-on-get-behind-the-4-september-mcstrike/">to vote for strike action</a>. Behind these lie wider demands: a £10 per hour minimum wage, an end to zero hour contracts and the right to have a union recognised by McDonald’s for negotiating on members’ terms and conditions of employment.</p>
<p>In the words of one of the striking McDonald’s workers, <a href="http://www.bfawu.org/bfawu_press_release_regarding_potential_industrial_action_at_mcdonalds">Tom Holliday</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>McDonald’s must consider reinvesting its huge amount of net profits back into its workforce. We believe it is our right to ask for a fair treatment for the hard work we perform.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The strike is a major milestone in the work of the <a href="http://www.bfawu.org/">Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU)</a> and the <a href="https://fastfoodrights.wordpress.com/">Fast Food Rights</a> campaign set up by the union with the help of the <a href="http://uniteresist.org/">Unite the Resistance</a> group and Labour MP, John McDonnell. </p>
<p>The campaign was established in early 2014 to try to replicate the fight of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fightback-against-income-inequality-starts-at-mcdonalds-37597">fast food workers in the United States</a>. Fast food workers there have, along with the help of unions and community groups, collectively organised to raise their pay and conditions. Since 2012, this has evolved into a series of increasingly large nationwide strikes. From 2013, their central demand has been encapsulated in the slogan <a href="http://fightfor15.org/about-us/">“Fight for $15”</a> – a minimum wage of US$15 per hour and enough hours to earn a living on. Success has come through direct action against the fast food operators as well as political lobbying to gain local wage ordinances. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184017/original/file-20170830-7181-1wb6fsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Out in force.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtumesoul/9402831456/in/photolist-fjTYcJ-fjDQrz-6Ro1b-nCjK75-fmqR57-fYpApU-i7cjZo-nAi2tb-fET1rt-i77Mqw-fmbAD8-fEENbh-i77Sfw-q2AMzi-nkQk6V-i77MMm-i77Kyf-i77Crt-i77HAM-fmqJ1L-qiQAj2-jZoSs7-fmbHfx-fmqzAm-i77Go5-i77S99-i77AHZ-i77LT7-i77B6c-qiQBqR-nCMraF-i78ezH-nkQZem-i77Ntd-i77MxU-fjTYub-fEETZS-65isB5-fjDLP6-fjDLxt-q2V58f-q2Uk6G-pntyyY-pnH8mz-fEo7Za-nkPQnp-qjpt2S-qhbQtm-pnHbo6-qjpB81">Annette Bernhardt/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For some time, McDonald’s in Britain has been under pressure to end its use of zero hour contracts. Earlier in 2017, it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/25/mcdonalds-contracts-uk-zero-hours-workers">promised</a> to phase them out by offering fixed hours. The beef of the workers is that this has been too little, too late, as the offer has been rolled out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/21/mcdonalds-workers-to-coordinate-strike-with-allies-around-world">through limited pilot projects</a>. </p>
<h2>David vs Goliath</h2>
<p>The September 4 strike is part of a wider national day of action against low pay that day across Britain, which the Fast Food Rights campaign <a href="http://uniteresist.org/2017/08/fast-food-rights-national-day-of-action-for-10-an-hour-and-union-rights-4-september-get-behind-fast-food-workers/">has called for</a>. It is also in coordination with the US Labor Day holiday to signify solidarity <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/21/mcdonalds-workers-to-coordinate-strike-with-allies-around-world">with fast food colleagues there</a>.</p>
<p>Yet underneath this act of global worker solidarity is something much more fundamental. Until now, the Fast Food Rights campaign has been mainly about protests outside fast food outlets, often mainly by supportive non-fast food workers. The strike signifies that a small number of fast food workers are now prepared to try to close down operations themselves from the inside. This new found spirit will be critical in determining whether the strike grows into a bigger challenge to McDonald’s and gains support from the tens of thousands of workers it employs in Britain.</p>
<p>The battle between the BFAWU and McDonald’s is akin to David and Goliath. Around the world, McDonald’s has long been known for its staunch and well-resourced defence <a href="http://www.mcspotlight.org/campaigns/tactics/unionall.html">to remain “union free”</a>. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/580506/55T_2015.pdf">around 20,000 members</a>, the BFAWU will need to call on all its reserves and know-how in order to take the struggle forward successfully. This will mean unionising many more McDonald’s restaurants than the <a href="http://www.workersliberty.org/node/31355">six at present</a>, mobilising them into collective action and getting supporters outside their own ranks to engage in disruptive flash mob protests to shut down restaurants from the outside. </p>
<p>But there will also need to be campaigns to damage McDonald’s reputation and brand through social media as well as the more conventional leafleting outside its restaurants. These are the kinds of tactics that have proved successful in the US in moving <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-fight-for-15-advances-from-coast-to-coast_us_593ab361e4b0b65670e569b3">toward a US$15 minimum wage across the US</a>.</p>
<p>The struggle will need to have both industry and political dimensions in order to develop the necessary leverage over the company. Crucial to all this will be a good strike result in Crayford and Cambridge because it will galvanise and propel things forward. If that can be done, the 180-year old BFAWU union will have helped transform itself into a modern day giant slayer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is editor of the Scottish Left Review and director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation. He is not a member of any political party.</span></em></p>Around the world, McDonald’s is known for its staunch and well-resourced attempt to remain ‘union free’.Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809332017-07-17T10:16:06Z2017-07-17T10:16:06ZFact Check: would banning zero-hours contracts harm more people than it would help?<blockquote>
<p>So while Matthew’s report is clear that many workers value the flexibility that zero-hours contracts offer them, and that banning such contracts altogether would harm more people than it would help, it is important that we continue to ensure that employers do not use these contracts to exploit people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Theresa May, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-have-to-invest-in-good-work-theresa-mays-speech-at-taylor-review-launch">speaking</a> at the launch of a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/626772/good-work-taylor-review-modern-working-practices.pdf">report</a> by Matthew Taylor on working practices in the UK on July 11.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/zero-hour-contracts">Zero-hours contracts</a> allow employers to hire workers ad hoc without guaranteeing them a minimum number of hours a week. There were <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/mar2017">905,000 people</a> on zero-hours contract between October to December 2016, but they remain controversial. The Labour Party has promised to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/29/election-labour-mcdonnell-corbyn-zero-hours-economy">ban them</a>, but the government remains committed to keeping the rules that allow this kind of casual employment. </p>
<p>In her comments, the prime minister was referring to a section in the Taylor Report on zero-hours contracts, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/good-work-the-taylor-review-of-modern-working-practices">which states</a>: “To ban zero-hours contracts in their totality would negatively impact many more people than it
helped.”</p>
<p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy confirmed to The Conversation that this statement was based on a Labour Force Survey <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/mar2017">published</a> in March 2017 – also mentioned in the Taylor Report – which found that “68% of those on zero-hours contracts do not want more hours”. </p>
<h2>Scant evidence</h2>
<p>Apart from this 68% figure, the Taylor Report provides few other clues to the assumptions underpinning the claim. Yet how many would prefer to work the same number of hours but with contracts that offered them greater certainty? If employers were required to provide a guaranteed minimum number of hours, what impact would that have on overall employment and the employment opportunities open to workers with different circumstances? These questions have received insufficient attention.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178113/original/file-20170713-32666-inojq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One in seven care workers were employed on zero-hours contracts in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Taylor Report mentions that almost a fifth of people on zero-hours contracts are in full-time education. A ban on zero-hours contracts might make it more difficult for some of these individuals to combine paid work and studying, but we do not know what percentage would simply seek a more regular part-time job. </p>
<p>A similar issue arises in relation to those with caring responsibilities: for some, zero-hours contracts might provide a good means of fitting work around care commitments, but what percentage would prefer a contract that offered greater certainty? Evidence relating to these issues is lacking.</p>
<h2>How to measure cost and benefits</h2>
<p>The lack of detailed, regularly collected and nationally representative data about the consequences of zero-hours contracts for workers, and employers, limits our ability to debate the pros and cons of a complete ban. Respondents to the Labour Force Survey are asked whether they are employed on a zero-hours contract, but are not asked about the consequences for their well-being, job satisfaction and quality of life. The <a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/">Understanding Society Survey</a>, which does examine issues such as well-being and quality of life, does not explicitly ask respondents whether they are employed on a zero-hours contract. </p>
<p>The costs and benefits associated with zero-hours contracts potentially extend beyond those who are employed under such contracts. For workers with families, the uncertainty associated with zero-hours contracts may have implications for the well-being and standard of living of all household members. These wider consequences would presumably need to be taken into account in any assessment of whether a ban would harm more people than it would benefit. </p>
<p>To fully assess the claim we would also need to define what we mean by negative and positive impacts. And to consider whether the nature and scale of harmful and beneficial effects resulting from a ban might vary between different groups. For example, might the potential “harm” to a student resulting from a loss of flexibility be outweighed by the potential benefit – in terms of increased financial security and reduced anxiety – to an older individual from having a more reliable income? And might that potential benefit be considered even greater if that individual has children? </p>
<p>Even if it were true that a ban on zero-hours contracts would hurt more people than it would help, that would not necessarily be sufficient grounds for retaining zero-hours contracts. We would also need to consider the nature and consequences of the gains and losses in order to assess the overall impact on society.</p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>In the absence of evidence that would enable us to more accurately assess the potential positive and negative impacts of a ban on zero-hours contracts, the claim that a ban would hurt many more people than it would help surely amounts to speculation rather than hard fact.</p>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p><strong>Keith Bender, SIRE chair in economics, University of Aberdeen</strong></p>
<p>Overall, I agree with the verdict. There is little data in the Taylor Report to support the government’s claim. The key question when looking at costs and benefits is “compared to what?” The 68% figure mentioned in the report can be contrasted with further data from the March 2017 <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/may2017#what-are-the-characteristics-of-people-employed-on-zero-hours-contracts">report</a> from the Office for National Statistics showing that over 90% of those not on zero-hours contracts do not want more hours – a sizeable difference. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/may2017/686d148d">graph</a> below shows that zero-hours workers are much more likely to want an additional job, a replacement job with more hours or more hours on the current job. It may be that a zero-hours jobs are better than no job, but in terms of hours, these ONS statistics suggest that they do not compare favourably with other types of contracts.</p>
<p><iframe id="309Le" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/309Le/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>I agree with the author that more research needs to be done in this area to draw any conclusions. Key to that will be understanding the “voluntariness” of zero-hours contracts – understanding who wants them because of desired flexibility and who are forced into them because of a lack of other types of contracts.</p>
<p><em>The Conversation is checking claims made by public figures and prominent in public debates. Statements are checked by an academic with expertise in the area. A second academic expert then reviews an anonymous copy of the article. Please get in touch if you spot a claim you would like us to check by emailing us at uk-factcheck@theconversation.com. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Heyes receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the International Labour Organization and the Trades Union Congress. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Bender does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two experts assess the prime minister’s claim and what the evidence says about the impact of a ban.Jason Heyes, Professor of Employment Relations and Director of the Work, Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC), University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779982017-06-07T15:47:52Z2017-06-07T15:47:52ZHow zero-hours contracts could be making you ill<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171639/original/file-20170531-25676-r88zdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stressed-factory-worker-125596868">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The notion of a “job for life” has ceased to exist for most workers in the UK. Companies are shifting the burden of earnings risk to the employee, increasing their use of <a href="https://fullfact.org/economy/facts-about-zero-hour-contracts/?gclid=CI2Kn7fomdQCFdRAGwoduBEGVA">zero-hours contracts</a>. Depending on your political standpoint, this is either a logical response to the demands of fiercely competitive <a href="http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Global_economics/Globalisation_introduction.html">globalisation</a>, or a way of exploiting workers at the more vulnerable end of the job market.</p>
<p>A growing feature of the “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38930048">gig economy</a>”, zero-hours contracts represent a significant change in the employment relationship as they guarantee neither work nor pay.</p>
