Contemporary British Culture &
Society ( 5 )
Chapter 5 Work
Xiao Huiyun
October,2005
A 1 What is,Work”?
? Work,regular paid employment
? Work,paid employment at a job or a trade,
occupation,or profession
? Important – 1,material consequences of work
2,the individual & cultural benefits
of work
? Unemployment – having disastrous implications
for the individual,identified with rejection,
uselessness,dependence on others,laziness and
social isolation
A 2 Pattern of Employment
'000s %
Type of Industry 1981 2000 2000
1,Primary:- 1,043 755 2.7
Agriculture,forestry,
fishing 343 538 1.9
Energy and water
supply 700 217 0.8
2,Manufacturing 6,099 4,285 15.3
3,Construction 1,102 1,823 6.5
4,Services:- 13,142 21,106 75.5
Distribution,hotels
and restaurants 4,093 6,144 22.0
Transport and
communications 1,404 1,696 6.1
Finance and
business services 1,712 5,151 18.4
Public
administration,
education and
health
4,650 6,479 23.2
Other 1,315 1,637 5.9
Total 21,386 27,677 100
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Total Workforce in UK,28.6 m (2000 fig.)
? 27 million (15 million men and 12 million women)
were actually in employment,
? 2.8 million were self-employed
? Of the total population of working age of 36.3
million,7.7 million were ?economically inactive?
(early retired,women with children,adults in
education and training)
? 1.6 million clas-sified as unemployed
A 2 Pattern of Employment cont
? Unemployment rates in Uk
? England -- rates were lowest in the South
East(3.3 per cent) and in the East (3.6 per
cent) and highest in the North East and
London,9.1 per cent and 7.0 per cent
respectively,
?, Rates were also high in Scotland (7.6 per
cent) and Northern Ireland (7.0 per cent).
A 2 Pattern of Employment cont
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Gross weekly earnings
? Average gross weekly earnings of full-time
employees in 2000 were ￡411,
? Average earnings for men were ￡453 and for
women ￡338,
? Earnings were higher for non-manual employees
(￡465) than for manual employees (￡321),
? The national minimum wage was set at ￡3.70 per
hour for those aged 22 or above,
? The inequality in income is marginally reduced by
taxation
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Distribution of usual weekly hours of work,by gender,Spring
2000
? United Kingdom
? Thousands Males Females
A 3 Getting a Job
? About 25% of school leavers go straight into a job at 16,
the rest either continuing in full-time education or joining a
government training scheme.
? There are a number of ways in which people go about
finding a job,The search for a job can involve
? Personal contacts
? Visiting potential employers in the factory or office
? Looking for advertisements in local and national
newspapers
? Using the government run 'Job Centres',which provide
information and advise potential employees on jobs in the
locality
? Large employers will sometimes take the initiative in
recruiting graduates by visiting universities to advertise job
prospects available
A 4 Unions & Management
? Trade unions,first formed in the early stages of the Industrial
Revolution,by groups of industrial workers who suffered from
extremely low pay and bad working conditions
? In 1999 there were 242 trade unions in the UK with 7.8 million
members,of which almost 1/3 were women.
? Over one third of all trade unionists belong to white collar unions
? There are four types of union:
? General Unions,which represent workers in a range of industries.
? Craft Unions,which represent workers from a group of industries who
share a particular skill
? Industrial Unions,which represent workers in a particular industry
whatever their skill e.g,The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
? White Collar Unions,which represent non-manual workers e.g,The
National Union of Teachers (NUT)
A 4 Unions & Management
? Pros.
? they are essential for
protecting the interests of
employees who might otherwise
get a raw deal from powerful
employers or
in industries which are
declining and where
redundancies are highly likely,
? unions played an active part in
persuading the government to
pass the Health and Safe Act
? they offer a range of services,
particularly through the TUC,
? Cons
? trade unions make
excessive wage claims
? union elections are
undemocratic
? unions have become too
powerful and should have their
?wings clipped?,
? they undermine the
competitiveness of British
industry because of restrictive
practices & opposition to
technological progress
A 4 Unions & Management
? New Style Management – Japanese Influence
? Only one union representing workers
? Disputes that cannot be settled by union &
management will be decided by arbitrator
? No industrial actions (strikes) are used in disputes
? Workers enjoy same benefits and perks as
managers
? Pay rises reflect increase in productivity.
