3 - Good Work

Summary

If we accept that productivity plays an important role in creating the potential for higher wage growth for low-paid workers, and that better management is key to improving this, the next question has to be how might we achieve this?

It turns out that there is already an answer to this question ready and waiting in the form of “Good Work”. Gaining momentum in recent years as a response to growing insecurity in the labour market, the Good Work movement offers both a view on the practices that are necessary to improve workplaces, and examples of practical action having been taken to increase standards across the economy. In this chapter, we chart the progress of the Good Work movement and consider what else needs to be done to get the UK out of its low-pay, low-productivity rut.

Policy interest in “good” or “decent” work is not new and indeed pre-dates the Beveridge Report. Established in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) brought together governments, employers and workers in order to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes that promote decent work for all. In 1944, the ILO's Declaration of Philadelphia set out the key principles for the ILO's work after the end of the Second World War. The Declaration states clearly that “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere”, and includes commitments to promote programmes that willachieve living wages and “ensure a just share of the fruits of progress to all”. It also highlighted the importance of job satisfaction, well-being, and “the cooperation of management and labour in the continuous improvement of productive efficiency” (ILO 1944).

But although the notion of good or decent work has been with us for a while, its profile in policy debates has grown more recently in the UK context and internationally as job opportunities have polarized, working conditions have worsened and work has become increasingly precarious (Osterman 2013). In addition to low pay, poor quality insecure work (including zero-hours contracts and bogus self-employment1), a lack of progression opportunities for low-paid workers and low productivity are all now high-profile issues on the UK policy agenda.

Alongside political pressure resulting from the high profile rise of zero-hours contracts and poor working conditions in the gig economy, policymakers have increasingly become interested in promoting “good work” as part of efforts to improve productivity outcomes.