<p>In December 2016, the UK <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus">Office for National Statistics</a> (ONS) reported that over <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/adhocs/006286numberofpeopleonzerohourscontractsbyselectedsoccodesnsaapriltojune2015and2016">900,000 workers</a> are employed on zero-hours contracts – an increase of over 100,000 over the year, as shown in the table below.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171595/original/file-20170531-23531-1cjehsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The dramatic rise in zero-hours contracts in the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Bender</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The political importance of this phenomenon is reflected in both the Conservative and Labour party manifestos for the 2017 general election. The <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto">Conservative manifesto</a> plans to give more “rights and protections” to those in the gig economy, while the <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/manifesto2017">Labour manifesto</a> argues for an end to zero-hours contracts. </p>
<h2>March of globalisation</h2>
<p>After World War II, companies counted on stable employer-employee relationships whereby workers and firms made formal or informal contracts rather than rely on the market solely to match workers and companies. </p>
<p>Because they were more financially vulnerable to changes in income, workers embraced this arrangement that fostered security – their earnings were assured. And as it encouraged workers to stick around, companies enjoyed the benefits too, since they could maximise profits by attracting, retaining and training workers by providing contracts that reduced worker uncertainty over good and bad times.</p>
<p>But recently, precarious contracts have helped to erode the concept of a job for life, leaving workers exposed to insecurities in terms of their hours and earnings.</p>
<p>While zero-hours workers have the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/zero-hours-contracts-guidance-for-employers/zero-hours-contracts-guidance-for-employers">same statutory rights</a> as other employees, there are legal issues around the definition of an employee and worker that complicate which rights are <a href="https://fullfact.org/economy/facts-about-zero-hour-contracts/">guaranteed</a>. While some may not care about this, workers with dependants and rent or mortgages to pay are not likely to embrace uncertain pay and conditions.</p>
<p>For employers, the flexibility afforded by such contracts is a huge benefit for companies with variable labour demand, since they prefer a workforce that is available when needed, but not costly in periods of slack demand.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171641/original/file-20170531-25652-y3x2l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zero-hours contracts are an accepted part of the enthusiastically embraced gig economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-deliveroo-riders-deliver-takeaway-foods-603405107">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although this flexibility may suit some workers, it is unclear whether most workers would benefit. For example, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/may2017#what-are-the-characteristics-of-people-employed-on-zero-hours-contracts">ONS data</a> show that a third of those on zero-hours contracts want to change jobs or want more hours, compared to fewer than 10% of those employed on other kinds of contracts.</p>
<p>Yet the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/index_en">European Commission</a> established a policy of “<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=102">flexicurity</a>” in 2007, whereby countries were directed to develop policies encouraging flexible employment contracts. While limiting job security, countries were to develop policies to help people find jobs easily, enhancing employment security. The EU flexicurity policy was motivated by the challenges of globalisation and the increasing need for firms to adapt to fast-moving changes in competition.</p>
<h2>Health and well-being</h2>
<p>The casualisation of employment relationships brings uncertainty to workers. For many, these contracts generate greater levels of <a href="http://www.publicpolicy.cam.ac.uk/zero-hours-contracts">low-grade stress</a> than traditional contracts. This low-grade but constant stress leads to another, much less-studied and unintended consequence of zero-hours contracts: their impact on worker health. </p>
<p>This was the focus of our <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/roiw.12316/full">recent study</a>, which tracked 2,300 initially healthy British workers for 17 years to see how often they found themselves in traditional or flexible contracts and whether the proportion of time spent in such contracts had any effect on their health.</p>
<p>Health was measured in a number of ways – a subjective opinion about overall health as well as self-reports of any health issues. </p>
<p>The results are striking and consistent. We found that for every measure of health we examined, the longer a worker spent in a flexible contract, the more likely they would fall ill – at a much higher rate than a worker in a permanent contract. </p>
<p>As the table below shows, by the eighth year of employment, all workers who had been in flexible contracts for at least 50% of the time experienced a fall in their overall health.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171597/original/file-20170531-25664-ol9fsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decline in health of workers on zero-hours contracts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Bender</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this is a simple graph showing the state of health of those on flexible and permanent contracts, our paper reflects a variety of statistical tests to make sure that this pattern holds for all the health conditions we surveyed. </p>
<p>To give an idea of the correlation between zero-hours contracts and health problems, we compared the long-term effects of working on zero-hours contracts to the effects of smoking (something else we measured). Our data suggested that people who spent more time working in zero hours contracts experienced half as poor overall health outcomes as those people who smoked.</p>
<p>The dramatic increase in zero-hours contracts is unlikely to be entirely voluntary on the workers’ side. Again, the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/may2017#what-are-the-characteristics-of-people-employed-on-zero-hours-contracts">ONS data</a> above suggests that a third of workers want something different. Importantly, the negative effects of flexible employment on worker health can be substantial.</p>
<p>The public health consequences of the increase in zero-hours contracts and its long-term repercussions on the health of the working population may outweigh the short-run profit considerations of employers. Therefore, governments should revisit policies that promote the extra flexibility if it comes with a hefty price tag of increased public health expenditure and lost productivity.</p>
<p>Without factoring in this further cost of zero-hour contracts, there could be unintended consequences for society which are detrimental to productivity, and more worryingly, the health and well-being of the working population.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With no guarantee of work or pay, is the stress of flexible work contracts affecting the health of workers?Keith Bender, SIRE Chair in Economics, University of AberdeenIoannis Theodossiou, Chair in Economics, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/767342017-04-26T18:13:26Z2017-04-26T18:13:26ZMcDonald’s concession on zero hours contracts is a boost for unions and the Labour Party<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166834/original/file-20170426-2825-1rqfgc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=84%2C80%2C1129%2C748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/minidriver/2788166314/in/photolist-5fo5H1-GmDEzL-pJpVZg-ei28fT-hBPupE-7LEiNp-66yqbW-9hKdWT-agkLcY-aW9HWp-6opRQ-9S9do-7Ww5zN-gnFdX-aghGvK-87hJCr-5DjvwP-itnbf-aerBw4-2XUNH-7LG5Tv-4VbL2Z-feNPh-fuc61t-2MouqK-aeuoGC-hAwJen-dCeqHn-2MEZJW-Ru49J7-agkwjj-31QmKU-6sRPdY-5jbkHL-63X7AQ-aeuokh-aghWw6-7ngHW4-5egmXJ-agkyQE-aeukZh-aerC8t-agkMhd-aghU8D-M6m4S-aeuoXE-ff8KE-4Vu5Yb-2JEh3s-aghRXV">Greg Wagoner/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The global restaurant chain <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mcdonald-uk-employees-fixed-hour-zero-hour-contracts-gig-economoy-fast-food-chain-job-workers-a7702816.html">McDonald’s has offered</a> 115,000 employees in the UK a choice between their current zero-hour contracts and fixed-term contracts. This corporate decision has major implications for the future of work, the trade union movement, and the upcoming general election in Britain.</p>
<p>For the majority of workers in both the public and private sectors, employment is now far less secure than it was a generation ago. The least secure workers are those found in what the International Labour Organisation calls <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_protect/@protrav/@travail/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_336934.pdf">“non-standard forms of employment”</a>. These include temporary and part-time employment, casual and seasonal labour, and fixed-term contract labour.</p>
<p>Zero-hours workers are not guaranteed work but remain “on call” and available to work. The amount of work per week is at the discretion of the employer, and workers are not paid for the hours that they remain available. <a href="http://lexicon.ft.com/term?term=zero_hours-contract">Typically</a>, those under zero-hour contracts do not receive holiday or sick pay, are not entitled to redundancy pay, and can be dismissed without cause.</p>
<p>McDonald’s use of these contracts is no surprise. They are commonly associated with employment in restaurants, hotels and retailers. Although they have been around for years, there has been a sharp increase since the 2008 global financial crisis. In the spring of this year, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/03/zero-hours-contracts-uk-record-high">all-time high</a> of 910,00 workers in the UK were under zero-hour contracts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166865/original/file-20170426-2825-k340dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Waiting game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-waiter-waitress-service-restaurant-567795832?src=--Pme5ZIfCEeyXkaufxjRQ-1-12">Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Disposable labour’</h2>
<p>The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has condemned zero-hours contracts as a scourge of labour rights and a symptom of the relentless employer crusade to make employment more precarious and workers more vulnerable. Such contracts allow bosses to treat workers like “disposable labour”, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/industrial-issues/zero-hours-contracts-allow-bosses-treat-workers-%E2%80%9Cdisposable-labour">said last month</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’re on a zero-hours contract you have no guarantee of work from one day to another. Put a foot wrong and you can be let go in a heartbeat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>O’Grady and other union leaders have a difficult task, however. Trade union membership is at an historic low, with just 13.9% of private sector workers organised (the public sector remains the bastion of trade unionism, with 54.8% of workers <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525938/Trade_Union_Membership_2015_-_Statistical_Bulletin.pdf">in unions</a>).</p>
<p>Given that picture, can we really interpret the McDonald’s decision as a win for pressure brought to bear by unions; perhaps it is instead a canny ploy by the restaurant chain’s management?</p>
<h2>Flexible friend</h2>
<p>Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s UK CEO, recognised <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/23/mcdonalds-serves-the-needs-of-its-loyal-workers/">in an article last year</a> that people associated working at his company with poor pay, poor conditions, and poor prospects. His argument against that view is that a job at McDonald’s is a “stepping stone” to other jobs and careers – and in many case becomes a career in itself. </p>
<p>As for zero-hour contracts, Pomroy prefers the word “flexibility”. He said in that 2016 article that most people were satisfied with their zero-hour contracts. But he was aware even then of a “small but growing number of employees” for whom fixed hours would offer better access to financial contracts such as a car loan or mobile phone. That prompted trials which offered a choice to employees between fixed and flexible contracts, and which has now been rolled out to all zero-hours staff.</p>
<p>But McDonald’s decision to give this choice does not necessarily represent a new-found genuine concern for employment rights. Rather, it is likely a response to a growing problem that many companies are facing, coupled with pressure from unions and other bodies. The chain may well have also been reassured that more than 80% of those involved in the trials <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/23/mcdonalds-serves-the-needs-of-its-loyal-workers/">decided to stick</a> with their zero-hour contracts.</p>
<h2>Playing ketchup</h2>
<p>The GMB is the principal union representing workers at McDonald’s, and has been engaged in a long fight to replace zero-hour contracts with 40-hour-per-week contracts with pensions and sick pay. Employees at McDonald’s, <a href="http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/dignity-mcdonalds-staff">says GMB Regional Secretary Paul Maloney</a>, “deserve proper dignity at work, rather than exploitative, hand-to-mouth contracts”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166870/original/file-20170426-2825-gja2qa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Fight for $15 march in the US.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/local99/17160804052/in/photolist-s9rBaW-rQfZwK-s7mKmS-rQfM48-rRZBpN-rcMp42-rS8S9H-rS1Gof-s8crdA-Tzc3EX-oMzuEw-oMz417-srE1x2-touvW4-s63Buw-rczVJA-s9rDqs-s9wNbc-rS1N4U-rQfZyt-s9zTvP-rczHef-rczLaW-rcRiST-s9wTrx-s9wRJz-rQfLY8-s7mNHG-s9rzns-s9rEZQ-rS8HQ8-s9rwrh-s9zUR4-rScSS6-p4NnvH-rewNsW-rewNa1-RuW6dt-oMzsyM-rQfW6X-s9zZsD-rS1Bmw-rcMuPa-rczNQq-sa3g3m-s7hW2N-s9wRXk-rcMs4k-rRZxtG-rS8LDz">SEIU Local 99 | Education Workers United/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) has also participated, establishing a “Fast Food Rights” campaign with links to <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/bakers-food-and-allied-workers-union/article/global-fast-food-worker-protest-major-actions-to-hit-britain">groups around the world</a>. Both UK unions are kindred spirits with one of the fastest growing and most successful players on the US labour scene, <a href="http://fightfor15.org/">the Fight for $15 campaign</a>. What began as a small but vocal group of fast food workers has become a vibrant and successful movement among all workers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/29/fight-for-15-protest-minimum-wage-fast-food-airport-workers">on hourly-paid contracts</a>. </p>
<p>The zero hours move by McDonald’s could be seen as a tactic to stave off these growing trade union demands for wage increases and a 40-hour week. By asking workers to decide individually rather collectively on the type of contract they prefer, McDonald’s UK is likely also hoping to stave off a trade union recruitment drive.</p>
<h2>Labour link</h2>
<p>A modest victory, however, is still a victory. This genuine achievement should represent a boon for the Labour Party’s election campaign as polling day approaches on June 8. By showing that they remain vibrant enough to achieve a win now and again, the trade unions have gone some way to justifying Jeremy Corbyn’s faith.</p>
<p>Corbyn has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39689349">aggressively reasserted those ties</a> as the campaign ramps up. He told supporters in Scotland: “Labour will never, ever apologise for the closeness of our relationship with the trade union movement.” The relationship had been in steady decline since the emergence of New Labour, but Corbyn seems intent of rekindling the connection.</p>