? Workers work in groups.
? (Compare Ford & Nissan pp 84 – 85)
A 4 Unions & Management
? The Trades Union Congress (TUC) -- most unions
( 70 )are affiliated to it
? The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) –
employers? associations affiliated to it
? The Advisory,Conciliation and Arbitration Services
(ACAS) -- set up by government playing
important role in ?new style agreement
? TUC may continue to be important for its range of
activities even though number of strikes has been
declining & ?new style agreements? increasing.
A 4 Unions & Management
? TUC Congress 2003
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? The UK has the highest female employment rate of the
major EU countries and fourth highest of all European
Union countries,just behind Denmark,Sweden and
Finland,Amongst other European countries,Iceland,
Norway and Switzerland all have female employment
rates greater than the UK?s.
? Equal opportunities legislation introduced in the form of
the Equal Pay Act,1970s,therefore unlawful to
discriminate between men and women in pay and other
terms of employment
? The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and the Race
Relations Act (1976) seek to ensure people are not
discriminated against in selection for jobs on grounds of
sex or race
? Despite all the acts ethnic minority have more difficulties in
finding jobs than the whites.
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? Position of women has improved considerably,but some
problems still exist
? In British politics women are continuing their long march
toward equality,
? In the May 1997 general election 101 female Labour
members of Parliament (MPs) were elected to the 659-seat
House of Commons.
? Britain has one of the lowest levels of women MPs in
Europe,just 18 per cent,compared with 43 per cent in
Sweden and 31 per cent in Germany.
?
The recent elections to the Welsh Assembly returned,for
the first time in any assembly in Britain,an equal 50:50
split between men and women.
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? Women MPs,1997 ? Thatcher broke through
the glass ceiling of British
politics when she was
elected prime minister in
1979,In office,however,
she did little to encourage
women in politics,
? In 1997 Blair appointed
five women to senior
positions,including Mo
Mowlam as secretary of
state for Northern Ireland,
Society ( 5 )
Chapter 5 Work
Xiao Huiyun
October,2005
A 1 What is,Work”?
? Work,regular paid employment
? Work,paid employment at a job or a trade,
occupation,or profession
? Important – 1,material consequences of work
2,the individual & cultural benefits
of work
? Unemployment – having disastrous implications
for the individual,identified with rejection,
uselessness,dependence on others,laziness and
social isolation
A 2 Pattern of Employment
'000s %
Type of Industry 1981 2000 2000
1,Primary:- 1,043 755 2.7
Agriculture,forestry,
fishing 343 538 1.9
Energy and water
supply 700 217 0.8
2,Manufacturing 6,099 4,285 15.3
3,Construction 1,102 1,823 6.5
4,Services:- 13,142 21,106 75.5
Distribution,hotels
and restaurants 4,093 6,144 22.0
Transport and
communications 1,404 1,696 6.1
Finance and
business services 1,712 5,151 18.4
Public
administration,
education and
health
4,650 6,479 23.2
Other 1,315 1,637 5.9
Total 21,386 27,677 100
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Total Workforce in UK,28.6 m (2000 fig.)
? 27 million (15 million men and 12 million women)
were actually in employment,
? 2.8 million were self-employed
? Of the total population of working age of 36.3
million,7.7 million were ?economically inactive?
(early retired,women with children,adults in
education and training)
? 1.6 million clas-sified as unemployed
A 2 Pattern of Employment cont
? Unemployment rates in Uk
? England -- rates were lowest in the South
East(3.3 per cent) and in the East (3.6 per
cent) and highest in the North East and
London,9.1 per cent and 7.0 per cent
respectively,
?, Rates were also high in Scotland (7.6 per
cent) and Northern Ireland (7.0 per cent).
