There has been a long-standing proposition, embedded in Aristotelian philosophy, catholic social teaching, best HR practice and socialist thought that there is a fault line between alienating, dehumanising labour and humanising work as craft, as career, as a source of meaning and purpose. Today’s labour market exemplifies the distinction.
Covid has sharpened the divide, with work experience dividing into a “K”. Some leading firms have behaved in exemplary fashion, curating and looking after their workforces, of which a large number are firms committed to a declared purpose. Others have been compelled by the economic conditions or worse chosen to treat workers as disposable notations on a spread sheet, accelerating the enlargement of an already sizeable precariat. It has been 16-24 years olds who have been hardest hit, the age cohort, for example, that has driven the online membership of the website “ Organise” from 100,000 members to over 900,000 in 12 months. More than half of job seekers check the website Glassdoor before accepting a job. Awareness of both the need to organise collectively and the relevance of good workplace experience is rising strongly
This is accompanied by a widespread intellectual acceptance of the need to rebalance capital and labour to moderate the K, now including the IMF and OECD. This has been grist to the mill for purpose driven businesses who believe in the stewardship of their staff and good work. Union membership is rising: the latest research shows union members are happier than non-union members. Politically the Conservatives, aware of these trends, have proposed unified workplace regulation and Kickstart: any labour market “deregulation” has to be covert. In the US Joe Biden is a self-professed pro-union politician who aims to promote stakeholder capitalism, union membership and is finding the resource for a climate change corps. There is a new mood abroad – Labour should capitalise on it.
Five Principles for a Charter for Work
- All workers should be categorised as members of the organisation. The new legal presumption should be that workers are members of organisations with day one rights , for example, to holiday, sick pay, basic redundancy rights, representation and bargaining rights building up to full redundancy rights after 24 months. These rights should extend to “dependent contractors”, with clearly defined derogations for the genuinely self-employed
- Occupational citizenship. There should be a reclaiming of the right of professions, trades and sectors to govern themselves and set their own standards within a framework of collaborative bargaining. In particular differing sectors should define and bargain for fair working conditions and fair pay – including the terms of working from home in hybrid working weeks. Recent changes in New Zealand labour law provide an useful starting point.
- Partnership makeover. All firms (including private firms) under a new Companies Act to be required to have processes for workplace dialogue, to recognise a trade union, for all working arrangements to be collectively negotiated – and to make available profit sharing/equity ownership schemes. Trends towards professionalisation and more accountability in trade unions to be accelerated ( eg observing terms of Corporate Governance Code) , particularly as unions should be given statutory responsibilities for co-administering training and workforce development funds as part of a redefinition of welfare around flexi-security principles. Mutual work co-operatives to be created to take over work-brokerage and recruitment agency functions.
- Pro-active creation of work. PEF has proposed initiatives like the National Youth Corps and the National Environmental Youth Corps, a British variant of the US Climate Change Corps with an embedded training element. There is potential demand for up to 350,000 green apprentices.
- Enforcement. The proposed unified enforcement body needs to be properly resourced, with proper accountability mechanisms and referral process.
Will Hutton
PEF March 2021