<p>He vowed that one of the first things a new Labour government would do would be to repeal the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39689349">“vicious Tory Trade Union Act”</a> of 2016. If the protest against zero-hour contracts and other insecure working is sustained and successful, and feeds into a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36063743">larger protest against austerity</a>, the Labour Party might see a route to bolster what looks like a deeply difficult election fight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Phelan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The restaurant chain may well be trying to head off union pressure and sidestep collective action … but a win is a win.Craig Phelan, Professor of Modern History, Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755812017-04-12T15:34:57Z2017-04-12T15:34:57ZCan universal basic income counter the ill-effects of the gig economy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165091/original/image-20170412-25862-14tco4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Platforms like eBay, Uber, Airbnb, and Freelancer are thriving, growing the digital economy and disrupting existing business. The question is how to ensure that the transformations they entail have a positive impact on society. Here, universal basic income may have a role to play.</p>
<p>Few social policy ideas are as hot today as universal basic income. Social scientists, technologists, and politicians from both ends of the political spectrum see it as a potential solution to the unemployment that automation and artificial intelligence are <a href="https://theconversation.com/robot-revolution-rise-of-the-intelligent-automated-workforce-58252">expected to create</a>. </p>
<p>It has also been floated as a potential solution to the rise of the gig economy, where work is centred around on-demand tasks and short-term projects as opposed to regular full-time employment. This is the kind of employment that platforms like Uber and Freelancer are based on.</p>
<p>Automation and the gig economy are actually closely linked. Isolating and codifying a job task in such a way that it can be outsourced to a gig worker can be the first step towards <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/18/uber-riders-self-driving-cars">automating that task</a>. Once a task has been automated, gig workers are used to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/17518034-6f77-11e6-9ac1-1055824ca907">train and supervise the algorithm</a>. Meanwhile, expert online contractors are hired to <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/21/machine_learning_craze_reaches_freelance_market/">fine-tune the technology</a>. More often than not, a finished artificial intelligence system is actually an ensemble of <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-humans-working-behind-the-ai-curtain">machines and human workers</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/technology/lawyers-artificial-intelligence.html">acting in concert</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165098/original/image-20170412-25882-wljtit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gig economy is often a step towards automation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Syafiq Adnan / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Basic income is an interesting solution for the gig economy, because it addresses its problems from a new angle. One of the most problematic aspects of the gig economy has to do with its <a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/publications/gigwork.pdf">negative job characteristics</a>. Though gig work can provide autonomy and <a href="https://theconversation.com/flexible-work-how-the-gig-economy-benefits-some-more-than-others-67865">good earnings for some</a>, it also involves uncertainty and insecurity, and for many can entail working antisocial hours for little pay. </p>
<p>A sort of default policy response therefore tends to be to regulate gig work back into the mould of standard employment, consisting of things like guaranteed working hours and notice periods. Basic income takes a different angle. It provides workers with a level of security and predictability over their income that is independent of work. </p>
<p>Plus, by providing workers with a fallback option, a sufficiently high basic income empowers them to turn down bad gigs. So, rather than regulating employer-employee relations, basic income allows them to negotiate terms on a more level playing field. This is why the idea has found favour on both sides of the left-right divide.</p>
<h2>Paying the cost</h2>
<p>But is basic income viable? One of the big questions is of course its cost. Giving every citizen enough money every month to pay for their essential living costs is no mean feat. Even if it replaced needs-based benefits, it would still probably entail a largescale redistribution of income. The economics of this continue to be <a href="https://qz.com/611644/we-talked-to-five-experts-about-what-it-would-take-to-actually-institute-universal-basic-income/">vigorously debated</a>, but on a macro-level it may be <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income/">basically viable</a>. </p>
<p>Yet if basic income is intended as a corrective to economic inequality resulting from new technologies, then the micro-level details of how it is funded are also important. Silicon Valley technology companies, regardless of all the wonderful services they provide us with, have also been notoriously <a href="https://mic.com/articles/155791/apple-google-microsoft-cisco-ibm-and-other-big-tech-companies-top-list-of-tax-avoiders">good at avoiding paying taxes</a>. Had they paid more taxes, there would probably be less economic inequality to grapple with now in the first place.</p>
<p>So when some of <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/21/technology-ceos-back-basic-income-as-ai-job-losses-threaten-industry-backlash.html">the same technologists now suggest</a> that states should address mounting inequality with basic income, it is pertinent to ask who will pay for it. Colleagues and I have previously looked into novel ways of <a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/could-data-pay-for-global-development-introducing-data-financing-for-global-good/">taxing the data economy</a>, but there are no easy solutions in sight.</p>
<h2>Beyond the basics</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165097/original/image-20170412-25859-17tmssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will society crumble if there’s a basic income?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another frequently cited set of questions has to do with basic income’s expected effects on society. Sceptics fear that given a free income, most people would simply stay home and watch YouTube while society crumbles. After all, employment is tightly bound with people’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-basic-income-could-help-build-community-in-an-age-of-individualism-74125">sense of identity and self-worth</a>, and provides time structure for each day, week, and year.</p>
<p>Proponents, however, have faith that most would want to better themselves or help others, even if they were not explicitly paid to do so. The idea is that a guaranteed income would free people to pursue societally valuable activities that markets won’t pay them to pursue, and that current test-based benefits may even hinder them from pursuing.</p>
<p>But all of these activities require not just food and shelter that basic income can buy, but also other resources, such as skills, knowledge, connections, and self-confidence. The most important means through which many of these resources are cultivated is education. Deprived of this, people with nothing but a basic income may well end up sitting at home watching YouTube. </p>
<p>Research that colleagues and I have carried out <a href="https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:431bd77e-7c66-4d9b-815f-c67c25254ddf/">looking at online gig workers</a> in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa suggests that it is not the most resource-poor who are able to benefit from new online work opportunities, but more typically those with a good level of education, health, and other resources.</p>
<p>So universal basic income is a very interesting potential solution to the rise of the gig economy and more entrepreneurial working lives in general. But whenever basic income is discussed, it is important to ask who exactly would be paying for it. And it is important to recognise that more than just money for basic necessities is needed – unless the intention is simply to store away surplus people in YouTube-enabled homes. Apart from universal basic income, we might therefore want to talk about universal basic resources, such as education as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vili Lehdonvirta's iLabour research project is funded by the European Research Council.</span></em></p>A universal basic income would enable people to embrace the gig economy and give them greater leverage in the jobs they choose.Vili Lehdonvirta, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/743472017-03-30T14:33:26Z2017-03-30T14:33:26ZHow football’s richest clubs fail to pay staff a real living wage<p>English football’s top flight, the Premier League, dominates the <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html">sporting world’s league tables</a> for revenue. Star players, managers and executives command <a href="http://sillyseason.com/list/salaries/premier-league-wages-per-team-69064/">lucrative wages</a>. Thanks to the biggest TV deal in world football, the 20 Premier League clubs share £10.4 billion between them.</p>
<p>But this wealth bonanza is not being distributed fairly within clubs. Wages are dramatically lower for staff at the opposite end of the Premier League labour market to players and executives. Many encounter <a href="http://www.citizensuk.org/what_about_a_transfer_window_for_those_in_working_poverty">in-work poverty</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/31/everton-to-pay-staff-living-wage">Everton and Chelsea</a> are the only two Premiership clubs fully accredited with the <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk/">Living Wage Foundation</a> to pay all lower-paid directly employed staff, as well as external contractors and agency staff, a real living wage. This is a (voluntary) wage that is higher than the legally required national living wage. It is calculated based on what employees and their families need to live, reflecting real rises in living costs. In London it’s £9.75 an hour, elsewhere it’s £8.45. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of two Premier League clubs to pay the real living wage to all staff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">asurobson / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of 92 clubs in England and Scotland’s football leagues, only three others – Luton Town, Derby County and Hearts – are also accredited with the Living Wage Foundation. And many club staff – cleaners, caterers, stewards and other match-day roles – are employed indirectly by agencies or contractors and not paid the real living wage.</p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/living-wage-campaign-seven-premier-league-clubs-refuse-to-comment-on-employees-pay-a6706951.html">The Independent</a> newspaper asked 20 Premier League clubs simple questions: Does your club pay the living wage to full-time staff? Does it pay, or is it committed to paying the living wage to part-time and contracted staff? Seven clubs failed to reply or said “no comment”.</p>
<h2>Good business, good society?</h2>
<p>Many football clubs are embedded in urban communities, some classified as among the most impoverished places in Western Europe. What does it say about ethics and employment practices, especially of wealthier Premier League clubs, when many match-day staff don’t receive a proper living wage?</p>
<p>Aside from moral factors relating to fairer distribution of wealth as the glue underpinning <a href="https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/the-spirit-level">more equal societies</a>, there is also a good business case for companies to pay a real living wage. According to the Living Wage Foundation, organisations among the 2,900 accredited as paying the voluntary living wage report <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk/why-pay-living-wage%20">significant improvements</a> in quality of work, lower staff absence and turnover – and an improved corporate reputation as a result.</p>
<p>Everton FC, located in an area of Liverpool with high social deprivation, has announced that becoming an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer will significantly increase wages for contractors and casual, match-day staff. Denise Barrett-Baxendale, the club’s deputy chief executive, <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/everton-pay-staff-contractors-living-12101127">has said</a>: “Supporting the accredited living wage is quite simply the right thing to do; it improves our employees’ quality of life but also benefits our business and society as a whole.” Everton’s neighbours Liverpool FC has yet to make a similar commitment. </p>
<p>Independent <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0263774X15614677">academic research</a> suggests that while workers benefit from the real living wage, it’s not an automatic fix. Higher hourly pay does not necessarily translate into a better standard of living if working hours are too low. The problem is that there are large concentrations of part-time living wage jobs with few hours and so small income increases are offset by rising costs of living. </p>
<h2>Ending foul pay</h2>
<p>There has recently been growing mobilisation among the public, civil society, supporters groups and some politicians to pressure football clubs to pay the real living wage. The GMB, a big general workers union, launched the <a href="http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/play-to-end-foul-pay">GMB End Foul Pay campaign</a>. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, recently urged every London Premier League club to pay all staff the <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/sadiq-khan-demands-londons-top-football-clubs-pay-living-wage-a3442441.html">London living wage</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frustrated with foul pay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lorna Roberts / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Manchester, living wage campaigners have targeted the city’s two big clubs Manchester City and Manchester United. While progress has been reported at Manchester City, Manchester United has yet to commit to extending the living wage to its directly employed part-time match-day staff. By contrast, FC United of Manchester, the breakaway non-league club formed by Manchester United fans disenchanted with the Glazers’ ownership, pays the real living wage to all staff, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/living-wage-campaign-manchester-clubs-urged-to-pay-employees-fairly-a6705096.html">setting an example to the much richer football giant</a>. Manchester United presently ranks as the “<a href="http://www.cityam.com/257333/manchester-united-replace-real-madrid-richest-club-world">richest club in the world</a>”, having achieved record-breaking revenues of £515.3m in 2015-16. </p>
<p>But despite these grassroots campaigns and political exhortations, few football clubs are taking concrete measures to improve the wages and working conditions of lower-paid staff. It appears that leaving pay determination to the prerogative of club owners and executives is not working. Stronger regulation and political intervention may have to be contemplated – such as raising the legal national living wage and giving better legal rights and protections to indirectly employed staff on precarious contracts. </p>