A 2 Pattern of Employment cont
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Gross weekly earnings
? Average gross weekly earnings of full-time
employees in 2000 were ￡411,
? Average earnings for men were ￡453 and for
women ￡338,
? Earnings were higher for non-manual employees
(￡465) than for manual employees (￡321),
? The national minimum wage was set at ￡3.70 per
hour for those aged 22 or above,
? The inequality in income is marginally reduced by
taxation
A 2 Pattern of Employment
? Distribution of usual weekly hours of work,by gender,Spring
2000
? United Kingdom
? Thousands Males Females
A 3 Getting a Job
? About 25% of school leavers go straight into a job at 16,
the rest either continuing in full-time education or joining a
government training scheme.
? There are a number of ways in which people go about
finding a job,The search for a job can involve
? Personal contacts
? Visiting potential employers in the factory or office
? Looking for advertisements in local and national
newspapers
? Using the government run 'Job Centres',which provide
information and advise potential employees on jobs in the
locality
? Large employers will sometimes take the initiative in
recruiting graduates by visiting universities to advertise job
prospects available
A 4 Unions & Management
? Trade unions,first formed in the early stages of the Industrial
Revolution,by groups of industrial workers who suffered from
extremely low pay and bad working conditions
? In 1999 there were 242 trade unions in the UK with 7.8 million
members,of which almost 1/3 were women.
? Over one third of all trade unionists belong to white collar unions
? There are four types of union:
? General Unions,which represent workers in a range of industries.
? Craft Unions,which represent workers from a group of industries who
share a particular skill
? Industrial Unions,which represent workers in a particular industry
whatever their skill e.g,The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
? White Collar Unions,which represent non-manual workers e.g,The
National Union of Teachers (NUT)
A 4 Unions & Management
? Pros.
? they are essential for
protecting the interests of
employees who might otherwise
get a raw deal from powerful
employers or
in industries which are
declining and where
redundancies are highly likely,
? unions played an active part in
persuading the government to
pass the Health and Safe Act
? they offer a range of services,
particularly through the TUC,
? Cons
? trade unions make
excessive wage claims
? union elections are
undemocratic
? unions have become too
powerful and should have their
?wings clipped?,
? they undermine the
competitiveness of British
industry because of restrictive
practices & opposition to
technological progress
A 4 Unions & Management
? New Style Management – Japanese Influence
? Only one union representing workers
? Disputes that cannot be settled by union &
management will be decided by arbitrator
? No industrial actions (strikes) are used in disputes
? Workers enjoy same benefits and perks as
managers
? Pay rises reflect increase in productivity.
? Workers work in groups.
? (Compare Ford & Nissan pp 84 – 85)
A 4 Unions & Management
? The Trades Union Congress (TUC) -- most unions
( 70 )are affiliated to it
? The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) –
employers? associations affiliated to it
? The Advisory,Conciliation and Arbitration Services
(ACAS) -- set up by government playing
important role in ?new style agreement
? TUC may continue to be important for its range of
activities even though number of strikes has been
declining & ?new style agreements? increasing.
A 4 Unions & Management
? TUC Congress 2003
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? The UK has the highest female employment rate of the
major EU countries and fourth highest of all European
Union countries,just behind Denmark,Sweden and
Finland,Amongst other European countries,Iceland,
Norway and Switzerland all have female employment
rates greater than the UK?s.
? Equal opportunities legislation introduced in the form of
the Equal Pay Act,1970s,therefore unlawful to
discriminate between men and women in pay and other
terms of employment
? The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and the Race
Relations Act (1976) seek to ensure people are not
discriminated against in selection for jobs on grounds of
sex or race
? Despite all the acts ethnic minority have more difficulties in
finding jobs than the whites.
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? Position of women has improved considerably,but some
problems still exist
? In British politics women are continuing their long march
toward equality,
? In the May 1997 general election 101 female Labour
members of Parliament (MPs) were elected to the 659-seat
House of Commons.
? Britain has one of the lowest levels of women MPs in
Europe,just 18 per cent,compared with 43 per cent in
Sweden and 31 per cent in Germany.
?
The recent elections to the Welsh Assembly returned,for
the first time in any assembly in Britain,an equal 50:50
split between men and women.
A 5 Gender & Ethnicity
? Women MPs,1997 ? Thatcher broke through
the glass ceiling of British
politics when she was
elected prime minister in
1979,In office,however,
she did little to encourage
women in politics,
? In 1997 Blair appointed
five women to senior
positions,including Mo
Mowlam as secretary of
state for Northern Ireland,
