The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work

Anna Pollert; Andy Charlwood

doi:10.1177/0950017009106771

The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work

Anna Pollert, Andy Charlwood

The York Management School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article investigates the experience of low paid workers without union representation. It reports on the findings of a recent survey of 501 low paid, non-unionized workers who experienced problems at work. The results demonstrate that problems at work are widespread and, despite a strong propensity to take action to try to resolve them, most workers failed to achieve satisfactory resolutions. In the light of these results, we argue that the current UK Government definition of vulnerability is too narrow because our results suggest that a large proportion of low paid, unrepresented workers are at risk of being denied their employment rights. Therefore we question the ability of the UK's current system of predominantly none unionized employment relations to deliver employment rights effectively and fairly.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	343-362
Number of pages	20
Journal	Work, Employment and Society
Volume	23
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017009106771
Publication status	Published - Jun 2009

Keywords

non-unionism
workplace problems
vulnerable worker
low paid workers
RIGHTS

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10.1177/0950017009106771

http://wes.sagepub.com/content/23/2/343

Cite this

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The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work

Abstract

Keywords

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