<p>Such issues clearly go beyond football clubs in an economy that still hasn’t recovered <a href="https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/when-is-economic-recovery-not-recovery.html">from the 2008 financial crisis</a>. The state of the UK labour market is currently being considered by the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/taylor-review-on-modern-employment-practices-launches">review of modern employment practices</a>, but we can expect little to change when the economic model remains fundamentally the same. </p>
<p>The misguided political ideology of self-regulating market forces has created stark inequalities as wealth continues to trickle up <a href="https://theconversation.com/fighting-inequality-and-poverty-requires-a-more-humane-view-of-economics-71600">disproportionately to the top 1%</a> and countervailing institutions, particularly trade unions, have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-relevant-are-the-tuc-and-unions-today-65183">emasculated</a>. Low pay in football clubs and elsewhere reflects this broader systemic context of contemporary capitalism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The wealth bonanza enjoyed by top flight football clubs does not trickle down to many of their employees.Tony Dobbins, Professor of Employment Studies, Bangor UniversityPeter Prowse, Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/711722017-01-12T15:03:44Z2017-01-12T15:03:44ZNew index of economic marginalisation helps explain Trump, Brexit and alt.right<p>If 2016 brought Brexit, Donald Trump and a backlash against cosmopolitan visions of globalisation and society, the great fear for 2017 is further shocks from right-wing populists like Geert Wilders in Holland and Marine Le Pen in France. A new mood of intolerance, xenophobia and protectionist economics seems to be in the air.</p>
<p>In a world of zero-hour contracts, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/11902080/Anti-Uber-protests-around-the-world-in-pictures.html">Uber</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/11/deliveroo-boss-pay-ahead-riders-protest">Deliveroo</a> and the gig economy, access to decent work and a sustainable family income remains the main fault line between the winners and losers from globalisation. Drill into the voter data behind <a href="http://inequalitybriefing.org/brief/briefing-61-regional-inequality-in-the-uk-is-the-worst-in-western-europe">Brexit</a> and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academics-urged-address-trump-rust-belt-revolt">Trump</a> and they have <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GRR17_Report_web.pdf">much to do</a> with economically marginalised voters in old industrial areas, from South Wales to Nord-Pas-de-Calais, from Tyneside to Ohio and Michigan. </p>
<p>These voters’ economic concerns about industrial closures, immigrants and businesses decamping to low-wage countries seemed ignored by a liberal elite espousing free trade, flexible labour and deregulation. They turned instead to populist “outsiders” with simplistic yet ultimately flawed political and economic narratives. </p>
<p>Much has been said about the crisis of liberal political democracy, but these trends look inextricably linked with what is sometimes referred to as economic democracy. This is about how well dispersed economic decision-making power is and how much control and financial security people have over their lives. I’ve been involved in <a href="http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/research/centres/transformingpublicpolicythrougheconomicdemocracy/">a project</a> to look at how this compares between different countries. The results say much about the point we have reached, and where we might be heading in future. </p>
<h2>The index</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://democratisingtheeconomy.com/">economic democracy index</a> looked at 32 countries in the OECD (omitting Turkey and Mexico, which had too much missing data). While economic democracy tends to focus on levels of trade union influence and the extent of cooperative ownership in a country, we wanted to take in <a href="http://classonline.org.uk/docs/Renewing_Public_Ownership_-_Andrew_Cumbers_FINAL.pdf">other relevant factors</a>. </p>
<p>We added three additional indicators: “workplace and employment rights”; “distribution of economic decision-making powers”, including everything from the strength of the financial sector to the extent to which tax powers are centralised; and “transparency and democratic engagement in macroeconomic decision-making”, which takes in corruption, accountability, central bank transparency and different social partners’ involvement in shaping policy. </p>
<p>What is striking is the basic difference between a more “social” model of northern European capitalism and the more market-driven Anglo-American model. Hence the Scandinavian countries score among the best, with their higher levels of social protection, employment rights and democratic participation in economic decision-making. The reverse is true of the more deregulated, concentrated and less democratic economies of the English-speaking world. The US ranks particularly low, with only Slovakia below it. The UK too is only 25th out of 32.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152428/original/image-20170111-4576-1cmq4bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Economic Democracy Index, figures from 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Cumbers</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, France ranks relatively highly. This reflects its strong levels of job protection and employee involvement in corporate decision-making – the fact that the far right has been strong in France for a number of years indicates its popularity stems from race at least as much as economics. </p>
<p>Yet leading mainstream presidential candidates <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/27/francois-fillon-on-course-to-win-french-primary-to-be-candidate-for-the-right">François Fillon</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37994372">Emmanuel Macron</a> are committed to reducing France’s protections. These are often blamed – without much real evidence – for the country’s sluggish job creation record. There is a clear danger both here and in the Netherlands that a continuing commitment to such neoliberal labour market policies might push working class voters further towards Le Pen and Wilders.</p>
<p>One other notable disparity in the index is between the scores of Austria and Germany, despite their relatively similar economic governance. Germany’s lower ranking reflects the growth of labour market insecurity and lower levels of job protection, particularly for part-time workers as part of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/01/germany-hartz-reforms-inequality">Hartz IV labour market reforms</a> in the 1990s that followed reunification.</p>
<p>The index also highlights the comparatively poor levels of economic democracy in the “transition” economies of eastern Europe. The one very interesting exception is Slovenia, which merits further study. It might reflect both its relatively stable transition from communism and the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and the continuing presence of active civil society elements in the trade union and cooperative movements. Southern European economies also tend to rank below northern European countries, as does Japan.</p>
<h2>Poverty and inequality</h2>
<p>The index provides strong evidence that xenophobic politics may be linked to changing levels of economic participation and empowerment – notwithstanding the French data. We found that the greater the poverty and inequality in a country, the lower the rates of economic democracy. </p>
<p>These findings suggest, for example, that the Anglo-American-led attack on trade unions and flexible labour policies may actually drive up poverty and inequality by cutting welfare benefits and driving up individual employment insecurity. While the OECD itself advocated these policies until recently, countries with high levels of economic democracy such as Norway, Denmark and Iceland have much lower levels of poverty than countries such as the US and UK. </p>
<p>Far-right populism is on the march everywhere, including the Nordic countries. But Brexit, Trump and the more serious shift to the far right in Eastern Europe have been accompanied by diminishing economic security and rights at work, disenfranchised trade unions and cooperatives, and economic decision-making concentrated among financial, political and corporate elites. </p>
<p>We will monitor these scores in future to see what happens over time. It will be interesting to see how the correlations between economic democracy, poverty and voting patterns develop in the coming years. For those looking for answers to the crisis in liberal democracy, this may well be it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The project referenced in this piece is based at the Universities of Glasgow and Nottingham Trent and received funding from the ESRC. </span></em></p>New measure of 32 countries’ economic balance places UK and US near bottom of the pile.Andrew Cumbers, Professor of Regional Political Economy, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/678652016-10-31T14:07:06Z2016-10-31T14:07:06ZFlexible work: how the gig economy benefits some more than others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143902/original/image-20161031-15816-1u31kav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gig life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeschmid/1315041266">Mike Schmid</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Self-employment is on the rise in the UK. The <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/october2016">latest government statistics</a> put it at 4.79m, which represents 15% of all people in work. And, in recognition of this changing nature of employment, the prime minister has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/oct/01/theresa-may-hires-former-tony-blair-policy-boss-to-review-workers-rights">commissioned a review of workers’ rights</a>. One of its chief tasks is to address concerns that millions are stuck in insecure and stressful work. </p>
<p>Flexible working and self-employment are inevitable solutions to the growing “gig economy”, in order to best manage projects and fluctuating work flows. A flexible lifestyle may be desirable for the highly paid IT consultant. But for the call centre worker on a zero-hours contract, it means a pension, mortgage and income protection are all illusory.</p>
<p>In Tim Ferriss’ book <a href="http://fourhourworkweek.com/">The 4-Hour Work Week</a>, creative freelancers live the dream. They work anywhere, anytime, provided they deliver agreed outputs. And, as social scientist Richard Florida suggests in his view of the “<a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida/books/the_rise_of_the_creative_class">Creative Class</a>”, high-tech workers, artists and musicians typically gravitate to dynamic and open urban regions, with good schools, sporting and shopping facilities. These high-earning creative types then generate jobs for contingent workers whose rights must be protected from abuse. The challenge for urban planners is to attract such talent at both ends of the flexible working spectrum. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143892/original/image-20161031-15788-4209rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creative class chill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Flexibility in self-employment, however, presents a quite different scenario for those with zero-hours contracts. These are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/zero-hours-contracts-guidance-for-employers/zero-hours-contracts-guidance-for-employers">increasingly common employment contracts</a> where employers do not guarantee the individual any work and the individual is not obliged to accept any work offered. They are a hot topic for debate, with significant polarisation of views. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/news-parliament-2015/working-practices-at-sports-direct-report-published-16-17/">recent investigation</a> into Sports Direct’s use of zero-hours contracts showed them in a particularly negative light and there is talk of the company moving to fixed hours. New Zealand <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/zero-hour-contracts-banned-in-new-zealand">banned these types of contracts</a> in April. And an employment tribunal in London <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37802386">recently ruled</a> that Uber drivers should be classed as workers, rather than self-employed. Yet for some – students, for example – a zero-hours contract is better than no contract at all. </p>
<p>Despite the latest outrages over zero-hours contracts, theories of workplace flexibility have been around for many years. The academic John Atkinson put forward a <a href="http://m.elearnuk.co.uk/uploads/courses/566.pdf">well-known model</a> for the “flexible firm” in 1984. It advocated that companies retain a core group of workers and use a flexible workforce that is determined by and responsive to business demand. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143692/original/image-20161028-15793-16o41dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://m.elearnuk.co.uk/uploads/courses/566.pdf">Julie Davies</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The model also distinguishes between functional and numerical flexibility. This has long been the operating model in the entertainment industry where the supply of staff is driven by business demand. It is a continuing theme in discussions about employment trends in the fourth industrial revolution.</p>
<h2>A business staple</h2>
<p>The high-profile coverage of zero-hours contracts might give the impression that they are one of the dominant forms of employment contract in the UK. But, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/labourforcesurveylfs">government statistics</a> show that 903,000 people were employed on them during April to June 2016 – this is just 2.9% of all people in employment. They are most likely to be young, part-time, women, or in full-time education. Typically they work 25-hours per week and a third say they would prefer more hours in their current jobs. </p>
<p>Zero-hours contracts, however, are actually less prevalent than other forms of flexible and non-standard employment such as shift work, annualised hours and temporary contracts. And they are only slightly more common than agency work.</p>
<p>In effect, they can be seen as equivalent to the long-established position of a casual contract, something which has been the staple of the business model in the leisure, entertainment and culture industry <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@sector/documents/publication/wcms_240701.pdf">for years</a>. When work is seasonal, margins are narrow and covering the minimum wage is a challenge for employers, many of whom simply cannot afford surplus staff.</p>
<h2>Juggling act</h2>
<p>One sector that experiences significant fluctuation in demand is the entertainment business. Blackpool, a seaside resort on the north-west English coast, whose <a href="http://www.visitblackpool.com/blackpool-has-it-all/">main industry is tourism</a>, is a good example of how difficult it is to get this right. There is a seasonal and school holiday cycle, which introduces one level of fluctuation. Then there are other unpredictable factors that affects the need for staff.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143887/original/image-20161031-15814-1ushuze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Unpredictable weather in Blackpool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-481530364/stock-photo-blackpool-united-kingdom-august-06-2016-blackpools-famous-golden-mile-beach-people-sunbathing-in-the-beach-blackpool-tower-in-the-background-hdr.html?src=ReVb_KNI6G1_iD6CGQOfsA-1-14">jremes84 / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The famously variable British weather affects the relative popularity of indoor and outdoor attractions. And the city is host to a number of events, ranging from major darts competitions, musical acts and theatre productions, to small weddings and functions. The skills required varies significantly too. Whether it’s the annual British Homing Pigeon World Show (January), the world ballroom dancing championships (May), or the annual Rebellion punk reunion festival (August). Flexibility is a daily challenge for many businesses in similar situations.</p>
