Flexible Labour Market in the United Kindom - Essay Example

EFFECT OF FLEXIBILITY IN LABOUR MARKET AND WORKING PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN UNITED KINGDOM LECTURE: Introduction The United Kingdom has a unique labour pattern when compared to major economies in the European economy in that it has a higher adult population in the workforce. Age, gender, level of education and experience are some of the aspects that serve as criterion for selecting staff for employment. While experience is usually pegged on age and education, gender may be used as a factor depending on the nature of work available. However, gender bias was notable in the labour market in United Kingdom in the past. A controversial phenomenon in the labour market was the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, which was not clear on how employment discrimination related to gender could “not be justifiable” (Reeves 2000). The employment pattern in Britain is however different today. With over 70 per cent of the population in United Kingdom classified as being in work, there has been a notable trend of movement towards part-time employment from full-time employment (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998). Worth noting is the fact that the number of women in employment in steadily increasing. For instance, women accounted for just over half all part-time employment in 1998 (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998). Moreover, it was estimated that in the same year 45 per cent of women in United Kingdom were in part time employment as compared to 8 per cent of men. Additionally, the flexibility of the labour market in United Kingdom allows people to have more than one job. For example, nearly 1.3 million people had two or more jobs by 1998 (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998) Although changes in the labour market in the United Kingdom have been towards a more open and non-discriminatory system, there has been criticism that the market employs a “voluntaristic” tradition (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998). However, some economists view the labour market as a form of free market. In such a setting, there is freedom for employers to implement meaningful utilization of labour while avoiding impracticable and induced level of labour costs (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998). Furthermore, the free labour market attracts inward investment in United Kingdom (Mabey, Salaman, & Storey 1998). In contradistinction, it is noteworthy that a very flexible labour market may compromise work relations or undermine worker output. As Mabey, Salaman, and Storey (1998) noted, employers in the free about market may seek low-cost strategies to access labour. Such a move would result in underinvestement in training, poor skills at work, low pay for the workers and fierce competition at the lower level of the labour market [Streeck 1992, cited in Mabey, Salaman, and Storey (1998)]. From the aforementioned perspectives, it is worth noting that the effects of transformation in the labour market in United Kingdom in the past decade are amenable to discussion. While some changes have brought plausible benefits, some have caused compromise in the workplace employee relations (Blyton & Turnbull 2004). As noted above, a flexible labour market encourages employer-independence in making decisions. Nevertheless, since the market is subject to competition, employers may use strategies such as pay adjustments to win employees. As such, employers may pay their employees based on performance (Blyton & Turnbull 2004). Effects of flexible labour market Although the free labour market allows employers freedom to employ without constraint, employers have to comply with the minimum wage directive that was introduced in 1997 (Howell 2005). Moreover, the flexibility in the labour market has caused a significant drop in the number of members joining trade unions. For example, while 49 over cent of the workforce in the United Kingdom were registered with labour unions, the figure dropped to 26.8 per cent in 2000 (Howell 2005). This may imply that employees enjoy better work relations currently than in 1980 hence the decline in trade union members. Over the last decade, employers have been assiduous in ensuring that they get the best out of their workforce (Rose 2004). Hence, incentives such as employee participation, training and rewarding have inclined workers more towards their employers than trade unions (Rose 2004). The declining number of trade union members per se is not evidence that employers in United Kingdom have ameliorated the employee relations at the workplace. The shying away of employees from labour unions may be as a result of prohibitive directives from their employers who would wish not to be monitored or assessed in their activities. Employers whose workers are not subjected to unionization may act to satisfy their ego at the expense of the employees’ rights. For instance, Storey (1995) noted that the non-union sector in its entirety was characterized by inept communication, lack of employment security, higher rates of employee dismissal and poor safety records. In the purview of such findings, it would be justified to surmise that non-union female workers would be allowed shorter leave periods to attend to their infants than their counterparts who are members of unions. Additionally it is worthy making a deduction that cases of cases of employment at will are prevalent in the current labour market setting of United Kingdom. Over the past decade, trade unions and employers have increasingly come under conflict. While trade unions advocate for shorter working hours (35 hours per week) to improve the opportunity for employees