<p>So, in a world of increasing flexibility and insecurity, we will watch with interest to see the outcome of the government’s review of modern employment. Matthew Taylor who is running it has a <a href="https://www.thersa.org/about-us/media/2016/matthew-taylor-to-lead-independent-review-of-employment-practices-in-the-modern-economy">wide remit</a> that includes security, pay and rights; progression and training; finding the appropriate balance of rights and responsibilities for new models; representation; opportunities for under-represented groups; new business models. Taylor <a href="https://medium.com/@thersa/work-in-progress-86177cea2746#.agdlzo9vp">has said</a> that “most part-time workers, and even most zero-hours workers, say they have chosen to work this way”. Let’s see whether the evidence really bears this out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67865/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Horan was previously a strategic human resources director for Blackpool Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Life is a lot different for the flexible working creative class and the call centre worker on a zero-hours contract.Julie Davies, HR Subject Group Leader, University of HuddersfieldMark Horan, Senior Lecturer Human Resource Management, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/674112016-10-21T12:05:10Z2016-10-21T12:05:10ZHermes inquiry shows how unions are finding new forms of leverage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142649/original/image-20161021-1751-1qc4283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Multinational delivery company Hermes has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/20/delivery-giant-hermes-faces-hmrc-inquiry-into-low-pay-allegations">referred to HM Revenue and Customs</a> following complaints by its couriers that they are being paid less than the minimum wage. The company, which delivers goods for major retailers including John Lewis and Next, has faced criticism since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/18/hermes-couriers-paying-staff-less-than-living-wage">The Guardian revealed</a> that the pay of some of its self-employed couriers back in July 2016 amounted to less than the hourly national minimum wage.</p>
<p>The self-employed status of these couriers removes the company’s legal responsibility to ensure they are paid the legal minimum of £7.20 an hour. Now, compliance officers will investigate whether couriers’ classification as self-employed is genuine and fair. </p>
<p>The referral marks a stride forward in the equitable treatment of workers without traditional forms of collective workplace representation, allowing their voices to be heard and potentially changing the way they are treated. Alongside similar cases recently of retailers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/20/sports-direct-bows-to-pressure-and-agrees-to-independent-review">Sports Direct</a> and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/saraspary/asos-has-told-staff-it-is-changing-contracts-following-worke?utm_term=.eyv5M775v#.wxewLPPw7">ASOS</a> making such concessions to workers’ rights, it appears to be part of a growing trend.</p>
<p>These cases are markers of how intense external pressure can change the way that these firms treat their staff (whether employed directly or indirectly via agencies). With strikes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/02/number-of-striking-workers-now-lower-than-ever">at an all-time low</a> and the membership of unions much depleted, these advances in defending workers’ terms and conditions of employment show how alliances between unions and other NGOs are beginning to bear significant fruit.</p>
<h2>Hot potatoes</h2>
<p>On various issues, including employers undercutting the minimum wage, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/02/tips-should-go-to-workers-not-employers-government-report-restaurants">taxing customer tips for waiters in restaurants</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36242312">blacklisting construction workers for their political views or union membership</a>, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e6231ad6-45a6-11e5-af2f-4d6e0e5eda22">bogus use of self-employment</a> and imposition of <a href="https://theconversation.com/zero-hour-contracts-the-dark-side-of-flexible-labour-markets-16500">zero-hours contracts</a>, unions in Britain have developed a model of working with other concerned parties to pack a bigger than normal punch. In this, they have started to emulate their American counterparts in their campaigns for higher minimum wages such as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/mcdonalds-and-the-global-revolution-of-fast-food-workers-64574">fight for $15</a>” campaign in the fast food sector. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142655/original/image-20161021-1748-14y88ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Fight for $15 movement in the US brings together unions, workers and politicians like Bernie Sanders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ontariofedlabour/16537937864">OFL Communications Department</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Consequently, what unions now do is create a political hot potato by gaining the support of progressive news outlets such as The Guardian as well as appealing to parliamentary committees, in order to exercise political leverage over companies and the government. They begin by getting members and supporters in the concerned companies to write to MPs and offer access to journalists whereby workers <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/business-innovation-and-skills-committee/working-practices-at-sports-direct/written/34181.html">can share their stories</a>. </p>
<p>News outlets turn these bad news stories into their own investigations which they then widely publicise. In the meantime, this supports the willingness of a small handful of key MPs to write to government ministers urging corrective action. Those who are chairs of important parliamentary committees can call employers to account by compelling them to give testimony. </p>
<h2>Creating a tipping point</h2>
<p>In the case of Hermes, 78 couriers wrote complaints to Frank Field MP, the chairman of the House of Commons work and pensions select committee. Field then sent a report to HMRC, which has led to its investigation into Hermes – something the company has said it will cooperate fully with while insisting it has done nothing wrong.</p>
<p>Actions by MPs provide news outlets with further stories. These, in turn, fuel outrage on the part of the general public which is widely shared – alongside links to the stories – via social media. This unfavourable attention is keenly felt by senior management and shareholders – the latter concerned about the value of their investments. Often marshalled together by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/01/new-breed-shareholder-activists">shareholder activist groups</a>, shareholders start questioning why this is happening and proffering solutions to resolve the situation. </p>
<p>A tipping point is reached when the government is forced to make statements that it will investigate certain employer practices and uphold the law where it believes it has not been adhered to. The whole process shows how external pressure on companies can cause internal changes in the way they treat staff.</p>
<p>This unfolding story of how unions can kickstart the process of creating political heat on employers shows that they have learned there is more than one way to skin the proverbial tiger. This does not mean that political campaigning has made traditional forms of industrial action redundant – rather, it shows that unions have realised that they must adapt to new situations and use other, more innovative means. Of course, there is some sense of déjà vu, whereby the long tradition of political campaigning that unions <a href="https://he.palgrave.com/page/detail/a-history-of-the-british-labour-party-andrew-thorpe/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781137409829">have always engaged in</a> is simply being updated for the digital, social media age. </p>
<p>For the unions, these handful of victories provide the space and opportunity to create more general modus operandi to ensure that workers are not unfairly exploited by businesses and that they have fair working practices at their core. More widely, linking employees with external NGO and political support will be the key challenge to build a stronger force for change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is affiliated with editor of the Scottish Left Review and director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation.</span></em></p>External pressure has led to delivery giant, Hermes, being referred to the chief tax man over whether or not its workers should be classified as ‘self-employed’.Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/657032016-09-21T09:48:34Z2016-09-21T09:48:34ZThree ways Sports Direct can rebuild its reputation<p>Sports Direct has had a turbulent time of late. Investigations into the working conditions at the retailer’s warehouses led to criticisms from <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sports-direct-agm-idUKKCN11D0K1">unions</a>, <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/news-parliament-2015/sports-direct-working-practices-mike-ashley-no-show-16-17/">MPs</a> and its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/06/sports-direct-inquiry-key-points-working-practices">own law firm</a> about its labour and governance practices. </p>
<p>Even an attempted PR move to change the company’s image – a Sports Direct “open day” for journalists and members of the public to look around its warehouses – ended in controversy after boss Mike Ashley pulled a wad of £50 notes out of his pocket <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/07/mike-ashley-pulls-out-massive-wad-of-50-notes-on-sports-direct-w/">during a security check</a>.</p>
<p>In a bid to restore confidence in his company, Ashley appeared on prime time news in a rare television interview and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37416351">agreed to an independent review</a> of its working practices and corporate governance. Will this be enough for Sports Direct to put criticism behind it and move on?</p>
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<p>Sports Direct is neither the first nor the last company to face a reputation crisis. To weather these storms, research would suggest three important actions, some of which the company have already put into action. </p>
<h2>1. Proactively address critics</h2>
<p>Proactively addressing the criticisms the company has had around its labour and governance practices is an important first step in rebuilding confidence. This shows that the company is serious about how it treats its employees and how it is organised.</p>
<p>There have been major shifts in how other organisations in the UK engage with and treat their labour and in how seriously they take the issue of corporate governance. Empowering employees in the workplace through <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15555240903188398">involving them in strategic decisions</a> and ensuring a diversity of skills and backgrounds <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8683.00011/full">on company boards</a> are two recent trends. </p>
<p>The challenge for Sports Direct will be to show its staff, shareholders and the public that it takes both issues seriously – not as a knee-jerk reaction to external pressure, but because they are an important part of the company’s values. This takes time to achieve and should be more than <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/corg.12154/full">a tick box exercise</a>.</p>
<p>For Sports Direct, agreeing to an independent review, instead of using its own law firm, is a step in the right direction.</p>
<h2>2. Top-down, bottom-up</h2>
<p>Inevitably, when a company does seek to change its reputation, there is both resistance and scepticism from certain quarters within it. This is why such change must be both top-down and led in this case by Mike Ashley and Sports Direct’s chairman, Keith Hellawell. But it must also be bottom-up, with champions leading the change across the entire company. </p>
<p>Too often, attempts at change lead to major disconnections between leaders, managers and the rest of the workforce. This was a problem at food producer Beak and Johnston, which historically had a hierarchical approach to managing workers in the context of a tough working environment of meat processing. Over time, however, this multi-million dollar company has empowered workers to be accountable for line performances and provide input into company strategy, which has <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joe.21572/full">transformed the company’s culture and financial performance</a>.</p>
<p>A disconnect between leaders and workers not only creates tension internally among the workforce, it also raises questions externally among analysts, unions, journalists and others around the authenticity of the change process.</p>
<h2>3. True values</h2>
<p>Most organisations make grandiose claims about their values. However, when a company faces major questions about its reputation then those values come under greater scrutiny. What is particularly interesting about Sports Direct is that there is very little information on the company’s website about its values. Much more is said about its strategy, business model and operations. </p>
<p>Clearly, writing a set of values does not imply sound labour and governance practices, but their absence might suggest too great an emphasis on economic performance. Sports Direct should consider embedding a strong set of values which are meaningful to its members. To be clear, this should not be a window dressing exercise for its website, but an opportunity to much more closely engage with its core internal and external stakeholders such as employees, customers, investors, unions and regulators.</p>
<p>It won’t be easy, but Ashley’s presence this morning on BBC Breakfast is an important first step, as demonstrated by the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a11a8e9c-58ef-30db-a435-5c414ad9d1d4">boost in the company’s share price</a> that followed it. But it must be about more than just PR soundbites. Other important steps include more directly engaging with key employees and shareholders who are concerned not only about the short-term turnaround, but also the company’s long-term reputation and survival.</p>
<p>Working on the above with a strong and committed board, senior management team and group of employee representatives will help to rebuild the company’s reputation from within. And this, over time, will be recognised externally.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sports Direct is neither the first nor the last company to face a reputation crisis – and it can bounce back.Will Harvey, Director of Public Policy Research Cluster, Director of Research and Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/625572016-07-18T10:01:16Z2016-07-18T10:01:16ZHow Theresa May’s government can help struggling families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130859/original/image-20160718-2122-15iv2c6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In need of support.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Theresa May has come into office talking about people who are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/statement-from-the-new-prime-minister-theresa-may">“just managing”</a>, but find life tough. Similarly, then Labour Party leader Ed Miliband talked about the squeezed middle in the build-up to last year’s general election. </p>
<p>These are families who are not in dire poverty, but struggle in insecure jobs, with limited housing prospects. Many in this situation expressed their disillusionment with the status quo by voting for Brexit and this has once again raised intense political angst about working families on modest incomes whose economic fortunes have waned over the past eight years.</p>
<p>New <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/falling-short-experiences-families-below-minimum-income-standard">research</a> carried out by colleagues and me for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation sends a clear message that there are a huge number of families in the UK who are hard working and yet struggling to make ends meet. As many as one in three families in the UK fall below a minimum standard of living, based on what members of the public consider to be socially acceptable.</p>
<p>Our latest study is based on in-depth interviews with parents in 30 families who are below this socially agreed minimum but not in dire poverty. It shows how even working families can severely struggle to keep their heads above water, particularly where work is low-paid and sporadic. </p>
<p>Typically, families at this level are unable to afford some things considered the norm in 21st century Britain. This could mean not having a modest annual family holiday or, in some cases, even foregoing some of the most basic needs, including mothers skipping meals to put food on the table for their children.</p>
<h2>An uphill battle</h2>
<p>Many are remarkably resourceful on low incomes. Typically, families were highly organised and worked hard to eke out their scarce resources, looking carefully for the best deals and being disciplined about not getting into debt. Others were fighting an uphill battle, finding it hard to afford the basics, juggling debts, always feeling skint. What distinguished these families was not just their personal qualities, but the situations they found themselves in – often because of factors beyond their control, such as family illness or insecure work.</p>
<p>Extended family support makes a huge difference in terms of avoiding the worst effects of low income living. Grandparents often make it possible for mums to work, by being around for childcare. Those without this advantage found it hard to juggle work and care and some felt they needed to wait until their children were at secondary school to do more than very part-time work. Grandparents were also a source of financial back-up – helping out when there was a crisis or funding a holiday, children’s activities or trips out. These opportunities to do more than just survive can make a huge difference to a child growing up on a low income.</p>
<p>Another striking factor was that most of the families we spoke to had at least one member with a health problem. This probably reflects the fact that ill health can be a contributory cause, and not just an effect, of low income. It is certainly a limiting factor in many people’s lives, adding to costs and often restricting the capacity to earn, whether it is an adult with ill health or a child that needs caring for.</p>
<p>The most important thing for these families, though, is having a stable income and life situation. Precarious employment and the uncertainties of renting a home from a private landlord (which <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501068/2014-15_Section_1_Households_tables_and_figures_FINAL.xlsx">a quarter of all families now do</a>, due to a lack of social housing), combined sometimes with family breakdown, deny families the stability that they crave.</p>
<h2>Priorities</h2>
<p>A key research question of the study was what happens when a family does not have enough to afford a minimum living standard: what do they prioritise and what do they give up? Some of the answers were straightforward and unsurprising. Keeping homes warm and food on the table have a high priority; having a holiday may have to go by the board this year. Parents prioritise the needs of their children – by, for example, barely socialising as adults and rarely buying clothes for themselves in order that their children are not disadvantaged, both materially and socially.</p>
<p>But an interesting finding was that when money is short, families find different ways of structuring their spending so that they can meet a range of basic material and social needs. For example, unable to afford a holiday or a trip to the cinema, families may invest more in creating family entertainment in the home – potentially subscribing to paid-for television. </p>
<p>Middle-class commentators who have a rich social life outside the home may consider this to be an unnecessary frivolity. But to the family concerned, it may be meeting the social need for family interaction in a highly cost-effective manner. This helps explain a frequent lack of understanding in the way that the lifestyles of people on low incomes are discussed.</p>
<p>For Theresa May’s new government, the message from our research is clear. Families struggling to get by on low and sporadic incomes crave stability. They want steady jobs, secure homes, benefits that don’t keep fluctuating and childcare that they can rely on. </p>
<p>This is a big ask, and governments cannot deliver stable lives. But promoting more reliable forms of work, housing and childcare is as good an agenda as any for a government newly committed to helping people who are barely managing to keep their heads above water.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Hirsch receives funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.</span></em></p>New research shows that a third of UK families fall below a minimum standard of living – many are hardworking but still struggle to make ends meet.Donald Hirsch, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/585412016-05-12T13:17:23Z2016-05-12T13:17:23ZSex worker unions are reforming their industry<p>How best to regulate the sex industry is a frequent topic of discussion. But most of it focuses on moves by governments to criminalise people who pay for sex. France, for example, has recently joined a long list of countries, including Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Northern Ireland, in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35982929">making it illegal to purchase a sexual service</a>. </p>
<p>Yet this runs contrary to the views of many <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20160406-france-prostitution-law-sex-workers-divided">who work in the industry</a>. If their voices were listened to, we might see a very different approach to regulating sex work.</p>
<p>In France, as with these other countries, the representatives of sex workers have campaigned against the introduction of criminalisation. They believe it endangers the safety of sex workers, as the selling of sex will continue but be driven underground. Their slogan is <a href="http://www.awid.org/publications/nothing-about-us-without-us-ten-years-sex-workers-rights-activism-and-advocacy-europe">“nothing about us without us”</a>. In other words, no policy should be devised or action taken concerning sex work without the full and direct participation of the workers involved and their representatives.</p>
<p>Forming labour unions is one of the main ways that sex workers are attempting to challenge the way the industry they work in is regulated. Sex worker activists en masse favour decriminalisation and a large number have sought to create a representative body to campaign for it.</p>
<h2>Like any other work</h2>
<p>The unionisation of sex workers typifies many of the sharpest challenges for <a href="http://wes.sagepub.com/content/20/2/415.extract">groups trying to unionise</a>. These include organising self-employed workers with no regular or fixed place of work, high levels of turnover and, effectively, zero hour contracts – all within greatly expanding labour markets due to migration. However, unlike any other workers, sex workers also face moral opprobrium from both within and outside of the labour union movement as a result of the work they do. So there is an additional hurdle to be overcome in the process of unionisation. </p>
<p>Yet, despite these challenges, sex worker activists have succeeded in persuading fellow workers to unionise (either through joining existing unions or creating new ones) in 30 countries including the US, UK, India and Cambodia. They have been spurred on by the realisation that sex work is work much like any other, and that sex workers need and want rights. </p>
<p>Sex workers have problems <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137320131">in common with other workers</a> such as lack of holiday pay, fines for bogus infractions at work, being compelled to do unpaid overtime, bullying by managers and being forced to work long hours without breaks. But there are also different problems which most workers don’t have to face such as having to pay fees to work and purchasing work items from their bosses. From both, a sense of injustice and an array of grievances have developed. </p>
<p>Added to their discontent over these issues, sex workers also want to add a political voice to their economic one. Consequently, they have used unionisation to amplify their public position on the legal status of sex work.</p>
<h2>No easy task</h2>
<p>But unionisation has been no easy task. The numbers involved have been small, progress has been limited in making substantive gains, and many organisations have folded such as the <a href="http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/europe-netherlands-amsterdam-red-light-district-sex-worker">Red Thread union in the Netherlands</a>. Notable highlights have been collective bargaining over contracts for terms and conditions of work (remuneration, working hours, grievance and discipline procedures and so on), as well as individual and wider political representation. </p>
<p>Formal collective bargaining has taken place in Australia, Britain, Germany and the US, while individual representation has also taken place through the sex work establishments’ grievance procedures as well as through legal action in many more countries. Political representation has involved campaigning and lobbying to reform the legal regulation of sex work. Informal collective bargaining, assisted by legal recourse, has also taken place, especially with regard to fees levied to work for exotic dancers and their <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/organized-labors-newest-heroes-strippers/265376/">campaign to be accorded employed status in the US</a>. </p>
<p>After initial successes, energy levels have waned. Organisational development has stalled and many sex worker unions have folded. Along the way, there have been some almighty and bitter internal disputes among sex workers over <a href="http://isj.org.uk/the-sex-work-debatea-response-to-jess-edwards/">whether managers should be members</a> and which groups of sex workers (for example men, women or transgender) should be prioritised over others.</p>
<p>Yet, despite these problems, when one organisation has folded another has often emerged to take its place and carry on the battle for representation. This demonstrates the continuing demand for collective interest representation and the willingness of activists to step up to the plate to provide that representation. Sex worker unionisation is therefore very much a work in progress and a battle still being fought across the world. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137320131">My research</a> suggests that developing an occupational form of labour unionism is the best way forward. This means instead of trying to gain bargaining rights in each individual sex work establishment, which is an arduous process, sex workers would seek to regulate their industry as a whole by controlling the standards and practices within it, as well as who has entry to it. One way to do this is through creating a sense of industry identity, at the same time as organising themselves through their union. It will be a difficult task but potentially more rewarding in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Moves to criminalise sex work are facing tough opposition from those in the industry.Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/580172016-04-20T14:02:00Z2016-04-20T14:02:00ZJobs figures mask bogus self-employment in the shadow economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119497/original/image-20160420-25615-jeithx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An unclear employment picture. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/april2016">has posted</a> disappointing jobs data. Unemployment rose slightly for the first time in seven months, by 21,000 to 1.7m. It is still at a respectable rate of 5.1% and employment remains very high at 74.1%. But the figures need unpicking to identify the problems that lie beneath the surface of the country’s economy, despite months of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35819535">positive headlines</a>.</p>
<p>A closer look at the jobs situation in the UK shows that since the 2008 financial crisis, many workers have experienced low-wage precariousness. There has been an increase in flexible “non-standard” working patterns: part-time work, zero hours contracts, and underemployment. </p>
<p>Self-employment in particular has risen sharply. <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest#employment">Official data</a> indicates an all-time record of 4.63m self-employed people in 2016 (15% of the UK workforce) – nearly double the figures in 1975. Self-employment is common in sectors like construction, social care, delivery drivers, taxi drivers, hairdressing, and management consultants.</p>
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<p>The UK government recently commissioned an independent review of self-employment – the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-employment-review%2520">Deane Report</a>. But, as the Royal Society of Arts <a href="https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/benedict-dellot-blog/">states</a>, while the report rightly emphasised the living standards of the self-employed, it is “an underwhelming response to an overwhelming phenomenon”.</p>
<p>One in seven working people are estimated to be self-employed and the types of people and their experience of self-employment varies significantly. For example, a stay-at-home mum in a two-income family running her own childminding business and a single parent cleaner on a zero hours contract may both be self-employed but have different experiences.</p>
<p>Too little is known about changing work patterns at the margins of the labour market and research is required to explore peoples’ experiences of self-employment. In the meantime, there’s a risk that a growing chunk of the workforce will experience precarious, insecure working lives in a system currently ill-equipped to provide sufficient numbers of good quality jobs. The UK does not have a coherent labour market policy or industrial strategy to address these problems.</p>
<h2>Low paid and precarious</h2>
<p>People might self-identify as being entrepreneurs by managing to earn anything at all in a post-crisis jobs market. This is especially the case in regional economies that have been hollowed out by the decimation of traditional industries such as mining and <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-steel-industry-decline-isnt-just-down-to-tata-56964">steel in Wales</a>. </p>
<p>On average, the self-employed earn less than other workers, as well as having less access to benefits like training and pensions. They are exempt from minimum wage legislation, so will not benefit from the recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage/who-gets-the-minimum-wage">minimum wage increase</a>. </p>
<p>A 2015 parliamentary briefing shows that, worryingly, average income from self-employment fell by 22% between 2008-09 and 2012-13 to £207 a week. And data from the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-resources-survey--2%2520">Family Resources Survey</a> indicated that in 2012-13, the average (median) income from self-employment sources was £11,000 a year. This compares with current <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/emONS%2520average%2520earnings%2520data">official average earnings data</a> for the whole labour force of £497 a week and £25,844 annually.</p>