to work flexibly, employers insist on longer working hours to reap maximum benefits from fewer employees (Perrons et al 2006). Thus employers shift pay to encourage their employees to work more and for extra hours. In such a setting employees work under fatigue and admirable work relations are a mirage. The essence is that unionized organizations employ better human resource management strategies than non-union organizations (Perrons et al 2006). With the changes in the labour pattern in United Kingdom, gender discrimination is steadily becoming a thing of the past. As earlier mentioned, women account for a larger percentage of the workforce in part-time employment. In fact, it has become a norm for women in core age groups to take part-time employment. The reasons for such an alignment include the fact that women may take short part time jobs to earn additional income to the household. Secondly, the timing for part-tome work is usually flexible and payment is based on agreement (Schmid & Mbkschmid 1994). In addition, the interruptions that usually affect women such as childcare have been accounted for over the past decade hence women can work freely on part-time basis. The United Kingdom added an impetus to this by introducing a right to flexible work in April 2003. Under this right, women nursing children are able to work flexibly depending on the schedule that suits them most (OECD 2005). Effects of flexible working practices Story (1995) opined that some managers view flexibility in work practices as a contradiction of the concepts of commitment and quality. Looked at from an economic perspective with respect to managers, such a notion has some weight since managers expend resources to pay their employees. On the other hand, taking the employee’s side, employees have to work on flexible schedules in order to derive satisfaction from their workplace and perform even better. In the United Kingdom, flexible working practices have been embraced. The essence of such practices is to enable people merge caring for themselves and doing their paid work (Perrons et al 2006). However, employers are usually very cautious and such arrangements usually lead to overall longer working day rather than the perceived intent. At this point, it is important to take the aspect of education into consideration. For instance, highly educated women in United Kingdom are more likely to work more full-time and develop their careers (Perrons et al 2006). On the other hand, lowly educated women take flexible jobs that allow them to juggle between household chores and employment (Kessler et al 1992). It is undisputable that flexible working conditions in the United Kingdom have contributed largely to the increase in rater of employment. For instance, women who would often be barred from employment due to the needs of households are now able to perform their duties at the workplace. Flexible working conditions allow people to work in the evening, early in the day or during particular hours of the regular working time (Perrons et al 2006). In this context, work relations, especially for married women are greatly improved both at the workplace and at home. That organizations in United Kingdom need highly qualified staff in order to survive in the competitive market cannot be gainsaid. Therefore, most managers do not view flexibility as a contradiction of commitment and quality, but an incentive to better services. In this context, employers shop for staffs that are highly flexible and adaptable (Kirton & Greene 2004). The flexibility is in terms of education, training and areas of specialization. Most employers in United Kingdom, in opposing trade unions argue that it is better to have fewer productive employees than to have many employees who in essence are liabilities to the organization (Beardwell & Claydon 2007). Thus, the ability to pay employees based on their performance is reiterated here. It is easy for staff qualified in diverse fields to work in shifts and therefore do the work that would have been done by specialists in particular areas. While flexible work practices can be judged from different perspectives, it is obvious that for employers in United Kingdom, the strategy has promoted corporate memory and improved staff morale. Many employers have also recorded declines in costs of recruitment thus being able to provide better survives and relations to serving employees (Gennard & Judge 2005). On the other hand, employees in organizations in United Kingdom where flexible work practices are implemented have reported to feel valued at work and having better relations with their managers (Gennard & Judge 2005). At the same time, such employees have a feeling of control as they offer their flexible services to the organizations for which they work (Gennard & Judge 2005). Nevertheless, criticism to flexible work practice is that it may limit training activities and create low job satisfaction (Gennard & Judge 2005). Therefore, while the in the past decade there have been many transformations in thyme labour market in United Kingdom, it can be argued that flexible work practice may create lack of control over time and limit career options for older workers. Conclusion The United Kingdom labour market experienced gender discrimination in the past but has been streamlined with transformations. There has been a significant decline in trade union members but that does not imply that employers are providing the best services to employees. Conflicts usually arise between trade unions and employers over workers’ rights. Flexibility in the labour market improves work relations and production, but is criticized for limiting training and may cause demoralization of employees. 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