<p>Self-employment status can also <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-business-is-devising-new-ways-to-rip-off-workers-57398">be used to circumvent the rights that people with employee status get</a> such as sick leave and holiday pay. Evidently, more employers have been replacing directly employed staff with workers who are formally and legally self-employed but in reality highly dependent on a firm. By having commercial contracts instead of traditional employment contracts, firms can avoid employment and social security laws. In so doing, they have more control and power over these workers, as well as increasing their profits.</p>
<h2>An ‘uberised’ economy</h2>
<p>This shadow economy is encroaching into diverse sectors like oil and gas, as well as delivery and taxi drivers. In addition to on-demand apps such as Uber, new firms are emerging such as TaskRabbit, an online service for outsourcing everyday jobs, and Upwork, a platform for freelancers. This increased “uberisation” of the online market for casual labour and the impact of new technology means it includes both low and high skill occupations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119479/original/image-20160420-25597-1re9fxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under Uber pressure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanh1/7516586160/in/photolist-csdtc7-e6ZACD-e6Ztbe-D3YPC-4gqqZi-7jWFKP-55cqjP-e6Zs5v-e768VE-e76e2E-6u5FC3-6efWPy-e6Zy3n-crdSXd-4xBVpR-7gRrC-cUg6cj-iUw3Bt-bT7rw-avNN8W-4bBvEG-8a7jgW-4DnMQt-4sQwqW-bmjcxQ-7gQBB-9yTZCy-9dUeJf-e6ZvZD-6CBYxo-9qrBpq-7qdW8F-7eTyyd-3AXm3V-5ySLqu-9zpaYU-57hwtU-pvJauD-imta5D-ACKke-5Y1rBp-3o6pqj-imsEM4-51hAhn-5QFgPr-nWbaqn-cEdLN1-dffxdu-9TtJeF-ofshdV">DncnH/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Uber is a good example of how self-employment has become a contentious classification. There are more than 30,000 Uber drivers in the UK, who are labelled as self-employed partners. But the GMB trade union, which covers a number of industries, is <a href="http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/gmb-legal-action-on-uber-drivers">supporting a claim by Uber drivers</a> for the minimum wage and statutory holidays – benefits that are normally afforded to employees but not the self-employed. Meanwhile, in the US, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-fortunato-bas/ondemand-workers-on-the-m_b_8332114.html">ruled in June 2015</a> that an Uber driver should be classified as an employee, not an independent contractor.</p>
<p>The rise in false self-employment, dependent self-employment, online labour, and the expansion of the shadow economy generally, renders regulation problematic. A number of trade unions have periodically campaigned on related issues. But unions still mainly represent members in conventional employment and larger organisations. </p>
<p>Tax and other regulatory bodies also face classification problems in terms of how different kinds of employment status are or are not legally recognised in contracts. Classification is more problematic given labour market fragmentation and diversity of individual employment status.</p>
<p>False self-employment is not an official classification, by the statistics body the ONS, for example. It has, however, been acknowledged by the tax authorities and the UK Trades Union Congress, due to concerns <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-business-is-devising-new-ways-to-rip-off-workers-57398">that bogus self-employment</a> may be designed to avoid employment rights and tax and social security payments that would normally be associated with employee status. </p>
<p>There are no figures on the extent of this shadow economy activity and estimations are difficult, as it is often secretive. But, if left unchecked, problems like misclassified bogus self-employment could further erode job quality, employment rights, create tax deficits, and extend the precarious shadow labour force.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Dobbins receives funding from The British Academy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Howard Davis receives funding from the Economic & Social Research Council but any views expressed here do not reflect the research councils.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Plows does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Too little is known about the changing work patterns at the margins of the labour market.Tony Dobbins, Professor of Employment Studies, Bangor UniversityAlexandra Plows, Research Fellow, Bangor UniversityHoward Davis, Professor of Social Theory & Institutions, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/568222016-04-15T10:40:18Z2016-04-15T10:40:18ZStill down and out in Paris and London (and not rising up)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118591/original/image-20160413-22035-12qwmiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After more than <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35936269">400,000 workers</a> participated in a general strike against efforts by the French president, Francois Hollande, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/end-of-term-protests-threaten-francois-hollande-labour-legacy">to reform labour laws</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-frances-nuitdebout-protests-the-start-of-a-new-political-movement-57706">“Nuit Debout” protests</a> continue to gather momentum. But the UK’s own employment crisis has excited relatively little interest. This is odd, considering that the scale of the problem is comparable with the Great Depression. </p>
<p>According to the latest figures, there are currently <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/march2016">1.68m unemployed people</a> seeking work in the UK. This is far fewer than the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7TIp3oq398IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=British+Unemployment+1919-1939:+A+Study+in+Public+Policy+three+million&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz0LOAuf_LAhXBXhoKHY_lBe0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=three%20million&f=false">3m people</a> who were reportedly unemployed at the height of the Great Depression. Yet closer inspection reveals that the employment issues facing British people today are of an equal – if not, greater – magnitude.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35819535">statistics suggest</a> that unemployment is falling. But in reality, huge numbers of people are moving into precarious new forms of employment, which offer low pay and little job security: from 2014 to 2015, the number of zero-hour contract jobs <a href="http://https//www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/march2016">rose by 104,000</a> to 1.7m. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) recently reported that only <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/labour-market-and-economic-reports/only-one-every-forty-net-jobs-recession-full-time">one in 40</a> of the jobs created since the recession have been full-time positions – meaning that in 2014, full-time jobs accounted for only 62% of employment.</p>
<h2>The odd job</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118707/original/image-20160414-2657-1vg727a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vagrants making tracks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo#/media/File:Hobos2.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1930s, if you were a part-time or itinerant labourer – flitting between short-term jobs – you were not seen as someone in employment. In fact, you would likely have been considered a vagrant. Writing in 1936, homeless memoirist William Gape defined a vagrant as someone who is “compelled to seek his livelihood day by day”.</p>
<p>The “tramp” memoirs of authors such as <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/jack-london-9385499">Jack London</a>, <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/william-henry-davies/">W H Davies</a> and <a href="http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100033511">Bart Kennedy</a> all tell of protagonists jumping from one short-term job to another. Whether they were working as cowherds, dockers, oyster pickers, railroad workers, fruit pickers or as labourers – the early 20th-century equivalents to zero-hour contract jobs – all of these authors regarded themselves as unemployed.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zcUzAAAAMAAJ&q=beales+and+lambert+memoirs+unemployed&dq=beales+and+lambert+memoirs+unemployed&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDprHiu4LMAhXH7RQKHRwRCkIQ6AEIHDAA">An extensive survey</a> conducted by the BBC in 1934 offered a series of accounts of the lives of unemployed people. Nearly all of them describe being in and out of short-term jobs: from the unemployed advertising agent who “found odd jobs at sign painting, Christmas card production and so on”; to an unemployed miner who “picked up a knowledge of slating and general house repair work” and the unemployed “youth” who found occasional work “packing soft goods” and “delivering circulars”.</p>
<p>These accounts sound remarkably similar to the experiences of precariously employed people working in service industries today. But while the survey identifies these workers as the long-term unemployed, today such people are statistically considered to be in work.</p>
<p>This is largely because, back then, odd jobs made up a tiny fraction of the employment market – small enough not to count. Even in 1979, after women had entered the workforce en masse, part-time work still only represented <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2gFS9woJy7MC&pg=PA224&dq=part-time+1930s+uk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC1aW39YHMAhXLvRoKHdEXDkIQ6AEIITAB#v=onepage&q=uk&f=false">16.4% of employment</a>. But by 2014, this figure had risen to 38%. </p>
<p>So, although there were far more people categorised as unemployed in the time of the Great Depression, the way we define such categories has changed – and many of those in partial employment today would have been considered unemployed by 1930s standards.</p>
<h2>A new age</h2>
<p>These days, many more people rely on government support in order to survive than during the Great Depression. Last year, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/march2016/pdf">3.79m people</a> claimed out-of-work benefits in the UK. In 1930, the number of people reportedly registered at the Employment Exchange (where unemployed people would apply for relief) was <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1930/may/22/statistics#S5CV0239P0_19300522_HOC_64">1,677,473</a>. This represents a significant increase – even when population growth is taken into account. </p>
<p>Of course, dependence on state support may have increased, simply because there is more available. But a recent survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics found that <a href="http://http//webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/persistent-poverty-in-the-uk-and-eu/2008-2013/persistent-poverty-in-the-uk-and-eu--2008-2013.html">4.6m people</a> in the UK still live in a state of “persistent poverty”, while <a href="http://https//www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-benefit-caseload-statistics%20">a similar number</a> depend on housing benefits to make ends meet. And these figures don’t even count many people living in states of precarious employment and extreme poverty in the UK, such as the estimated <a href="http://http//www.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/research/london/pdf/irregular%20migrants%20full%20report.pdf">618,000 “irregular migrants”</a> living in London. </p>
<p>Taken together, it seems that there are a vast number of people either unemployed, unaccounted for or in insecure, badly paid jobs – people who by the standards of the 1930s would have been seen as unemployed. </p>
<h2>Then and now</h2>
<p>The difference between the 1930s and now is that back then the employment crisis provoked unprecedented levels of political activism and unrest. The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement – founded in 1921 by the Communist Party of Great Britain – <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TuOqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87&dq=50,000+nuwm&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYh5vfyv_LAhVEwQ4KHfy9DowQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=50%2C000%20nuwm&f=false">grew to 100,000 members</a> and organised public demonstrations that made front-page news. </p>
<p>Membership of political parties rocketed over the course of the 1930s: the Communist Party of Great Britain grew <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X4_q46RCeJQC&pg=PA11&dq=%22cpgb+membership%22+17,000&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwieooybhYLMAhXFVRQKHaEdCtgQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22cpgb%20membership%22%2017%2C000&f=false">from 3,000 to 17,000 members</a>; while Labour <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lBk9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA114&dq=Pimlott+%22constituency+party+membership%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3mPWChoLMAhXGChoKHZq-DXcQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Pimlott%20%22constituency%20party%20membership%22&f=false">membership soared</a> from 277,211 to 408,844. </p>
<p>So significant was the nationwide response to high unemployment that the prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, was forced to resign in 1931, after a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E0ubhRtZ13kC&pg=PA68&dq=On+the+Cabinet%27s+failure+to+act+upon+these+he+resigned+from+the+government+four+months+later&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUvv7P_4HMAhXKaRQKHZXcBEwQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=On%20the%20Cabinet's%20failure%20to%20act%20upon%20these%20he%20resigned%20from%20the%20government%20four%20months%20later&f=false">cabinet dispute over the issue</a>.</p>
<p>British culture was also transformed. Publisher Victor Gollancz established the Left Book Club, claiming to have <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NVsVCD3sZJUC&pg=PT184&dq=%22By+May+1938+there+were+over+900+groups+operating+in+Britain%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXprXp_oHMAhVFzRQKHTjvA_kQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22By%20May%201938%20there%20were%20over%20900%20groups%20operating%20in%20Britain%22&f=false">more than 900 reading groups</a> committed to discussing radical literature. Poets such <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UlnwITCGcw8C&pg=PA15&dq=%22only+when+the+crisis+spread+to+Great+Britain%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEsPvRgoLMAhUJPhQKHfdZBpMQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22only%20when%20the%20crisis%20spread%20to%20Great%20Britain%22&f=false">W H Auden and Stephen Spender</a> changed their approaches as writers after they witnessed “the crisis spread to Great Britain”. George Orwell was first “<a href="http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw">forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer</a>” after experiencing unemployment and poverty at first hand in Paris, London and a host of Britain’s industrial towns en route to Wigan Pier. </p>
<p>Novels which told the stories of young people struggling to make a living – such as Walter Greenwood’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/07/rereading-love-dole-walter-greenwood">Love on the Dole</a> and James Hanley’s <a href="http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/an-introduction-to-james-hanley/">Drift</a> – became bestsellers, while popular films such as Charlie Chaplin’s <a href="http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/biography/articles/4-City-Lights">City Lights</a> and Lewis Milestone’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9406E4DC1E3AE333A2575AC0A9649C946294D6CF">Hallelujah I’m a Bum</a> dramatised and even sensationalised the experience of unemployment.</p>
<p>By comparison, our response has been minimal.</p>
<p>Certainly, there are grassroots radical organisations and networks today, which consider poverty and unemployment in the UK to be a priority issue: the People’s Assembly, Brick Lane Debates and Focus E15 –- to name just a few. And there are politicians and commentators who regularly address the subject: people such as Jeremy Corbyn, Owen Jones and Paul Mason. Many of these <a href="http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/hhje">march on parliament</a> on April 16, as part of a demonstration demanding health, homes, jobs and education for all. </p>
<p>But our present crisis has failed to produce a mass movement like the one beginning in France. Perhaps we simply haven’t noticed the growth of the grey area between employment and unemployment. Or maybe our imaginations have not yet been captured in the way that inspired inter-war writers and dramatists. But one thing is clear: we shouldn’t let ourselves be fooled into imagining we live in better times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Davies receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Today’s employment crisis is as serious as the Great Depression – so why aren’t we up in arms?Luke Lewin Davies, PhD Candidate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/446282015-07-20T14:25:37Z2015-07-20T14:25:37ZExplainer: why doesn’t work always offer a safe escape route from poverty?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89022/original/image-20150720-12567-1ur3j7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not just for the workless.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday, British lawmakers will vote on a <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2015-2016/0051/16051.pdf">welfare bill</a> which reflects a widely accepted idea that paid employment provides an important route out of poverty for people of working age. In fact, the proposals make it clear that this government regards paid work as the only acceptable route out of poverty; Chancellor George Osborne has even argued that “progressive” <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/19/george-osborne-progressive-reform-welfare-benefits-system">Labour MPs should offer their support</a>. But the uncomfortable truth here is that many of those who enter paid employment remain stuck in a cycle of struggle. </p>
<p>You are considered to be suffering from <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/poverty-and-employment-transitions-in-the-uk-and-eu/2007-2012/sty-how-effective-is-getting-a-job-in-helping-people-leave-poverty-.html">“in-work poverty”</a> if you are in employment and the income of your household is below the poverty threshold – currently at 60% of the median household income. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has estimated that 8% of people in work in 2013 were also in in-work poverty. It has hovered around this rate since 2005, with the exception of a slight dip in the two years following the start of the financial crisis. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88974/original/image-20150720-12567-1fnu2tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/poverty-and-employment-transitions-in-the-uk-and-eu/2007-2012/sty-how-effective-is-getting-a-job-in-helping-people-leave-poverty-.html">Office for National Statistics/Eurostat</a></span>
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<h2>Wage restricted</h2>
<p>The ONS figures demonstrate that for many people, entering work does not mean exiting poverty. Over the period 2007-2012, 30% of people aged 18-59 who found a job having previously been without work and living in a household in poverty, remained in poverty after taking up paid employment. Furthermore, poverty among working families has increased over time. </p>
<p>According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/monitoring-poverty-and-social-exclusion-2014">Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2014 report</a>, the proportion of working-age adults in poverty who were also in work reached around two-fifths of the total by 2008/9. This increase reflected a fall (starting in the late 1990s) in workless poverty, particularly among retired families, and a growth in the number of people living in low-income, working families.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88975/original/image-20150720-12564-iiuqy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/MPSE-2014-FULL.pdf">Joseph Rowntree Foundation/DWP</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Why, then, does work not offer a better escape route from poverty? One obvious reason is that many jobs are low paid. There has been a substantial expansion over the past 30 years in employment in relatively low-paid service sector occupations such as retail work and security guards. Many of these jobs are paid at or around the level of the National Minimum Wage and many of them are part-time and/or temporary positions. Across the EU, the average risk of experiencing in-work poverty is greater for part-time and temporary jobs <a href="http://eid.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/07/25/0143831X13491842">than for full-time and “permanent” jobs</a>. </p>
<p>The insecure nature of much low-paid employment also means that there is a substantial amount of cycling between low pay and no pay, which in itself can have damaging consequences for workers’ long term employment opportunities and earnings. </p>
<h2>Zero hours</h2>
<p>Some of contributing factors to in-work poverty have become more pronounced since the start of the economic crisis. For example, the proportion of “involuntary” part-time workers (those who cannot find a full-time job) remains stubbornly above its May 2010 level, the number of workers who wish to work more hours than are <a href="http://www.theworkfoundation.com/blog/1649/The-Directors-Report-March-Issue">available to them has increased</a>, and there has been a substantial growth in the number of workers employed on zero-hours contracts. </p>
<p>Drawing on LFS data, the Office for National Statistics <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/contracts-with-no-guaranteed-hours/zero-hour-contracts--2014/index.html">recently estimated</a> that 697,000 people were employed on zero-hours contracts in their main job between October and December 2014 (amounting to 2.3% of the UK workforce). In October to December 2013, the number had been 586,000 (1.9% of the workforce). Furthermore, the ONS reported that 34% of workers with zero-hours contracts would like more hours, compared with 13% of workers with alternative contracts.</p>
<p>Under-employment, insecurity and moving in and out of work will serve to limit any positive impact on in-work poverty rates resulting from the government’s plan to <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-living-wage-mirage-is-a-disaster-for-the-low-paid-44478">introduce a Living Wage</a> from April 2016. It will initially be set at £7.20 an hour – 50 pence higher than the value of the National Minimum Wage once the impending October 2015 increase is implemented. It should be borne in mind, however, that the current value of the existing “unofficial” Living Wage, as <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk/">set by the Living Wage Foundation</a>, is £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 elsewhere. </p>
<p>These figures represent minimum hourly rates that might enable people to enjoy a decent standard of living. The government’s own “living wage” falls far short of both figures, which take into account tax credits that were substantially scaled back in the July budget. When combined with the announced freezing of working age benefits and lower earnings threshold for the withdrawal of tax credits, it seems unlikely that the new living wage will result in a reduction in the overall extent of in-work poverty. </p>
<p>The worst off, including young people, who are to be excluded from the living wage policy, are likely to lose out further. And it is possible that campaigning efforts around the higher Living Wage will lose momentum as employers gravitate towards the government’s lower benchmark.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Heyes has received funding from the ESRC and the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>MPs will vote Monday on a welfare bill which imagines a world where work is a gilded path away from poverty.Jason Heyes, Professor of Employment Relations, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/424532015-05-28T05:29:26Z2015-05-28T05:29:26ZZero hours and temp jobs are no help to ‘hardworking people’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83156/original/image-20150527-4857-1uclfv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Working one day, gone the next.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Declarations of support for “hardworking people” were commonly heard in the UK general election. This was echoed in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/queens-speech-2015-the-experts-respond-42427">Queen’s Speech</a>, when David Cameron said the 26-bill package was a “programme for working people”. <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/casp/Documents/ipr_policy_brief__temporary-agency-work.pdf">Our research</a> shows that there is another story to be told about Britain’s hardworking people, however, and the support they need. </p>
<p>It is a story about the ongoing rise in temporary, insecure and precarious work. It is about the social and political consequences of solving unemployment through zero hour contracts and temporary agency work. It is about the consequences for workers, but also for employers, government and society. </p>
<p>The Conservatives have celebrated steady improvements in UK unemployment statistics over the past year. The unemployment rate reached its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/unemployment-falls-below-6-as-vacancies-hit-record-high">lowest level (5.8%)</a> for more than six years at the end of 2014, with further falls <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/may-2015/sty-labour-market-statistics--may-2015.html">recorded in January to March 2015</a>. </p>
<p>But zero hour contracts and temporary agency work form a significant part of this recently recorded job growth. A snapshot survey of employers by the <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/contracts-with-no-guaranteed-hours/zero-hours-contracts/art-zero-hours.html">Office for National Statistics</a> in 2014 estimated that the number of workers on zero hour contracts was at 1.4m. Temporary agency work – where individuals are sent to assignments with a variety of employers by an agency – also reached a historical high <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/researchpapers">during the recent financial crisis</a>, with estimates at <a href="https://www.rec.uk.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/155562/Flex-Appeal-2014.pdf">1.6m in 2014</a>. There are precarious workers in the public and private sectors, working for large and small employers.</p>
<p>Our research shows that a substantial proportion of the “hardworking people” in these precarious jobs today face employment insecurity and exploitation rather than opportunities to improve their work prospects and lives.</p>
<h2>Intense employment insecurity</h2>
<p>The experience of British and migrant temporary agency workers in the hospitality, healthcare and food industries shows that employment insecurity is very intense. The expectation is for workers to be on call and to take up any assignment offered, which can be as little as a few hours on a given day with a few assignments spread over weeks.</p>
<p>Their working conditions are often poor too. Temporary agency workers are given heavy workloads by managers in an effort to decrease overall labour costs, including in the cash-strapped NHS. Falling ill from the harsh working conditions is common for agency workers across the sectors we studied. They are then penalised by getting less or no more calls from the agency. </p>
<p>In healthcare, agency workers are bearing the costs of austerity, with workloads that pose risks to themselves and to patient care. The pressure of private financing, and cuts in clinical care budgets, results in healthcare providers trying to deliver the same level of care with a smaller permanent workforce <a href="http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/zero-hours-contracts_2013-myth-reality.pdf">and a larger ad hoc one</a>. This pressure is then passed onto the ad hoc temporary agency and zero-hour contract workers to speed up their work, including patient care.</p>
<h2>Hard work does not pay</h2>
<p>Agency work is promoted as offering flexibility and freedom for workers. In contrast, our study found that workers face uncertain, rather than flexible, working hours. They generally cannot live off the work offered on a random basis by agencies. Many of the migrant workers we interviewed lived on two-to-three weekly assignments from agencies during their first months in the UK. They had to stay in overcrowded accommodation and could hardly afford their share of the rent.</p>
<p>Any future policies that cut benefits to EU migrants will aggravate the insecurity experienced by these workers. Welfare benefits are a crucial mechanism in helping all temporary agency workers survive in the short term. </p>
<p>Even in the long term, we found that working hard does not pay off for agency workers. This is despite the protections offered by EU agency worker regulations, <a href="http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/articles/other/agency-worker-regulations-set-to-come-into-force">in place since 2011</a>. This entitles temporary agency workers with 12 weeks of continuous employment in the same firm to pay and conditions equal to the equivalent permanent employees of that firm. </p>
<p>But, responding to concerns from employers and the recruitment industry, the British government exempted firms from this obligation to provide equal pay and conditions after 12 weeks. Instead, so-called Swedish Derogation agency contracts are allowed. In effect, these tend to provide only one hour’s pay each day when there is no work. </p>
<h2>Behind the stats</h2>
<p>We found that, regardless of worker performance, agency workers are routinely either switched to Swedish Derogation contracts – with fewer employment rights and wages – or are dismissed before they reach 12 weeks employment. Under such conditions, agency workers cannot access the protections they should be entitled to.</p>
<p>Behind statistics showing low unemployment levels is a proliferation of very insecure temporary jobs <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/casp/Documents/ipr_policy_brief__temporary-agency-work.pdf_">with unsustainable working conditions and no long term prospects</a>. These jobs offer flexibility for employers and insecurity for workers. They may even threaten the quality of public services. </p>
<p>If it really wants to help “hardworking people”, the newly elected government should extend the regulation of precarious employment to sectors beyond agriculture, resource the proper implementation of existing regulations, and revisit its plans to cut benefits to EU migrants – a critical labour pool for British employers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thanos Maroukis has received research funding from the European Commission from 2012-2014. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Carmel received funding from the European Commission from 2012-2014. She currently receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council. All opinions expressed in this article are those of her and her co-author, and not of her funder or institution.</span></em></p>The government’s commitment to boosting employment is undermined by the proliferation of harsh and insecure temporary jobs with no long-term prospects.Thanos Maroukis, Marie Curie Research Officer, Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of BathEmma Carmel, Senior Lecturer, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.